Board Games

Board gaming has been rising in popularity in recent years, in part, as a tactile, in person alternative to playing video games online. In these years of rapid growth, the hobby has also developed significant innovation since the days of Uno, Dominoes and Monopoly as ubiquitous household titles.

Even the simple question, “What is a board game?”, may not be as simple as it may first appears. You might consider that a boardgame must have a winner but then there are cooperative board games and solo play board games. You might consider that a board game must involve tactile printed or wooden pieces but then there are card games and trick taking games. You might consider that a board game must be played indoors, in-person, or while seated, but then there are board games that involve movement and mime and others that have digital versions. There are also word association games, ice-breaker games, trivia games, abstract thinking games and strategy games.

With such large variance of what a board game could be, you might wonder, “What sort of games do we, Athame want to make?” Most of all, we want to make the sort of game that can be replayed and enjoyed dozens of times. We don’t want to sell you a product that you’ll tire of quickly or that you’ll throw away. We hope to create games that you’ll cherish and share with your friends and family. Games that will bring you all together, united in your excitement, whether cooperative or competitive. Moreover, we enjoy making use of tactile elements which we think take the greatest advantage of the commonly in-person format of the hobby and which, in many cases, opens the door for abstract thinking. Finally, we want to make games that empower our players to express and trust in themselves through the decisions they make. This means that our games should usually be approachable, both in visual design and in mechanical complexity. In particular, we hope that the phrase, “Quick to learn but hard to master.” is applicable to our games.