Australian Design Group is thrilled to announce that the Guinness World Record for the World’s largest boardgame has just been awarded to ADG’s latest release World in Flames: the collector’s edition.

World in Flames is a grand strategy game of the Second World War which was first released in 1985. It has been a best seller ever since, and is the recipient of multiple international awards.

Based in the Queensland town of Mapleton, Australian Design Group has reached out across the world to take advantage of recent high-tech developments in print technology to print the, up to now, unprintable game.

Australian Design Group Managing Director and game's designer Harry Rowland said the idea to make the collector’s edition something very special had resulted in the chance to take out the world record.

“World in Flames: the Collector’s edition was released in 2018 as a hard-mounted board game unlike previous versions which, like most games in this genre, use paper maps,” Mr Rowland said. “It has four 850mm x 574mm hard-mounted maps and three 420mm x 297mm hard-mounted mini-maps and displays, totalling 2.3279 sqm. It also includes, in the Deluxe version, 4900 counters and 192 pages of rules, 22 campaigns, and players’ & designer’s notes, that makes World in Flames a hobby in a box.”

World in Flames main maps (0.850mtrs x 2.297mtrs)

While produced by this small Australian Company, World in Flames has been an international hit from its first year of its release. The game begins in 1939, and encompasses all the important aspects of diplomacy, production and warfare across the globe during the Second World War.

“World in Flames: the Collector’s Edition is the culmination of millions of hours testing the game to its limits by tens of thousands of gamers over the years, we couldn’t have done it without their help.” Mr Rowland said, adding “The award is as much a tribute to our players enthusiasm, comments and suggestions as it is to the printers and company, many people deserve this award.

World in Flames' players meeting in Teheran, 1943

 “The international nature of modern gaming is clearly displayed in this project with artists contributing from Mexico, the USA, Germany, Czechia and Australia; rules, testing and editing from around the world, and design in Mapleton.

“We are also very pleased with the outstanding efforts of our printing partners, EFKO, based in Prague. They are one of the few companies in the world that could take on a project as massive as this, particularly in the creation of the hard-mounted maps which have immense technical difficulties making terrain features align exactly across the map joins. EFKO have given World in Flames: the Collector’s Edition the lavish attention this game needed and deserves to make this award possible.”

EFKO owner, Mirek Kotik, said his company was proud to have taken part in this project helping to create history with this world record.

“It is a deserved recognition of our team’s professional approach to printing the most complex projects in a time critical manner, paying attention to the smallest detail in every game we produce.”

Australian Broadcasting Commission interview 24 October 2020

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-board-game-commercially-available/