Cove Origins
Board games were always part of my family culture when I was growing up. Checkers, Chess, Sorry, Life, Monopoly, Battleship, Clue, and Risk to name a few. I not only played them but studied them. I learned military ranks from Stratego, common and obscure geographic places across the world from the Risk game board, U.S. presidential facts from a game called Meet the Presidents, and renowned paintings from my older sister’s Masterpiece game.
In addition to the standard family board games, I started playing more complex historical strategy games during middle school. Fortunately, I had a couple of friends who also liked these types of games, and we would play for hours on weekend. These more complicated types of games had appeal because they blended the fun of playing with the bonus of learning more about things for which I had a natural interest, such as American and world history. A turning point also occurred around this time.
One Christmas, my oldest cousin, “wicked smaht” and creative, made a pro basketball game using a gift box and a pen, where one would set a lineup of five cards and roll dice to see if players shot, passed, fouled, or lost the ball. The game was similar to a store-bought baseball game we played and seeing my cousin’s homemade version inspired me to start designing my own board games.
Designing my own games not only increased my passion for playing them but spawned an even deeper passion for creating more of them. I started by using blank sheets of white paper, pens, pencils, and magic markers. Sometimes, I would first draw out the design on paper and color it in later. Each game always started with an idea or inspiration and then I would translate the idea into something playable. Everything from the French and Indian War, which I learned about in 8th grade history class, to soccer, which I had recently started playing, to escaping junior high school. A few of the games I made were take-offs of other games that I had played with family and friends, but most were original. They took considerable time to make but they also created a foundation for the future.
The Quiet Cove
Fast-forward to adulthood and being an uncle.
My parents owned a cottage on a lake, on a quiet cove. Over the years, the cottage became an annual summer meeting site for my immediate family. My older sister had my three nephews in four years, and I would see them at the cottage for stretches of time during summers. One of the things I now appreciate is that there were few distractions at the cottage back then, no cable TV, only one landline phone, and mostly dirt roads, woods, and other cottages surrounding us for miles.
So, with that free time and space, I made board games to play with my nephews while we were all there together. After they went to bed, usually the night I arrived at the cottage, I would take a blank sheet of paper, come up with an idea, and hopefully would have something playable by morning when they ran into the basement and woke me up. We would play the new game the rest of the week and I would improve the game after we played, even creating newer and more polished versions. We would also dig out games I made previous summers (I still have the best of these games in playable versions.)
After creating several games during that era, I took a long break from making games. However, eventually, I revisited and revamped the designs and rules for the existing games, making the demos slicker and more playable. Gradually, I started playing many of the games with my friends, many of whom have been both complimentary and helpful. Having always appreciated playing the games with my nephews, and later my younger nieces, great game testers, I am glad to now play them with others.
Growing up, people used to say, “Why don’t you sell your games to Pahkah Bruthas?” Well, I did copyright the rules to all of the ones I created as an adult, seemingly foreshadowing Quiet Cove. After I finally founded the company in early 2018, a friend and I set up the Quiet Cove Games Facebook page and then the website, initial steps of sharing the homemade games to a wider audience.
The Quiet Space
Some say that when one door closes, another opens. Well, during the summer of 2018, a door closed, at least temporarily, when I tore my Achilles tendon and required surgery to repair it. The long recovery period transitioned my leisure time from outdoors to indoors, with much of it spent on the quiet of my couch. This involuntary down time had an upside in that it provided me a space to both explore new game ideas and establish processes for professionalizing both old and new games.
The first game, Star Bumper, created almost 20 years earlier when I would star gaze in a Maine sky with little light pollution, was completed by the end of 2018. I developed and released 11 additional games within a year, and several more games came during the pandemic shutdown. This was not accomplished alone, as I was fortunate to have local friends who enjoyed playing games and who were always willing to test the new ones I was making. This practice continues today.
For me, the fun has always been and still remains taking an idea, working through it, and generating a product that can be shared and played with others. And board games promote personal interaction in the same physical space, even more important these days. I still view the games as shareable and playable art and they still provide me with simple joy when I play them, especially with new players. I hope this remains the case as Quiet Cove moves forward, to whatever place it goes.
Sincerely,
Mark
Founder, Quiet Cove Games
Quiet Cove Games 