Bird Quest! a 3D Board Game

Long long time ago, there is a beautiful forest. Birds in the mountains, like Eagle and Falcon, visited their friends Duck and Seagull in the beach nearby. Food was plentiful and life was good. However, as more and more people came to visit, trees were cut down and blocks of houses rose. Mountain birds were squeezed to the corner of the land, and they did not dare to come out to meet their friends anymore. Fortunately, people started to change and built gardens and left out more room for grasslands. New birds moved in, like Hummingbird and Pigeon. People also started to protect the forest. Finally, there was a chance for all birds, friends old and new, to meet and live together. How will this go?

We created a 3D Board Game- Bird Quest with many game variations to extend your own version of the story afterwards.

(This project has a long material list, fortunately, many are household items and most of the remaining we got from dollar store. We also reuse many of the materials, e.g. the yarn scraps was used for grassland!)

For the birds:

• Yarn (3-9 colors)
• Cardboard (3"x4")
• Googly eyes (optional)
• Felt (wings, eyes)
• Stickers (yellow, orange, or red for beak)

For the bird hangers:

• 6 Magnets
• Paper clips

For the game board:

• Poster board
• Brown paint
• Plexiglass (18 x 24)
• 11" x 14" frame
• Clear duct tape

For the game tiles:

• Styrofoam and poster board (enough for 42 3x3 tiles)
• Leaves/moss
• Yarn scraps (can be reused from birds)
• Small plastic flowers (4 pcs)
• Green tissue paper
• lollipop sticks
• washi tape and stickers
• blue construction paper
• Seashell beads
• Tinfoil
• Double-sided tapes & Duct tape
• Blocks of black styrofoam (for mountain and rock)
• yellow/ rough paper
• yellow/green masking tape
• Clear duct tape

For the game elements:

• Dice
• White card stock (for bird character cards)
• beads for tracking of points
• Toilet paper roll & yarn for bird nests

You will need to make 6 birds: Falcon, Eagle, Seagull, Hummingbird, Pigeon, and Duck

Cut a slit on the 3"x4" cardboard and start by sticking one end of the yarn through it to avoid slipping. Wrap the yarn around the cardboard flap.

Once you have a decent amount of wraps, fold the flap so you can insert a separate length of yarn through the center and tie a first knot. Remove the cardboard flap and tie a couple of more knots in the middle as seen in the picture. You can also use rubber band. The point is to secure the yarn ball with knots.

Since we are making bird players, we need to leave some extra yarn to hang the birds with paper clips from the ceiling.

Cut around the edge of the circle to split the loops of yarn into parts. This will make the poof ball effect!

Trim to create a tail shape and tie a knot if needed.

Add wings and eyes with felt, and a beak out of sticker/paper.

Use different colors for different birds. If you want to have a bird with multiple colors, simply wrap more than one colors onto the cardboard piece. We did this with humming bird (light green and green) and pigeon (black, grey, and blue).

Alternatively, you can connect two small yarn balls, e.g. bald eagle.

The board we got from dollar store is bigger than desired size of 18"x24". We cut out side and use those to make thin strip borders.

Mark grid lines on the poster board, splitting it into 3 in. by 3 in. squares. If you used the recommended size of 18"x24", there should be 48 squares (6x8).

Paint the poster board and border brown; let dry.

Tape on the strips as borders with transparent duct tape.

Tape one side of one frame to the plexiglass with perpendicular angle.

The idea is that the resulting frame can stand in a flipped "I_I" shape by itself with this position.

Add a piece of tape along the fold for extra support.

Repeat with the other frame on the opposite side of the plexiglass in folded position. This makes it easy to fold and carry the game.

The frame-plexiglass joints should be foldable (upwards).

Three biomes/categories: Grass, Water, Rocks

Each category has:

8 Normal tiles

4 Food tiles -Grassland has 4 gardens, Water has 4 fishy ponds, and Rocks has 4 rocky land with nutrients

2 Nesting tiles-one 4 in., and one 8 in. tall -Grassland has two trees, Water has two islands, and Rocks has two mountains

There are 3 areas: Grass, Water, and Rocks. Each area has 8 normal tiles, 4 special food tiles, and 2 special nesting blocks. One nesting block is 4" tall and the other is 8" tall. Nesting blocks are placed on tiles, so their base must be 3x3 in. or less.

The following steps have our work making these tiles, but you can customize them to your liking.

Cut 3 in. x 3 in. Styrofoam or poster board tiles. (42 in total)

Layout dried leaves, moss, or other flat natural items on top of tiles.

Tape them down to create a laminating effect with transparent duct tape.

Reuse the leftover yarn pieces from making humming birds. Spread glue evenly on tile, then press green, yellow, or brown yarn bits onto tiles to secure.

Add plastic flowers or other garden-style decorations.

Cut wrapping tissue papers into small 3"x4" rectangles. Stack them evenly.

Fold the green tissue paper in a fan shape as seen. No need to be accurate as we want a natural looking tree.

Tie the middle together with a piece of string or yarn. Optionally cut off some of the edge on both tips.

Flip open the sheets of paper. The end result should look like a tree.

Insert the lollipop stick into the tree leaves, glue it securely.

Wrap the brown washi tape around the lollipop stick for tree trunk.

Secure it to the tile and repeat for 1 more tree (Make sure the heights are 4" and 8").

Take aside 8 tiles of black poster board. These will be the normal rock tiles.

Cut thin pieces of black styrofoam and glue onto 4 tiles.

Sculpt out a natural looking rock formation and glue it to a poster board tile.

Tape 3"x3" blue construction/sparkling paper squares to 8 poster board tiles.

Tape tinfoil pieces (cut into fish like shapes) to a styrofoam tile.

Add seashell beads then pour epoxy resin over to create water effect.

Cut 2 blocks of styrofoam. Make sure they're 8" and 6" tall.

Cut pieces of the rough paper.

Place the pieces on the styrofoam blocks.

Add the green masking tape for decoration and the clear tape for stability.

Paint a styrofoam block brown. This block will help the nests stay on.

Bend a paper clip into a U shape and stick it into the block.

Add the blocks on top of the styrofoam towers.

Tape stickers saying "Special", "Forward", "Left", "Right", "Up", and "Down" to a dice.

Cut a toilet paper roll into many small sections.

Wrap the outside of the toilet paper roll with double sided tape.

Wrap yarn around the toilet paper roll.

Add washi tape at the end to secure.