Board Game Icons

I spent some time studying icons from various board games. In particular, games that Ian O’Toole worked on, like Galactic Cruise, RA, and Voidfall. This is what I learned.

Component Icons

Most actions and effects are fundamentally just moving a component around. When the icon depicts this action directly, it becomes easier to understand. Start with a literal depiction of your components and then layer in motion.

To represent a cube, you can shade three sections of a hexagon.

A hexagon separated into three equivalent diamond shapes, all of
different shades, in order to come together to create the illusion of a
cube when viewed from a downward angle.

Another common component are the colored silhouette shapes made from either wood or acrylic, some with screen printing. For these, you can use the silhouette as the icon.

A 3-D render of a wood heart token with a heart symbol next to it. Then a
3-D render of the same wood heart token with a white symbol printed on its
surface and a matching heart symbol next to it.

For a “wild” resource, you might be able to merge the constituent resources into one. This is often done with a pie-wheel or with bands of colors.

A heartbeat token cut in half so that half is light and half is dark. A
card icon cut in half with a heart symbol on top and a water symbol on the
bottom. A circle cut into 5 pie-pieces, each with their own color. A circle
cut into three pie-pieces, each with their own symbol. A cog colored with
red, green, and blue in diagonal bands.

For cards or tokens with dynamic elements, like artwork or ability text, you only need to represent the common elements of your components, like the card’s back or the card’s frame.

A card with a graphical frame that looks like the fangs of an open mouth.
Next to the card is a symbol matching the frame

You can use arrows to convey an action or effect.

Five card symbols in a line, each with a different arrow extruding from
them

Rotate a component slightly to show that it shouldn’t be in the depicted location, like in the case of a card that you need to discard.

For movement in the third dimension, like flipping a card over, use a three dimensional ribbon arrow, rather than a flat arrow. This helps sell the motion and distinguishes it from rotation.

Two overlapping circles spaced one radius apart, cut length-wise and then
stitched back together to create the illusion of an arrow coming toward to
viewer and flipping over.

For gaining or losing tokens from your personal supply, use a plus or minus sign.

Several different symbols with a plus or a minus sign next to
them

To depict specific quantities of a component, you can place a number inside the icon or duplicate the icon, depending on how big the quantities can get.

Several component symbols overlapped to represent two of them, and a
heart symbol with the number 2 at its center.

Shadows are a convenient excuse to add a boundary between distinct elements. Shadows aren’t always necessary, but when you do have them, only cast them on the other components; not on the page behind.

A depiction of how to create a shadow between two overlapping component
symbols using translation, transparency, and the intersect
tool.

To depict an unspecified amount of “many” components, show a line of components fading away, a stack of components, or several components splayed out.

Three overlapping cog symbols that progressively fade with each symbol.
Three cards stacked up and slightly offset each time. Three cards splayed
out.

You can then add symbols to represent “most”, “least”, “matching”, or “distinct”.

Four symbols each representing splayed cards. The first with an up arrow,
the second a down arrow, the third an equal sign, and the fourth with a
slashed equal sign.

If an event triggers an effect, use a colon to separate the event on the left from the effect on the right, as in, when left happens, do right thing. An × generally means to multiply the left thing by the number of right things, as in “left per right”.

A plus symbol on three fading heart symbols, then a colon, then a plus
symbol on a heart, then an X, then a water symbol.

For “income”, you can use an extended hand. This may not work with all themes though.

Three depictions of an extended hand. The first with a dollar symbol
above the palm, the second with a numbered water symbol, and the third with
four radiating lines as if to imply something is happening.

Note that we’re getting dangerously close to ripping off Galactic Cruise entirely. I don’t think I would use all of these in one game, but it’s a helpful collection to borrow from.

Credit

I derived these hands from an icon found on http://game-icons.net.

Players

The best way to depict players is with a floating circular head.

A section labeled player count with various numbers of player symbols. A
section labeled players with three overlapping player symbols. A section
labeled all players with four equally spaced but overlapping player symbols.
A section labeled Some Players with some player symbols lighter than
others.

This distinguishes “player” from “component”, as components can’t have disconnected pieces.

Cycle and Reset

I’ve noticed that “cycling” through something tends to use circular arrows pointing at each other. Galactic Cruise uses a similar icon for resetting a market, though, where two bent arrows point past each other. This differentiates it from a “cycle”, which to me would imply that you always refresh the market.

Two arrows point in a circle labeled Cycle. Two arrows with ninety
degree angles pointing away and then past each other labeled
Reset.

Player Colors

You want to distinguish between components by shape or screen printed design as much as possible, even when it comes to player pieces. Sometimes, however, this isn’t an option, like when using wood cubes. For this, use colors that are easy to distinguish, even with color blindness.

Here’s five workers I put together with colors that, as far as I can tell, should be easy enough to distinguish by players with color blindness. The colors are given as Pantone codes.

Four worker tokens with Pantone colors P 179-1 C, P 179-16 C, P 109-6 C,
P 45-16 C, and P 10-8 C. The tokens have a silk screen printed design using
the color P 179-1 C, except the white worker, which is using P 179-8
C.

I haven’t tested these colors with real people, however, as that would require me to manufacture a physical version, so take this part with a grain of salt. (If there is already a color-blind-safe Pantone coated color palette, reach out, because I couldn’t find one.)