The routes into game design all start with a passion for the hobby, and thereafter they are many and varied. But Brent Beck of Grandpa Beck’s Games took one of the most unlikely paths it’s ever been my pleasure to discover.
He started out as an airline pilot but, fed up with unsure pension provisions in the industry, decided to seek another source of income. Of all the things he could have chosen, he picked the house rules for a favorite family game.
“We had developed our own rules for the classic card game Golf,” he explained. “We thought, ‘hey, our friends like playing this game, especially with illustrations, I bet we could sell it.’” Unlikely as it may sound, it turned out he was right. But he had no idea how long or how difficult the journey would turn out to be.
Back in My Day...
Beck and his wife Tauni are both long-time game players. “I actually proposed with a rigged game of Scrabble,” Beck revealed with a grin. “When we were a young married couple with a limited budget, one of our main ways we would socialize would be to have a game night,” he continued. “We’d let the young kids watch a movie and the adults would enjoy playing a game together. As the kids got older we started to involve them in our game night as well.”
Unsurprisingly, Beck is a big advocate of the value of gaming to family life. “Life is really all about relationships,” he told me. “Game time is such a great way to interact and build those relationships. We bonded together as a family by playing games and doing other activities together. Now, even though our children are all adults, they remain close friends. I give a lot of the credit for that to the time we spent around our kitchen table.”
This story is from the Winter 2017 edition of Casual Game Insider.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Winter 2017 edition of Casual Game Insider.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
GAME REVIEWS
This little card game takes only a couple of minutes to teach, but is surprisingly engaging and full of fun.
Fun Is No Mystery with: Scorpion masqué
Scorpion Masqué is a Montreal-based board game publisher founded in 2006 by former literature teacher and game enthusiast Christian Lemay
PAGE TURNERS: Games Unfurl Their Majestic Pages
Have you picked up a good book lately? Perhaps you've struggled to find inspirational reading material
Josh Cappel: A Man of Many Hats
The name Josh Cappel is synonymous with variety. If you have a shelf of board games, it's likely that at least one of them has been touched by Cappel
PLAY FUNKOVERSE LIKE A PRO
Have you ever heard about the Funkoverse board game series? If not, then you are in for a real treat
PASSPORT TO FUN: This Summer's Sizzling New Casual Games
From a quaint festival in Portugal to impending doom in ancient China, or from the peaceful tranquility of a Japanese garden to the tarmac of the Montréal airport, the new casual board games of the summer of 2023 read like a captivating travel brochure
Scram! CRITTERS VS. CAMPERS
One team faces another in Bezier Games' latest card-shedding gam
Hand-to-Hand Wombat is Major Fun!
The Concept - No one knows why wombats enjoy architecture. A desire to build towers is buried deep in their bones. But there are exceptions: wicked wombats, born to make trouble.
A Part-Time Venture Creating Full-Time Fun
hawn Stankewich, along with co-founders Robb Melvin and Molly Johnson, started Seattle-based Flatout Games in 2017. Robb and Shawn lived in the same dorm in college and developed a friendship through playing board games. Molly was already into games when she met Shawn and Robb in 2013. After four years of friendship and playing games, they decided to design their own.
THE KULTURE OF GAMES:
How Board Games Continue to Reflect Growing & Emergent Communities