Ken Franklin says there’s a board game out there for everybody. The Vicksburg man has created a prohibition era table top game and a new one next year is about designing roller coasters.
Franklin says board games offer an opportunity for face-to-face competition that video games don’t. Franklin and Brian Lenz, the co-founder of GrandCon, an annual gaming convention in Grand Rapids spoke with WMUK’s Gordon Evans. Lenz says conventions like his allow people to try out board games. They also allow for networking among designers and people trying to bring games to market.
Franklin says The Mansky Caper started out as a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” game and eventually evolved into prohibition era game. Franklin says he wanted to find a unique game for the market. He says the Mansky Caper took seven years to get to market. His next game, Imagineers will take about eight months.
Lenz says the theme of the game may be the initial draw that gets people interested. But he says “the game play” is important. Lenz have to like the mechanics of the game, regardless of the theme.
Franklin’s game Imagineers will come out in 2019. He says the players try to design the best roller coaster for their amusement park. Franklin says he is also working with another designer in Kalamazoo on a board game called At What Cost. He calls it a war game that teaches “the superior strategy of getting to peace.”
Lenz says many of the games can be found through Kickstarter and some game specialty websites. The next GrandCon will be held August 29th through September 1st, 2019 in Grand Rapids.
