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Tuesday, March 25, 2014
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Ladysmith man bringing gaming worlds together Lindsay Chung THE CHRONICLE
A Ladysmith man is bringing the building blocks medium and tabletop gaming industry together for the first time — and hoping to bring families together in the process. Darrin Root has created Steel Wheels, a tabletop collectable game for the hobby gaming industry that he believes has many unique advantages that set it apart. “It is the first game ever to use the building blocks medium to build its game pieces, rather than the traditional metal or plastic models that require glue, paint and advanced modeling skills,” he said. “It’s the industry’s first turn-based racing combat strategy game.” Root says there are no dark themes, and this is a game that brings the whole family together and has been enjoyed by players aged six to 60. It is the first game to incorporate league and campaign play right in the game design and the first hobby game with a co-operative game mode, according to Root. “We’re a big fan of ‘unplug and play,’” said Root. “We want to get people off video games and into more family time. That’s why we made something appropriate for the whole family.” The Steel Wheels journey started when Root and Alex Augello noticed there was no racing combat game in the hobby gaming industry. Most games were army-based, moving men and vehicles around.
Root grew up in Ladysmith but moved to Alberta for work, and it is there that he was first exposed to the hobby gaming industry. He says he used to make models in Ladysmith, but once he got to Edmonton, he was exposed to Games Workshop, best known for its tabletop war games, which, he explains, are “build and play” instead of just “build and look.” Root says he played a lot of games that were more for adults because the rules are intense, and they are expensive. “They’re a little hard to get into,” he said. “A friend said we should build on a game within the Games Workshop framework. We first included ourselves within their umbrella, and it was a racing game because there wasn’t one. We basically made it for ourselves, but it caught on with different gamers.” When they approached Games Workshop about developing the game, they didn’t get far at all. But that didn’t discourage them, and they kept trying. “I moved back here and thought it was still a niche that needed to be filled,” said Root. Root says many hobby games are expensive because you need glue and paint and good models. It can be hard to get into and hard to teach kids on such an expensive model. “I thought it’s too bad there isn’t a model that keeps together from friction, and Lego works like that,” said Root. See Kickstarter Page 5
Nine-year-old Maddex Neufeld gets her face painted by camp leader Morgan Hedin during Ladysmith Parks, Recreation and Culture’s Spring Break Superhero Daycamp, which took place March 17-21 at the Frank Jameson Community Centre. LINDSAY CHUNG
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