Board game enthusiasts met in Regina to create, test and play at the Prairie Game Expo on Saturday.
The event brings together people with a passion for the less digitally based hobby. Organizers say role playing and miniature games have become more popular in the last decade, and the expo enables those types of interest groups to come together and have a good interactive time.
"What’s good about getting together as a larger community is one meeting more people, getting exposed to new types of games that you might not know exists, and then just connecting with the community,” said Chad Boudreau, sponsor and organizer of Prairie Game Expo.
Boudreau believes board games encourage people to socialize in meaningful ways.
"We find that people want to turn off technology and want to connect with people in real ways. What better way to do that than across a table in a board game where not only can you have fun, but often a lot of board games requires a lot of thought. So you’re having fun, your brain is working, but you also have the social interaction that comes with gaming with other people,” Boudreau said.
A group of four people at the event put their thinking caps on while playing a sci-fi board game created by Nathan Ottenson, where the players try to colonize a planet. Ottenson is a member of a game designing group called Regina game forge, where individuals interested in designing games join forces to do just that. It took Ottenson just a little over a year and around $300 to $500 to create his board game “Galactic Payload.”
"Well I have a lot of fun with it and I have a lot of fun making something and creating something. So I mean yeah I wouldn’t spend the money on something that I did not like,” Ottenson said. "I hope it’s popular, I hope people like it and I hope to see it on a shelf around town someday."
The Prairie Game Expo is held three times a year at the Core Ritchie Community Centre in Regina.
With files from Madina Azizi.
