Deep Cut Mat

Gaming mats have become very popular in recent years, from small versions for card games, to full size battlefields for the tabletop. There are plenty of designs and sizes to choose, from various companies, including Deep Cut Studio. They have recently launched a new service, to provide gamers with a bespoke design, and were kind enough to ask me to review their new product.

Print-O-Mat is an easy to use service on their website. Pick an image, upload it to the website, adjust if necessary, and done. This is exactly what I did. I grabbed a Skyrim image from the web, tweaked it a bit in Lightroom and uploaded as instructed. If you do not have image processing software, they do have suggestions on free software you can download and use. You could of course use any image you like - personal photos, a computer screen grab, digital art - the only limit is your imagination.

It took about a week for my mat to arrive, which is pretty quick for a European parcel (I am UK based). It's basically an oversized mouse mat. It rolls up for easy storage, and unfurls for a nice flat surface to use for your card games, board games or whatever. The reproduction is excellent, very detailed, as hopefully you can see here. I have plans to use this as a backdrop for my photography too, but more about that in a future post.

Here's how the mat looks in use, with a game of Lord of the Rings set up. This is a co-operative game for two players, and I reckon there's just about enough room to play here. It measures 60cm x 35cm (24 x 14 inches).

To my (admittedly limited) knowledge, Deep Cut Studio are the only providers to offer this bespoke service. It's a very nice product, the interface is easy to use and delivery is quick and efficient. Designed for use with card games, I reckon it could easily be adapted to provide a surface for small skirmish games with an appropriate image. I would be very happy to find one of these rolled up under the xmas tree!

My thanks to Deep Cut Studio for providing me with this sample.