Why Black Pool Games?

Hello, for those of you who may not know, my name is Henry and I am the Founder and Game Developer here at Black Pool Games. This is the first installation in a series I am calling Developer Diaries, a look behind the hood at all things game design and game company running. I am hoping this can be a resource for anyone looking to start their own game as well as for people to get to know BPG better.

To start, I wanted to talk about the ‘Why’ behind Black Pool Games. Why does it exist? To put it plainly, Black Pool Games exists to bring ideas together from disparate worlds, which I believe makes for thoughtfully designed games and fosters further connection amongst people who play my games. I love finding connections between ideas and designing games is a fun medium to express those ideas. In my first game, Going Concern, I attempted to make ideas in finance that are often dressed up in fancy language more approachable through simple game mechanics, while still preserving the theoretical ideas from finance. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, I made a blog post about all the finance ideas I put into the game.

Also get ready for a BPG update!!! Later this year I will be launching a new, cocktail themed game. It tries to show that while the world of cocktails seems complex and full of numerous ingredients, it is really based on some very simple recipes with variations to make different drinks. Stay tuned for updates there on its release. My hope is from the game people feel much more comfortable mixing drinks for friends and family and have a good time doing so.

That is what Black Pool Games is all about, bringing ideas together in approachable ways, using game mechanisms as a way to express those ideas!

Keep your eye out for more Developer Diaries as I dig more into my experiences of making these games and running BPG.