How Boardssey made design a native part of board game creation
Boardssey is a specialized platform for board game designers, built to centralize everything from game mechanics and playtests to marketing assets and publisher outreach. Created by the team with deep experience in product and marketing tools, Boardssey focuses on replacing scattered workflows with a single, purpose-built workspace for a niche but demanding industry where presentation quality can make or break a deal.
A data-rich platform without a visual output layer
Boardssey had already solved the problem of capturing and organizing complex board game data. Each game included structured copy, metadata, media assets, and branding elements that were continuously updated throughout development. However, translating that information into high-impact visual artifacts required leaving the platform entirely.
Sell sheets are especially unforgiving: publishers often decide within seconds whether a game is worth further consideration. Yet producing them typically meant rebuilding layouts in external tools, re-importing assets, and repeating the process every time the game changed. For Boardssey, this wasn’t just a missing feature, it was a structural limitation that prevented the product from closing the loop between creation and presentation.
A deeply integrated design engine
By integrating Polotno SDK, Boardssey introduced a full-fledged design editor directly into the product. Templates could be defined once and automatically populated with live game data, including text, images, brand colors, QR codes, and barcodes. Designers start by selecting a template and a game, and within seconds receive a fully editable canvas already filled with their latest information.
Edits happen visually but remain connected to the underlying data. Drafts are saved back to the game, maintaining a clear relationship between the design output and the game record. The architecture also supports expansion: the same system can power additional visual tools, such as card designers and batch generation workflows, without requiring a new editor or separate pipeline.
A core feature users respond to immediately
Boardssey soft-launched the sell sheet designer and initially allowed users to explore it without heavy promotion. During this period, users began saving sell sheets and incorporating the feature into their workflows. According to the team, feedback was “amazing,” with users expressing excitement about how the tool works and what it enables.
As Boardssey started actively showing the feature, including publishing a few demo videos and presenting it during a live webinar, audience reactions were strongly positive. Anka described people as “very amazed” and “so impressed” when seeing how quickly game information could be turned into a complete, editable sell sheet. The ability to select a template, automatically populate it with game data, and make immediate visual changes stood out as particularly impactful.
Beyond user reaction, the integration confirmed for the team that their approach was technically viable at scale. The sell sheet designer is now one of Boardssey’s core features. With it in place, the team feels confident extending the same design setup into additional use cases they are already considering, including card designers and batch-generated assets based on structured data.