Lunar 2024 is the year of the green wood dragon. This marble run game celebrates this benevolent mythical creature.

The game can be played by oneself, or with family and friends. The marble run track is in the shape of a dragon printed in green. The last turn of the track is the scoring zone which is divided into 4 scoring positions with numbers 1, 2, 3, and 5 marked on them. The player runs the marble down the track and gets the point of the position where the marble stops. The player scores no point if the marble doesn’t reach the score zone or run past the score zone and out of the gameboard. Play as many rounds as one likes. The player who gets the highest total score wins.

The key to score is to start the marble down the track with the right speed. It rewards good judgement, the right touch, and good risk/reward decision making. For example, the 5-point position has the highest reward but is at the end of the track, so trying to get 5 points carries the highest risk of the marble running out and getting 0 points.

The gameboard is 8.5 x 8.5 inches ( 216 mm). It won’t fit on an A1 mini.

Easily print with PLA without support. Use the provided print profile to save the time setting up modifiers and coloring. Colors are assigned by height range and have only limited number of filament changes.

Three profiles are provided. The first profile has the gameboard and the medium sized leveling feet. If the medium size feet don’t fit then one can use the one of the other two profiles to print the larger or smaller feet for a better fit.

IMPORTANT:

Since the print uses almost the full build plate, please make sure the entire plate, including the area near the edges, is clean, otherwise the print may lift up and cause printing problems, or affect game play. Oils can be easily deposited on the plate surface by fingers touching it even if unknowingly. If unsure, please wash the build plate with warm water and detergent, rinse and let dry before printing.

Assembly:

Screw the adjustable leveling feet onto the back of the gameboard. If there is elephant foot printing defect it can be tricky to get the first turn of the thread to catch. Make sure the feet screw in naturally. Don’t use brute force to push them in to avoid stripping the thread.

If the feet are too large or small, use the print profile for the larger or smaller leveling feet to print the desired ones. If after using one of these the feet still don’t fit, scale it down or up slightly by the X- and Y-axis. Do not scale on the Z-axis.

Set Up for Play:

Level up the gameboard by adjusting the leveling feet. At the beginning it may help to set the dragon head side slightly higher than the tail side so it doesn’t require too much speed to start the marble. Don’t overdo it though or the marble can run out of the gameboard too easily and hard to get any points. Later as one develops a better sense of how the marble runs on the track, increase the difficulty by adjusting the leveling feet to create some degree of slope to make it either slightly harder to get to the score zone, or harder to stay on the score zone (marble runs out of gameboard). Make it challenging yet fun and enjoy.