Creating New Board Games

For love of the game Boards, cards in hand, designers meet monthly to test their creations By Brianna Lange The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 10/04/2007 11:17:16 AM MDT Those who doubt that adults have active imaginations haven't been to a meeting of the Board Game Designers of Utah Club. Pirates, trolls and shepherd are welcome, and games rule the discussions. Every month, board game designers meet at Game Night Games at 2030 S. 900 East in Salt Lake City to discuss different aspects of board game designing, such as copyright issues and game manufacturers. Most important, they test the games created by club members. A lot of the games created by club members are Euro-style games, characterized as taking less than an hour, with no player elimination and being strategy-based rather than luck-based. That said, the club welcomes game designers of all kinds. It has about 20 members and has been meeting once a month since January. Founder Greg Jones emphasized the importance of feedback from the other members. "It's hard to see all the flaws in the game without playing it." Jones is known as the "Prime Minister of Gaming" at Game Nights, or the manager in non-gamer terms. When Jones started the club, he was surprised to find that it might be one of kind. "I assumed people were doing it all over the country. As it turns out, nobody does it. There are a couple national organizations, but nothing on a local level. We were kind of the first." "Cry Wolf," Jones' own game, has evolved many times. "It started out as a game about terrorism, but it evolved into a game about shepherds." Feedback motivated Jones to change his game, and thinks it's important to play the games hundreds of times. His game has yet to be picked up by a publisher, but Jones is optimistic. "I'm patient; I'm just enjoying the process." But game designing is not just a hobby; it requires much time, dedication and money. Designers have been known to spend upward of $20,000 to finance their creations, said designer Steve Poelzing. "Some people have taken out second mortgages [to fund games]." Poelzing made a presentation to the club about "self-publishing" games instead of relying on a publisher. And he should know something about the topic because he has created five different games, one with multiple editions. Perhaps the best part of a club meeting was when the dozen or so designers split off into groups to test prototypes. Alf Seegert was showing his game, "Bridge Troll," an advanced card game based on the legend of trolls under bridges who either eat passersby or charge them money to cross the bridge. Seegert is modest about the success of his games, but others in the club boasted about "Tembo," Seegert's game featuring elephants. Other Seegert creations have placed in the Top 10 in the design competition Hippodice, a large event in Germany with draws 150-200 entries annually. Among those playing the games at Game Night Games was Ryan Laukat, who said he has been creating games for years. He has been working on his pirate-themed game "Keys" for nearly six months, three of which were spent hand-painting the game board. Poelzing's advice to those who want to design board games is to "be creative and flexible. And talk to other people" who have designed games. blange@sltrib.com