Every parent can attest that kids often enjoy playing with the box a gift comes in more than the gift itself, and who’s to blame them? Plain old cardboard offers endless opportunities to create costumes, doll houses and massive, interactive board games. With this in mind, Luanga Lue Nuwame went straight to the recycling pile when looking for boredom busters for his household during the pandemic. The result turned their entire living room into a real life game. The best part is, since the family has already hammered out a basic design, you can replicate this upcycled project at home. The inventor commented that this is a “transforming modular game that can be configured into an infinite number of ways.”

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living room covered in octagonal cardboard game tiles

The Big Sunny Board Game Challenge is more than a game; it’s an adventure. First came the actual building of game pieces, requiring precise cutting of the octagonal floor spaces, each colored and given its own activity icon. Even rolling the dice is a game in itself with giant dice that bounce across the room. At this point, strategy kicks in while the player moves the homemade, life-size cardboard cutout the distance of one die and moves their body the distance of the other die.

Related: Get serious about climate change with this board game

living room floor covered in colorful DIY boardgame tiles

Once on a new game space, players must participate in the listed activity. Of course, creators of the game can make these spaces represent their own interests, but The Big Sunny Board Game Challenge features a chore challenge, dance-off, safe space, roll again, trivia space and more. Perhaps your board could include other recycling projects and other environmentally friendly activities.

father and daughter playing on a giant boardgame

During the process of building the game board, the creator produced a series of explanatory videos on YouTube’s Homemade Game Guru — a channel dedicated to showing viewers how to make creations out of cardboard. With the game complete, he’s also included the first father/daughter game challenge to explain how the game works.

To create your own The Big Sunny Board Game Challenge, start saving your cardboard, brainstorm some game “tasks” and get cutting.

+ Luanga Lue Nuwame

Images via Luanga Lue Nuwame