We first played 5 Alive at my parents’ house while visiting, and we found it to be a fun game to play when you’re in the mood for something that’s fairly quick & easy. I decided to get a copy for our own games cupboard at home, so ordered the game from Amazon as a Christmas gift.
My parents have the ‘vintage’ version of the game, which comes with little sets of men that you tip over when you lose a life. They have their flaws, though – as they fall over a little too easily, and you are in danger of losing a life when someone knocks into the table!
The girls were sad to discover that the modern version of the game comes with six sets of life cards, which you flip over to represent your lost lives. Since we have a 3D printer in the house and I’ve been enjoying trying my hand at 3D modelling, I decided to try and create a set of little men that we could use when playing – but without the fatal flaw of falling over by accident multiple times a game!
I chose to go for a larger & simpler ‘meeple’ style for my figures, making them easy to handle. When you lose a life, you have to slightly pull them up before letting them fall face down (because landing on their face is funnier than their backs!). They can rock slightly forward when ‘locked’ into place in the base, but not fall all the way down.
We needed to be able to store them safely, so I also designed a storage box for them to sit into. This uses magnets for the lid, and is designed to have the card box we printed stack nicely on top.
I’ve been enjoying designing things to print, and James is having fun playing with his printer – although a multi-colour printer is firmly on his wish list now!
You can also find this print over on Maker World.
