Quarto Game Board/Box and Pieces

This is my own design of a set of pieces for the board game “Quarto”, along with a box to hold them in which becomes the playing area after emptying out the pieces and re-inserting the lid in a lower slot. 

Quarto is a 2-player game similar to noughts-and-crosses or tic-tac-toe, but played on a 4x4 grid with pieces having 4 distinct binary attributes: Tall/Short, Square/Round, Colour A/Colour B, Domed/Dimpled (in other designs this is “flat/indented”). One person selects a piece for their opponent to play, then their opponent plays in any available space, then in turn selects a piece for the original person to play, and so on. The game ends when a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line of 4 pieces which all share at least one attribute (e.g. “all short”) is created, with the last player to place a piece being the winner. 

Game durations tend to last between 5-20 minutes for adult players. It's possible to end in a stalemate, especially if both players are playing strategically and calculating all potential future moves (towards the very end of the game this becomes possible, though difficult).

The box can theoretically be printed as one piece with supports for the internal overhangs, however I found removing these supports to be very fiddly and frustrating. As such, I have provided both "upper” and “lower” sections separately, requiring gluing together (I have had success with cyanoacrylate/superglue).

The “pieces” file contains all 16 pieces required to play the game - one set of 8 should be coloured differently to the other set of identically-shaped pieces,  by printing in a different filament or painting.

I have provided two different designs of decorative side panels - one with angled rectangles and another with randomly spread bubbles. Of note is that 3 panels are the same dimensions, while 1 is shorter to fit just underneath the slot for the lid. These panels are stuck on with glue, like the two sections of the box.

I provide a version of the lid with basic rules embossed into it and also a blank version - this lid can be printed with a filament change partway through to both make the writing clearer and also provide for a contrasting board surface if flipped when re-inserting before play.

(Photos show both the uploaded model - in pink/white - and an earlier prototype.)