Oros
A puzzle-like strategy game from Aesc Games with a collector-edition insert focused on faster setup, player-specific trays, and table-ready terrain access.
Funded in 43 minutes during its crowdfunding campaign and later distributed internationally.
Insert Challenge
For Oros, setup time was the priority: the insert needed individual player trays plus fast access to land tiles and volcano pieces without digging through the box.
Insert Outcome
Blackform created collector-edition player trays and large top trays that move straight to the table, reducing setup friction and keeping terrain components easy to sort.
Components
Game Type
The Project
Oros is a puzzle-like strategy game published by Aesc Games and designed by Brandt Brinkerhoff. The crowdfunding campaign funded in 43 minutes and later saw broader distribution, which made the insert work part of a real publisher release rather than a one-off organizer exercise.
The work centered on the Collector’s Edition, where setup speed had to improve for a component-heavy game built around land tiles, volcano pieces, sacred sites, and player materials.
Insert Challenge
Setup time was the defining challenge. The insert needed to give each player a ready-to-go tray while keeping the shared terrain system accessible instead of buried under layers of components.
Tile handling mattered just as much. With 72 land tiles plus volcano pieces and sacred site components, the box needed to preserve sorting logic and avoid a full teardown every time the game hit the table.
Design Decisions
Each player received an individual tray containing their core components, turning setup into a handout step instead of a sorting exercise. That decision directly supported the experience of getting the game table-ready faster.
The large top trays were designed to lift directly onto the table, making the land tiles and volcano tokens immediately accessible as shared supplies. Component grouping was treated as a gameplay problem, not just a packing problem.
Production Considerations
Because this was a publisher-facing release, the insert needed to do more than look tidy in a prototype box. The tray stack had to translate into a production-ready collector-edition system while still preserving the quick-access logic that made the design useful.
The resulting structure balanced secure packing, player-specific trays, and table-ready shared trays in a way that could move into manufacturing without losing the original setup-speed intent.
Outcome
Blackform delivered a collector-edition tray system that made setup faster, kept terrain components easier to sort, and turned the top trays into table-ready shared storage from the moment the box was opened.
Gallery
Inside the box
04 Plates