One of our teachers, Abe Underhill, has designed a game for children that has been chosen as an award winner by a major toy corporation! We at Arlitt have had a front row seat to his creative abilities for years now and we are so pleased to see his work make it into the broader world. We are all excited to hopefully purchase our own copies of "GameFace" soon! Here is an excerpt from Abe about his process and journey in designing his game, titled "GameFace":
I have always enjoyed creating materials for my classroom. I love the challenge of making a new musical instrument, cardboard building set or art experience for the students.
A few years ago, Brian Maltbe joined my summer camp group as a volunteer. He told me about a board game convention, GenCon, that his family attends every summer. I decided to visit the convention in 2019 and was blown away by the diversity of games. I wandered through the Indianapolis Convention Center amongst a crowd of 70,000 people, stopping to play games or talk with designers.
That experience inspired me to pursue game design. Since then, I have been making games at home and continuing to create games for my classroom. Last summer, I submitted a design to a contest sponsored by German game/toy maker HABA. https://www.habausa.com/gamedesigncontest/
I was thrilled to have my design chosen out of a pool of close to 100 games! My design, called 'Game Face' earned spot with three other finalists.