Alumnus Creates Board Game Version of ‘Capture the Flag’
By Megan Perkins ’18
June 29, 2018
Healthcare analyst Kirk Dennison ’10 is branching out into the creative sphere with his recently-designed board game, Flag Dash.
Dennison and his wife Emily love to play board games and are part of several gaming groups in their hometown of Madison, Wisc. When Dennison realized there was no good capture the flag game in stores, he immediately began to brainstorm what it would look like.
Developing Flag Dash took nearly a year of product development and several phases of testing with over 600 friends and other game enthusiasts.
“I wanted to create a game that I would be proud to share with people of all ages but that would also be challenging enough for adults to play for years to come,” said Dennison.
Flag Dash players (ideally ages 10 and up) are divided into teams of two and must cross the board, retrieve the opposing team’s flag and then safely return to their own side of the board to win.
The challenge in the game is that each player must secretly plan two moves ahead and commit to those moves by placing cards and tokens face down. Of course each player can only guess at what moves the other players will make in between his or her turn and will come across unexpected blocks that make winning more difficult.
Each round of play takes approximately 30 minutes and can be played by two to four competitors
Dennison believes this unique structure levels the playing field in the Flag Dash.
“Kids often play better than adults since they go with their gut, whereas adults second-guess themselves,” he said.
Dennison enlisted two fellow JBU alumni, Jason Flack ’10 and Jason Kingsley ’09, to help with Flag Dash’s aesthetic elements. Flack created the game logo, box art, game boards, characters, and illustrations for Flag Dash, while Kingsley designed the rulebook, icons, company logo, and other graphic items.
To get the game into production, Dennison launched a Kickstarter campaign.
“If enough people pledge to buy Flag Dash by March 30, then everyone pays for the game and I will create it and ship it,” said Dennison.
If the Kickstarter campaign is successful in raising the goal amount of $9,600, Flag Dash will be available to order online at www.flagdash.com and will be in select stores by Christmas 2016.
Dennison said he has individual distribution deals with a small number of retail stores and hopes to have more when he has the finished game in hand.
Flag Dash has received rave reviews from board game critics and those involved in the testing phase.
“Flag Dash has a lot going for it … this game has a surprising amount of depth. It is very tactical but also carries a good amount of strategic choices. Flag Dash is easy to teach and works well for younger audiences too,” said Dane Trimble of Everything Board Games.
In search of new ideas for his company, Dennison also invites anyone interested in creating a board game to contact him at games@piecekeepergames.com or www.piecekeepergames.com.
