Comment by bena

I wouldn’t have made any until I had a viable game to demonstrate the system.

As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t have committed to hardware until I had the game sketched out. You have constrained yourself to certain choices before you know the implications of those choices.

Is color going to hinder it?

Is this really a board game where the tiles are eink devices? In which case, you’d want the connections on the edges instead of the back.

Do you need more space for text?

Do the cards need to remain in the board?

And so on. You’ve already effectively made these decisions without knowing how they’ll affect game development.

You should’ve come up with a game, then developed the hardware prototype around that game. Even if the initial hardware would have cost more with your current setup. Because, as you’ve noted, when you’re ready to go to manufacturing, you be able to take advantage of proper tooling and economies of scale.

I really think the lack of a game is the thing that’s going to be your major roadblock.