Denver Gaming Café Helps Board Game Designers Realize Their Visions

By Steve Graham

We are in a golden age of board games and card games, according to Keith Meyers and other tabletop gaming fans.

More than 3,000 games are added annually to the game database on BoardGameGeek.com, an online mecca for gamers. Meyers wants to introduce you to hundreds of those games at his Denver gaming café. And he even wants to help you publish the next great tabletop game.

The co-owner (with his wife Brenda) of Denver’s Board Game Republic has more than three decades of experience in the board game industry. Meyers said he has had dozens of his games published, and he has written a book on board game design.

He shares all that experience, and his love of board games, during a monthly gathering for game designers and game testers. The next event is at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17, and it repeats most months on the third Sunday afternoon.

After about three years of game testing meetings, at least two games have had a successful Kickstarter and were published. Hermetica is an abstract two-person strategy game, and If Mama Ain’t Happy is a whimsical game for three or four players about natural disasters wiping out the human race (you’ll at least giggle at the cartoon faces before confronting global annihilation).

Many other games have been tested and re-tested at the meeting. Meyers said it is a valuable way to get outside advice about your game.

**Game Designers and Testers Unite**
**What: Gathering for board game creators to test their games with live players**
**When: 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17**
**Where: Board Game Republic, 900 W. 1st Ave., Suite 130, Denver**

“As an inventor, you’re usually designing within a bubble,” he said.

Meyers has taught game design classes before, but he said it’s simpler and just as effective to simply gather designers and testers at his café.

He opened Board Game Republic in 2016 after being inspired by a Canadian business.

“My life has been about getting people to the table,” he said. “More than 10 years ago, I was in Toronto and saw a store called Snakes and Lattes and realized that was the perfect iteration of getting people to the table.”

He said his mission is to get people out of their virtual and social media worlds, and back to face-to-face interaction and gameplay. To that end, the café has built a collection of about 900 games, and offers a simple menu of mainly shareable appetizers, flatbread pizzas and toasted subs. The café also boasts a solid all-Colorado craft beer list, with both taps and bottles, and some fun, game-themed drinks.

“I started tweaking classic cocktails and renaming them to make it more geeky,” Meyers said. “Anything that creates the conversation and serves the geek community is what we are trying to do.”