Dial Designer

Intermediate · 8 min read · By Chitmunk Team · Updated May 11, 2026

The Dial Designer helps you design game dials — those clever rotating discs used for secret simultaneous action selection, health/damage tracking, and other circular game mechanics. You lay out the whole dial (both the rotating top layer and the fixed base) on one flat canvas, then use the built-in Rotation Preview to check how it plays.

What Is a Game Dial?

A game dial consists of two circular cardstock discs connected at the center with a paper fastener. The top disc rotates freely around the center pivot, while the bottom disc stays fixed. A window cut out of the top disc (or a pointer on its edge) reveals one segment of the bottom disc at a time.

Common uses in board games:

• Action selection: Players secretly choose an action by rotating their dial, then reveal simultaneously.
• Stat tracking: Rotate to track health, shields, or other values without using tokens.
• Hidden information: Rotate to keep a current game state secret until revealed.
• Random selection: Spin the dial for a randomized outcome.

The Disc Workspace

Chitmunk's dial components (Small Dial, Dual Dial) start as a single flat sheet labeled Outside — not a pre-split top/bottom workspace. You lay out the whole dial, including the window cutout area, on that one canvas, using the TGC overlay to see the die-cut and fold-line guides.

The dial designer also has a combined-preview mode with a drag-to-rotate Rotation Preview, useful if your design ends up with two separate disc faces to overlay and check alignment.

Building Segments by Hand

Chitmunk doesn't have a dedicated segment-count/label/color panel for dials — you build segments with the same tools you'd use anywhere else on a card:

• Segment shapes: Use a wedge/pie-slice shape (or a rotated rectangle) per segment, positioned with the rotation field in the properties panel.
• Labels: Add a text element per segment, rotate it to face outward, and style font, size, and color like any text element.
• Colors: Set each segment's fill color individually, or duplicate a styled segment and rotate the copy into place for consistent spacing.
• Dividers: Add a stroke to each wedge shape, or thin line shapes between segments.
• Center circle: A plain circle/ellipse shape works for the pivot decoration.

Because everything is a normal element, you get full control over each segment — but there's no auto-layout that spaces labels around the disc for you. Copy, rotate, and nudge each one into place.

Rotation Mechanics

There's no dedicated window-shape dropdown or size field — you draw the window the same way you draw anything else: a shape (circle, rectangle, or custom wedge) positioned where you want the reveal to happen, typically near the edge of the disc.

• Window shape: Draw it as a shape element; a printed border or frame around it reads more intentionally than a bare cutout.
• Window position: Place it near the edge of the top disc so it lines up with a single segment on the disc beneath.
• Window size: Size it to fully reveal one segment without showing its neighbors — check this with the Rotation Preview.
• Pointer indicator: An alternative to a cutout — a printed arrow or notch at the edge that lines up with the visible segment.

Window and Reveal Areas

The window in the top disc is a die-cut hole in the physical component. Chitmunk doesn't have a dedicated "mark as cutout" property — draw the window as a shape with no fill (or use TGC's overlay guide) so the area reads as empty in your export, and let TGC's die-cut spec for that dial size handle the actual cut.

Design considerations for the window area:

• Window bleed: Add 1–2mm of bleed around the window cutout edge so the die-cut does not leave a thin white border.
• Window framing: A decorative frame around the window (a ring shape, a banner, a compass rose) draws the eye to the reveal area and looks more intentional than a plain hole.
• Readable segment size: The segment visible through the window should be large enough to read its label at arm's length during play. Size the window and segment count accordingly.

Tips & Best Practices

• Keep segment count simple: More segments give more precision but make each segment smaller and harder to read. 8–12 segments is a good range for most game dials.
• Use icon mode for action dials: Icons read faster than text during play. Pair a small text label with a large icon in each segment for maximum clarity.
• Test the assembled dial before finalizing: Print a prototype on paper, cut out both discs, and connect them with a paper fastener. Physical testing reveals window size and readability issues that the digital preview cannot fully simulate.
• Match top and bottom disc diameters exactly: Both discs must be exactly the same diameter for the TGC assembly to work. The component spec locks this — do not resize one disc independently.
• Center pivot decoration: The brass fastener covers the center of both discs. Avoid placing important content within 5mm of the center pivot.