Want to find out more about Janice? George Jaros at GJJ Games did an interview with her in August that has just been published as part of his ‘The People Behind the Meeples’ series interviewing indie designers.
Janice Turner
Interviewed on: 8/24/2016
Janice is relatively new to game design, but has some really neat ideas. She’s active in several online forums and currently has a game design called Assembly: Spaceship Builders in the Mint Tin Design Contest on BGG, where I also have an entry called CivMint. I look forward to discussing game designs with Janice much more in the future and seeing what other ingenious designs she comes up with. Keep reading to learn more about Janice!
How long have you been designing tabletop games?
Six months to a year.
Why did you start designing tabletop games?
I’ve always wanted to do something more creative but never felt very good at the things that I did. I’m an appalling artist, too impatient to write stories and at best an ok photographer. I started playing modern board games about 5 years ago and 15 months ago we had our first and long awaited child, Amelie. I had always promised myself that during my maternity leave I’d start a new hobby and that this would be the time to do it. For the first 4 months, time was tight, dealing with a newborn and recovering from an emergency C-section. Then one night, between wakefulness and sleep I had an idea for a board game (I got a fair amount of sleep as my then newborn daughter fortunately also loved her sleep – if only that were still the case!). I wrote it all down on my phone so I wouldn’t forget it then left it for a month or so until I broached the topic with my husband. He suggested I developed the idea which was all the encouragement I needed and thus I started designing tabletop games. A year later I’m still working on my first design (I’m a bit of a perfectionist and it’s also perhaps quite ambitious for a first game) with a second smaller game in the works. My husband helps me develop my ideas, playtesting them, bringing new ideas to the table, pointing out what doesn’t work and things that I’m blind to as it’s my (second) baby. More recently he has brought a few game ideas to the table which I’m helping him to develop in some role reversal. Together we work well as a team and I’m loving being creative. Hopefully I’m not too bad at it either!
You’ll find the full interview here.
