I met Darren Neely a couple years ago at KantCon, a local board game convention. He participated in the Unmatched tournament I ran and then mentioned that he also designed board games. I looked for him in the evening (after I had to leave and go to a child's birthday party - I never get to stay for a full day of any of these events) and he let me and my oldest son test out a couple of his games. They were really good! And they looked good too. We were very impressed!
So when he emailed me to let me know he had a game in production and wanted to see if I might try it out, I was very excited! It's called BrewBiz KC Card Game. It's already out in local breweries and it's right up my alley - takes 20 minutes or less and is simple to play but has some really fun elements. You have to get a line-up of beers from 1-5 and also get a signature brew that matches a brewery to win. There are some fun take that elements that aren't too mean but you can do things to skip another players turn or steal a card from their line-up if you get the right specialty card. You can score points in different ways each round so even if you don't get the main goal you can still get on the board. All the games we've played have been neck and neck and come down to the final round to see who wins.
We played this and another fun weather themed game called The Fourcast at our house. And then we met up to play at a local board game cafe! Apparently he has twelve different games in various states of production. It's so interesting to hear about the process of getting a game developed and published. I know a lot of people have good game ideas but a LOT goes into the games that we end up playing.
I love that my oldest son was my buddy for both of these game sessions with Darren. And if you're in the Kansas City area, be sure to ask for BrewBiz KC Card Game if you go to any of the local breweries! Little card games are my jam and this is spot on!