Snarling Badger Games
P.O. Box 1744
Oshkosh, WI 54903
Or email us at mail@snarlingbadger.com
The origin of Snarling Badger Games lies
in an evening of gaming in the early 1990's. At that time,
Adam Loper and Peter Spahos had just finished playing a role-playing
game. It had been a rather eventful adventure that night,
and the two were chatting about the experience. Eventually,
discussion turned to another game (which will remain nameless)
that the two had recently played – in particular its
line of sight rules, which were contradictory and confusing.
Having access to both the first and second edition rules,
they found that instead of clarifying the rules in the second
edition, the rules had become more confusing and contradictory.
Finally, one of them said to the other, "You know, we
could make a better game than this – or at least clearer
rules." Thus, the idea to develop a game was planted
in their minds.
In addition to their academic endeavors and extracurricular
activities, Adam and Peter now added game design to their
schedules. Their discussions and play-testing resulted in
a purely combat-oriented game using robots as gladiators.
Players would create a 'Bot with the sole purpose of destroying
its opponents in an arena. And so, BattleBots
was born.
As development progressed, Adam and Peter realized that it
would not suffice to simply design a game. With much encouragement
from their friends, they continued their endeavors with BattleBots
and began to seek out possible publishers. To their dismay,
they discovered various hurdles impeding the progress of becoming
published by another company, especially when introducing
your first product. Consequently, they decided to form a partnership
and become their own publisher. They agreed to work on developing
pocket games (or microgames). Somewhere along the way, Adam
came up with the name and Snarling Badger Games
joined the world of game publishers.
BattleBots debuted at GenCon 1993. Adam
and Peter demoed the game in the Free Gaming Area, and arranged
for BattleBots to be sold through The Wargame
Room’s booth in the dealers’ area. Although sales
weren’t much, they were gratified that fellow gamers
really enjoyed playing their game.
GenCon 1994 saw Snarling Badger Games with
its own single-product booth in the dealers’ area, where
the second printing of BattleBots was both
demoed and sold. This was truly an excellent experience from
demoing and selling the game to meeting and interacting with
other members of the gaming industry.
The third and final printing* of BattleBots
saw the light of day at GenCon 1995. Once again an excellent
time was had by all. Adam and Peter were able to hook up with
some distributors, as well as connect with other industry
members.
While it may seem that Snarling Badger Games
had become a ghost since then, the truth lies elsewhere. In
reality, Adam and Peter have been busy pursuing their careers
and personal lives, as well as working on various projects
for Snarling Badger Games. Ideas continue
to percolate, mechanics are in development, and play-testing
goes on. The investment in time has yielded the latest result
– Zombie Rally.
Introduced at OshCon 2005, Snarling Badger Games’
latest product features zombies trying to get ahead in a dead-end
world. Zombie Rally is a card game in which
each player tries to be the first to get one’s zombie
across the ghoul-line.
Snarling Badger Games
is very grateful to all those who have helped along the way.
Adam and Peter have been fortunate to have had (and continue
to have) the assistance and support of their friends and families:
Eric Berry, Leslie Cider, Ron Cider, Brian Clausen, Kristi
Ross Clausen, Richard Dempsey, Jeff "Os" Koss, Uncle
Phil Bob Krause, Stephanie Krause, Emily Selk Loper, Shawn
Neldner, David Netz, David Nicholson, Beth Shepard, James
"Sarge" Voigt, and Rayna Voigt.
|
