A business administration student with Nova Scotia Community College’s Amherst campus has taken a class project and turned it into a Kickstarter campaign.
Coming into the college program as an adult learner, Debra-Dawn Megeney had two advantages when a class assignment challenged her to come up with a personal project: life experiences and a love of board games.
Most of all, she recognized most board games about life don’t look anything like real life at all.
“For me, this started in 2004. We had the board game ‘Game of Life’ and it was not in line with my morals at all,” Megeney said. “At the end you’re a millionaire living on Millionaire Alley. The places you would land in Game of Life would say ‘Pay $100,000 to have cosmetic surgery done.’”
Certainly, a game is just a game Megeney says, but there was nothing about the game that inspired her, with one exception.
“I thought, ‘Wow. How I would change Game of Life if I had the power?’”
What was a vegan, video-loving, life-experiencing entrepreneur to do? She continued to build her own life experiences. Then, opportunity presented itself.
In her second term of marketing Megeney was given the time and input she needed to create a prototype of her very own game: Paper Town.
Each game starts with a choice of professions – real, attainable professions, like YouTube creator or a gym teacher. Paydays, your reputation with your community, and the energy that goes into each job can impact rewards. Using a D4 die common to the Dungeons and Dragons community players navigate Paper Town exploring experiences and green living options, something close to Megeney’s own life experiences.
“I used to live off-grid,” she says. “We used to use solar power and collect rain water. We did our own thing… We did a couple of test runs with friends of mine whose daughters are around eight [years-old] and they were getting green living cards that read ‘learn to knit’ or ‘learn to sew’ and they were excited.”
Building the concept into an actual game took research and development and Megeney called on her network of gamers to give input. Where some people can speak at great lengths about local sports or television, Megeney does the same about board game artists and YouTube channels dedicate to the leisurely activity. Her network includes some proficient board game players.
“I have some friends who are hard core into board gaming, so I had them play this game. I had them tell me what we can improve on and I did a lot of research into what makes a board game, so it has re-playability. It’s never going to be the same game twice. You can play this for half-an-hour or you can play it for four hours.”
Who wins and how long that takes, well, it’s part of an old art becoming increasingly lost in the quick, hassle-free world of online shopping – you negotiate.
Since developing her prototype Megeney has researched and corresponded with some of the board game world’s leading artists as well as local graphic designers. She has a saleable plan to bring the Paper Town to your town, but it will take investments.
Turning to the online crowdfunding website Kickstarter, her proposal has landed some early interest and hopes are to reach her goal, otherwise she will have to seek out other funding options.
Until then, she’ll continue playing the game-developer game until the last roll of the die.
