Blame the kids!

Hello everyone,

So I stumbled across this forum while trying to 'crash course' myself on designing games (something I never imagined I would be doing). Now I'm here so a little background.

A few months ago my kids (at the time they were 7) came to me as I was watching looking at some game reviews after work. They read along, watched a few videos, and eventually lost interest to go do other things (or so I thought). That evening before bed they expressed their interest in reviewing a few of their favorite games. I agreed believing this would be a passing thing for them (I was wrong again) and from that our review blog www.WoodenShoeGames.com was born. I told them from the beginning that it was their show, they were running it, and for the most part they would have to decide what direction it would go. I haven't been disappointed yet and its given me the chance to play a lot more games with them (its forced me to find more time in my schedule to do so).

So fast forward a little from there and I'm trying to come up with something to do one weekend when the crazy idea came to me to turn the house into an area control game. This never happened but it got me thinking...and the more I thought the more the idea grew. Eventually a game was born with my target audience in mind (my kids) and from there a prototype was developed...then edited...then played some more (lather, rinse, repeat). Now we're working on the 'professional' prototype and seeking playtesting and its all thanks to those meddling kids.