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We all know that video games are a billion dollar business these days, but while they seem to be everywhere, they aren’t the only games that people are playing. Table-top games, the kind you play in person with other people at a table, are still around, and they’re gaining in popularity. It’s not games like Monopoly or Sorry that are getting attention, although those are still around, but what the industry refers to as “hobby games.” Hobby games can refer to just about anything, though generally it implies a game that you don’t usually find at Target or other major retailers.
Games like Smash Up, Sentinels of the Multiverse, or Thunderstone tend to be more expensive than their classic board game cousins, and tend to be found in specialist game stores or online. Sales of these kinds of games have grown by about 20% in the last year, and Seattle is a focal point of the industry. The city, or more accurately the greater Seattle area, is home to a number of game companies, whether they make table-top games, like Paizo or Wizards of the Coast, or video games, like PopCap or Nintendo of America. The gaming industry, electronic or otherwise, isn’t all that huge, and a lot of people move between companies, or work in video games while designing board games in their spare time.
Seattle is also home to a lot of gaming stores, and several significant gaming and comic book conventions, so it’s become a destination for a lot of people interested in breaking into the gaming industry. And that means that there are a lot of people designing and play testing games. Considering how popular hobby games are in Seattle, it’s not hard to find people willing to try a game in progress, and that’s a necessary part of making a game.