Board-Game Designer Garth Kauffman Talks About Creating Blorp!

Shelburne board game designer and illustrator Garth Kauffman grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, immersed in visual art. His early favorites ranged from the comic strips “Peanuts” and “Pogo” to the children’s books of Dr. Seuss to the influential comic artist Moebius.

Now retired, Kauffman designs and illustrates board games alongside his wife, fellow designer Liz Weir. Together they run Big Baby Games. Their 17-year-old daughter, Mathilda, is a beta tester.

Unless your board game becomes a household name, game design isn’t a lucrative field — most publishers license games and pay royalties to the designers. That’s why the couple also run a doggie daycare called Prima Dogga and a cat boarding facility called the Cat’s Meow.

Kauffman has designed 15 games over 20 years. Blorp!, his first published game, was released in April by Smirk & Dagger Games and retails for $24.99. Players place tiles to build curvy creatures called Blorps. The creative, intuitive gameplay keeps things moving, and the art is quirky and original. As this writer’s teenage son Leo put it, “Gross, but in a good way!”

I spoke with Kauffman about his game, his inspirations and the advice he would offer to aspiring game designers.

What do you love about board games?

If you have a game and there’s something to focus around, a natural conversation happens. It’s like joining a small club. Every human being longs for that.

What are your personal favorite board games?

Azul, Splendor, Sushi Go!, Incan Gold and Love Letter.

Tell me a little bit about Blorp!

I came up with the idea during COVID. Everyone got separated, and it was a way of bringing people together. I also wanted to play a game where you’re building something, sculpting these worlds. You’re basically making an abstract painting each time, and it’s always different. Blorp! and my other games tend to be pretty simple. You know within five minutes what you’re doing.

What makes for a good board game?

Accessibility, meaningful decisions and replayability — if you want to play it again. That is the secret sauce.

What goes into making one?

It’s not much different to build a house than a board game. It’s a puzzle, and you have to figure it out. Sometimes I start with the theme and then build the game. Sometimes I see images and then add the mechanics afterward. I just chip away at all the stuff that isn’t the game. And eventually, [the game] comes out.

What is the hardest part of designing one?

Making a game that’s both fun to play and also original, because tens of thousands of games come out every year.

How did you get Blorp! picked up by a publisher?

We attended gaming festivals like PAX Unplugged and Unpub for unpublished games. It’s lots of game publishers walking around, looking for something interesting. The first guy who sat down at our table to play test was Curt, from Smirk & Dagger, who signed the game.

What advice do you have for aspiring game designers?

Play a lot of games. Figure out what you like. Do you like matching things? Building things? And then make the game that you want to play. Start with a prototype, a physical copy of the game. And then play it with friends and listen to their feedback.

This interview was edited for clarity and length.

The original print version of this article was headlined “How Do You Make a Game? | A Q&A with Garth Kauffman, maker of Blorp!”