PAX Unplugged was an unforgettable experience that granted me unfettered access to some of the hottest, newest, latest, and greatest board games in the industry. It is my great joy to bring these experiences to all of you and open the gates to new hobbies and pastimes. In this series we will learn more about the industry and different companies directly from people in the thick of it. These will be released in standard Q&A format with answers transcribed from audio taken during Unplugged. Some answers may have been edited for clarity as the actual interview was done in a discussion format that gave the developers, designers, and staff more room to talk about their ideals and products.

This is our Developer Spotlight series, please enjoy!

Now Interviewing: Heather + Heather from 9th Level Games
https://www.9thlevel.com/
@9thLevel

Q: Tell us a little bit about your company and products.

A: We started in 2000 as a roleplaying company with “Kobolds Ate My Baby”, which were literal printed pieces of paper that we stapled together our kitchen table. There wasn’t really an indie scene back then. With kickstarter, in 2013, we relaunched in full color to see if people cared. They did. So we decided to make a company. And here we are. We began to push to add more product lines and include board games. For example, in our “Traged13s of Middle School” game, a lot of it contains things that were purely digital and couldn’t be made into a full blown game on their own. We put them all together to make it into it’s own thing.

Q: What is your process for game creation and development?

A: You just kinda pick up the skills and experience it and do it. Get an idea and prototype quickly. Make a base version as soon as you have an idea so you can see if you have an idea. There aren’t a lot of resources and the industry is getting there slowly. Just play games and make games. Our personal process is a concept, how do we evoke this concept in a game? Sometimes we never find the game mechanic that works for us. But once we find something that works, we tour it around and go from there. It’s much harder to test roleplaying games than board games. With “Kobolds” it’s been out for a long enough time that we didn’t have much trouble playtesting, but with a newer concept like “Traged13s” it can be harder to sell that concept.

Q: Can you talk a little bit more about THE TRAGED13S OF MIDDLE SCHOOL?

A: Traged13s is a bunch of little mini games about things that would happen to kids in middle school. Like truth or dare, spin the bottle, card games, and social deduction games. They’re individual games done by different designers. We’ve been collecting people as contributors for 6-9 months. We’d like to pay the designers more and give back to the community. It’s an hour or two of storytelling with no large commitments. You can play it as a one shot and we aimed for it to be approachable. Easy to pick up and play.

One of our favorite games in it is called Demon Realms. It’s a traditional DnD experience except done with M.A.S.H (for our international readers who might not be familiar with that, you can read more about MASH here). It’s a very interactive telestration experience. It’s only 20 minutes and it’ll be constant laughs. We’d like to approach storytelling from a fun campy angle. Our product line is accessible stuff with a challenge but it doesn’t alienate people. Both hardcore and casual gamers can have a good time with our product which creates a bridge/middle-ground.

Q: Anything else you’d like to mention?

A: All games are in distribution worldwide and they are definitely available everywhere. Check out our Bearicades product and Traged13s. Our website is fairly new and extremely up to date with our new products. We love cute animal games.

Find more of 9th Level Games’ Here: https://www.9thlevel.com/games