Like you, I love games...

and like you the more I play them the more ideas I get for games I would love to play/create, which I believe has led to the creation of this forum and all of us who have made our way here.

I'll start with a few questions, and then more about me for those who may be interested.

Q: What does the BGDF provide for you as a designer? (aka - How can I get the most from this forum?)

Q: What benefit do you feel that you add to the forum? (aka - What can I as a new designer give back?)

Q: What makes you want to help a fellow designer out? (aka - What attracts you to a thread, what drives you away?)

Thank you in advance for the time you may take to answer my questions and help integrate me into the community so that I can realize my full potential as a designer, and help others do the same.

Now, more about me:

I am happily married for 12 years now to a non gamer, she has given me 5 wonderful children that are already showing to be great additions to the world of geeks...4 of them are daughters that will make some gamer boys very happy, until they find out they don't have to let these girls win and lose some pride in the process.

I've been playing games my whole life, both video and board, while dabbling in D&D and some CCG's as well. I tend to lean to Fantasy Themed games, or abstract strategy, but I will play almost ANYTHING and am surprised at how hard it is to drum up players for odd themed games like Pret-A-Porter.

My current games that I try and get to the table most often are, Go, Agricola, Eminent Domain, and BattleLore. But rarely am I the one that pushes what I want to play because I love learning new games just as much; the more new games I am exposed to the more sources I have to draw from for ideas of my own.

I have only recently been interested in design, putting together my first prototyped idea about 8 months ago, only to find out it was no fun. I've milled ideas around since then but did nothing until participating in the Global Game Jam this past Jan, where I designed my first FUN game.

http://globalgamejam.org/2012/escape-infinity

That is a basic idea that I have added a thing or two since then to give a few more interesting choices to the players. While working on that I have started a brainstorm journal that is being added to fairly regularly with future game idea's, that I would like to design and share.

Why I design games. Other than being fun, I design games because I believe in my heart that the family is the core unit of society, and it is being torn apart by society, technology, and benign neglect. I believe that by designing fun and interesting board games, I can be a small part of the solution, giving families a reason to sit around a table together and interact with one other. For that reason, my main aim is to design games that are simple enough to be played by a younger audience (6-8+) while remaining interesting and fun for adults. However my designing ideas do expand beyond that with a few more complex games that are beginning to brew as well.

My intention is to create a core group of designed games that I can team up with a publisher that has like minded goals, or to find other similarly prioritized people to start a publishing company that I can be a part of the launch. (I have family that has expressed interest in publishing both video and board games, but don't rely on them at this point.) I want to bring these games out so that I can do my part to strengthen family ties, friendships, and generally add my own piece of sunshine to the world. I would like to have some financial success at this, mainly so I can dedicate more time than I am currently able to a purpose I feel strongly about.

I believe in community, in giving and taking, and I look forward to developing a core group of friends here that can help me reach my goals, while I do what I can to help them reach theirs.