ABOUT OUR FOUNDERS
With four decades commercial game design experience shared between us, Build Game Box aims to make tabletop and digital game design accessible to everyone. Founders Emily and Erik have observed repeatedly youth and adults engaging in game making and witnessed how engaged and immersed creators at all levels can be with their own ideas. We share a love for making fun and want to bring that fun to everyone!
After meeting and sharing love of games at Carnegie Mellon, we began our careers building award winning digital games and toys for global game and toy giants like Leapfrog, Zynga and Games for Change.
Along the way, we taught game design to youth of all ages and crafted a unique approach to game design that starts with physical tabletop items. We know that there are many entryways into making games and want to invite others to explore with us!
We build games with students...
We build games with friends...
We build games in schools...
We build games with kids...
We build games at home...
We build games alone...
We build games for fun!
EMILY TREAT CZAR
Co-Founder
Began career making interactive toys and games for LeapFrog and went on to consult on over 200 game projects and delivered award winning games with Games for Change. Along the way, conducted endless amounts of maker events, hackathons, playtests and co-design sessions with youth and observed the transformative power of game making.
First game played: Peek-a-boo
Favorite game: Original Mario
First game job: Associate Game Producer/Designer at LeapFrog
Favorite game mechanic: Count-down timer
Most dreaded game type: Any thing involving touching
Favorite part about making games: Game testing with kids
Least favorite part about making games: Descoping
First thing coded: Pterodactyls wings flapping
First game published: Pirates of the Caribbean magic compass game for Leapfrog
Favorite design tool: Miro for digital whiteboard
Best game tip: Always seek feedback
Biggest in-game accomplishment: Winning Bubble Bobble (all 100 levels, 2x)
Favorite low/no-code game making tools: Twine
Dreaded game roles: Regression testing
Dream game concept: Cat gang turf war in the streets: cat gangs get into dance fight competition to win the cat turf wars. Build and train your cat gang to beat the streets!
Favorite game design collaboration: Creating games with my 6 year old son
ERIK VANBRAGT
Co-Founder
Began career making social games for Zynga and was responsible for early development work and game system definition for commercial hits such as Mafia Wars and Farmville. Along the way, taught game design in the classroom with youth. Now, as a father to three, continues to make and play homemade games at home.
Favorite game: Final Fantasy 6
First game job: Software Engineer @ Zynga
Favorite game mechanic: Press your luck
Most dreaded game type: "Party" games
Favorite part about making games: Putting all the pieces together
Least favorite part about making games: Too much tweaking
First thing coded: Choose your own adventure games in hypercard
First game published: Mafia Wars on Facebook
Favorite design tool: Pen and paper
Best game tip: Don't take it personal, keep trying new things
Biggest in-game accomplishment: 100% on Elden Ring
Favorite low/no-code tools: Scratch
Dreaded game roles: QAing my own work
Dream game concept: Kindergarten Adventure Game where each level explores a different part of the kid's imagination over the school year
OUR VALUES
Playful learning: lead with hands on creative activities and ease into programming, use tabletop game concepts to ease into digital game design
Promote growth mindset: engage kids through challenges, obstacles, effort, and opportunities for success
Low floors/wide walls: provide low barrier to entry and multiple pathways into game design
Scaffolding not recipes: enable exploration of game mechanics without rigid success criteria
Creative: encourage breadth of ideas and inspiration
Hands-on: take action, jump right into creating, build game concept prototypes now and iterate
Play nice: assume best intent of design partners and game players to create a playful environment for others
Multiple Entryways: many pathways into careers in games, not just through coding...writing, research, promoting, testing and level design each appeal to different types of creators that all contribute to successful games
Build Game Box partners with GDevelop to offer digital gaming
Build Game Box has formed a digital partnership with GDevelop to provide a platform for game making and publishing that is easy for novices as well as experts!
GDevelop is a free low code game design environment that requires no download and can publish to mobile. Check out our monthly tutorial videos and demos as well as sample code and step-by-step instructions.
Each month we explore mechanics in desktop and digital mode to offer
360 exposure to game design.
