Learn Hardcore Malay: Kami guna kad berwarna-warni dan dadu kecil dalam permainan papan kegemaran kami. - We use colorful cards and small dice in our favorite board game.

In Kami guna kad…, the speaker is talking about their own group, not including the person they are talking to. That’s why kami is used, not kita.

Why is it guna and not mengguna or menggunakan?

guna is a common, everyday verb meaning to use.
There are a few related forms:

guna – base form, very common in speech and informal writing
menggunakan – more formal, often used in writing or careful speech
penggunaan – use/usage (noun form)

In casual sentences like this, Kami guna kad… is completely natural. In a more formal context, you might see:

Kami menggunakan kad berwarna-warni…

There’s no plural ending in kad or dadu. How do I know they mean cards and dice, not card and die?

Malay usually does not mark plural with endings. Number is understood from:

context
numbers (e.g. dua kad = two cards)
quantifiers (e.g. banyak kad = many cards)

In this sentence:

kad berwarna-warni → in a board game, you almost always use multiple cards
dadu kecil → board games typically use dice, not a single die

So the natural English translation uses plurals: colorful cards and small dice, even though Malay keeps the nouns bare.

What does berwarna-warni literally mean, and why is it hyphenated?

berwarna-warni is built from:

warna = color
warna-warni = colorful, various colors (reduplication → variety, many kinds)
ber-
- warna-warni = having colors / being colorful

So kad berwarna-warni literally means cards that have many colors → colorful cards.

It is hyphenated because warna-warni is a reduplicated form (color-colorful) to express variety. In writing, such reduplication is shown with a hyphen.

Why is it dadu kecil, with the adjective after the noun?

In Malay, the normal order is:

noun + adjective

So:

dadu kecil = small die/dice
kad besar = big card
permainan menarik = interesting game

Putting kecil before dadu (kecil dadu) would be incorrect in standard Malay.

What does dalam do here? Why not use di?

Both di and dalam relate to location, but they work differently:

di = at / in / on (simple location)
dalam = in, inside (more strongly within something, or within a scope/context)

In this sentence:

dalam permainan papan kegemaran kami
= in our favorite board game (within the activity/context of the game)

Using di (di permainan papan…) would sound odd here. For “in a game / in a lesson / in a meeting”, dalam is the usual choice.

How should I understand permainan papan? Is it “game board” or “board game”?

Literally:

permainan = game / playing (from the verb main = to play)
papan = board / plank

So permainan papan literally is board game, not game board.
In English we say board game as one unit; Malay expresses the same idea with permainan (game) + papan (board), with the head noun first:

head: permainan (game)
modifier: papan (board)

So permainan papan = board game.

What does kegemaran mean, and how is it formed?

kegemaran means favourite (as a noun or adjectival noun).

It comes from:

gemar = to like, be fond of
ke- … -an = a prefix–suffix pair that forms a noun related to a quality/state

So kegemaran is something like the thing that is liked / favourite thing.

In this sentence:

permainan papan kegemaran kami
= our favourite board game (literally: board game [of] our favourite)

Why is kegemaran placed after permainan papan, not before it?

Malay order is typically:

noun + describing words

So the structure here is:

permainan papan = board game (noun phrase)
kegemaran = favourite (acts like an adjective here)
kami = our (possessor)

So permainan papan kegemaran kami is:

permainan papan (board game) + kegemaran (favourite) + kami (our)
→ our favourite board game

You could also say permainan papan kami yang kegemaran, but the given version is shorter and more natural.

Why is kami repeated at the end (kegemaran kami) instead of just saying permainan papan kegemaran?

Without kami, kegemaran is just favourite in a general sense:

permainan papan kegemaran
→ a favourite board game (whose favourite? not clear)

Adding kami specifies whose favourite it is:

kegemaran kami = our favourite

So permainan papan kegemaran kami clearly means the board game that is our favourite.

Is the sentence still correct if I say Kami menggunakan kad yang berwarna-warni dan dadu yang kecil…?

Yes, it is grammatically correct, but the style changes:

menggunakan is more formal than guna
yang berwarna-warni / yang kecil is a more explicit, slightly heavier way to say that are colorful / that are small

Native speakers often omit yang when the adjective clearly describes the noun:

kad berwarna-warni (more natural, lighter)
dadu kecil (more natural, lighter)

So your version is understandable and correct, but the original sentence sounds more natural and conversational.