Box Designer

Intermediate · 10 min read

The Box Designer is the workspace for designing game box packaging. Boxes have multiple printable faces — top, bottom, front, back, and side panels — each on a separate die-cut sheet that folds into the finished box. Chitmunk gives you a dedicated face navigation strip, TGC overlay templates, and a 3D fold-map preview so you can design every face without losing context.

Box Component Types

Chitmunk supports all TheGameCrafter box types, including:

• Tuck Boxes: Poker-size and other tuck-fold boxes with flap closures.
• Hook Boxes: Retail-style boxes with a display hook cutout and printed outside and inside sheets.
• Rigid Boxes (Stout/Retail): Two-piece lid-and-base boxes: each piece has its own printable flat sheet.
• Deck Boxes: Compact boxes sized for storing card decks, with top-and-side printing.
• Prototype Boxes: Simple folding boxes for prototyping and playtesting.

Select your box type from the component selector. The number of faces available in the face navigation strip will update to match the chosen box type.

Side-by-Side Top and Bottom View

For two-piece rigid boxes (lid and base), Chitmunk displays a side-by-side view showing both the top (lid) sheet and the bottom (base) sheet on the same canvas screen. This lets you see both pieces at once and ensure colors and branding are consistent between them.

Click either piece to make it active for editing. The properties panel, layers panel, and all toolbar actions apply to the active piece. A subtle highlight ring indicates which piece is currently selected.

Per-Face Editing

For tuck boxes and hook boxes, a flat die-cut sheet contains all the printable panels (front, back, spine, flap, and walls) arranged in a specific fold pattern. You design the entire flat sheet as one canvas.

The face navigation strip at the bottom shows each distinct face label based on the box type:

• Tuck Box: Front, Back, Left Wall, Right Wall, Top Wall, Bottom Wall, Flap
• Hook Box Outside: Front, Back, Left Wall, Right Wall, Cover Flap
• Hook Box Inside: Inside Front, Inside Back, Side Walls
• Rigid Box: Top (Lid face), Bottom (Base face)

Clicking a face in the strip pans and zooms the canvas to center on that panel's region within the flat sheet. This makes it easy to work on one face at a time without losing track of where it sits in the overall die-cut layout.

TGC Overlay Templates from CDN

Chitmunk loads TGC's official die-cut overlay images directly from the TGC CDN. These overlays show:

• Pink/coral background: The bleed area that extends beyond the die-cut line.
• Red lines: Die-cut lines where the cardstock will be cut.
• Green lines: Fold lines where the box panels fold.
• Cyan dashed lines: The safe zone — keep important content inside this boundary.

To toggle the TGC overlay on or off, open the View dropdown in the toolbar and click TGC Template Overlay. The overlay renders on top of your design at reduced opacity so you can see both simultaneously.

Face Navigation Strip

The face navigation strip at the bottom of the canvas provides several functions:

• Click a face label to jump directly to that panel on the flat sheet canvas.
• Face highlight ring shows the current panel's boundary on the canvas as a colored overlay.
• Spread View toggle (where applicable) shows the full flat sheet at once for a complete overview.
• Right-click a face label to access options like Copy Face Content, Paste Face Content, and Reset Face.

Box Fold Map Visualization

The 3D Preview (accessible from the Game Home dashboard sidebar) renders an interactive 3D model of your box with textures extracted from your flat design. Each face panel from the flat sheet is automatically mapped to the correct face of the 3D model using Chitmunk's built-in fold map data.

Use the 3D preview to:

• Check that text and logos appear correctly oriented on each face.
• Verify that elements near fold lines won't be awkwardly split.
• See the box from multiple angles before sending it to print.
• Spot inconsistencies in color or branding across faces.

Drag to rotate the 3D model. Scroll to zoom. The preview updates live as you edit the flat design.

Tips & Best Practices

• Extend backgrounds to the bleed edge: The pink bleed zone in the TGC overlay must be covered. Extend background colors and images to the very edge of the template. Any white areas in the bleed zone will print as white.
• Stay inside the cyan safe zone: Keep all text, logos, and critical imagery inside the cyan dashed line. Anything outside may be cut or hidden at the fold.
• Avoid crossing fold lines with text: Text that crosses a green fold line will be bent at a 90-degree angle and become unreadable. Design text to fit within individual panels.
• Match colors across faces: Use the eyedropper tool to pick colors from one face and apply them to another. Consistent color across all faces looks more professional and polished.
• Design the top face first: The top face is the most visible when the box is on a shelf or table. Start there and establish your visual identity before designing the sides and back.
• Check the 3D preview regularly: What looks correct on a flat sheet can be surprising in 3D. Open the 3D preview after designing each major face to catch orientation issues early.