North Herts Radio interview
On Thursday, I was spoke to Bee Phillips at North Herts Radio.
The interview was broadcast on the Drivetime show and then again on the Saturday breakfast show this morning.
We talked about the number of games available, board game cafes, educational benefits to playing board games, favourite games and why I think that Monopoly is responsible for lots of people hating board games.
You can listen to the interview by clicking the button on the right.
The School Run
I wrote a guest blog for The School Run this week about How to become a board game family on a budget.
Most of us are spending a lot more time with our children at the moment. We’re juggling work and home-schooling (not to mention housekeeping), all while being cooped up together for hours on end. So it’s lovely when we have moments that draw us together as a family and make us feel like we are making the most of our time together. Step up… board games!
The article takes a look at adapting games you currently have, accessing games cheaply or freely, turning your hand at board game design and investing in table-pleasers that will give you excellent value for money.
New Games!
We’ve had some exciting deliveries this week with four new games being delivered from the printers!
You can now get hold of the two desert island themed placemat games – Beach Life and Castaway – and you can also grab your copy of Top Cake, the bidding and cake-stacking game. Doughnut Dash is very nearly ready to ship, but we are waiting for the doughnut counters, which are arriving from Germany. As a small business we are still able to send items out as we have stock at home and use the Royal Mail. Look in the shop now.
Want to work out which games to get? Have a look at the new How to Play videos below.
Restaurantrepreneur & The Grand Opening
On the game design front, I’ve been focusing on two new placemat games – The Grand Opening and Restaurantrepreneur. Both games are ‘roll and write’ games and will form the second set of double-sided placemat games. In Restaurantrepreneur, players plan to open a cafe restaurant. They choose the menu, interview staff, find a location, do some word-of-mouth marketing and acquire the fixtures and fittings. In The Grand Opening, players open their newly formed cafe and try to get through opening day keeping all the customers happy and well fed.
More playtesting is needed for both games, and I’m going to find a way for the outcome of the first game to influence starting conditions for the second.
Don’t forget
- Every Tuesday at 4pm during school closures we are running online board game sessions for families. Register here (it’s free). Our first session, which was earlier this week, went really well.
- We’ve created a page of board game resources for families in isolation, so do have a look… you might find something useful.
In case you missed it…
On Monday, we released a new video about How to give your children help when playing games. Find out why you shouldn’t give advice unless it is asked for and why you should avoid teaching strategy.
On Thursday, we published Alfie Dix’s latest review. The game he chose to write about this month was Captain Sonar.
Coming this week…
New video: Two placemat games.
New blog: Games to play via videoconferencing.
