Page 12 - May/June HER 2020

12 MAY HER
HER Creator
Game changer
Kendall puts unique spin on tabletop gaming
Tired of playing the same card games over and over again? Kirstie Kendall has brought to fruition a tabletop game, roughly three years in the making, titled Killjoy. It may be just the thing to have on deck in case you are locked inside again any time soon.
“What I did with Killjoy is I kind of came up with a game and then — you really do this with any game honestly — you come up with this idea, and then how you want to por- tray it,” she said. “What is everyone’s goal? When you figure that goal out, you decide how you want them to get there.
“So with Killjoy, you’re trying to decide who is going to get out of this party first and how are they going to do it. Then that’s when you start implementing mechanics. ... There are books out there that have generic game mechanics, and you just pick and choose the ones you like and fit them together. It’s kind of like putting a puzzle together. Then once
Story by Felisha Butler, photography by Cassidy Kendall
everything flows, you just keep on testing it until you have something that’s fun.”
Kendall’s first game hit the table- top in the fall of 2019; yet, growing up she never imagined her plan in life would turn from teaching biolo- gy to designing tabletop games.
While in college, Kendall met her husband and learned they shared an affinity for puzzles and mechanics. This shared interest allowed their relationship to blossom and eventu- ally led to them becoming business owners.
“My husband and I — we met at the physics department at Hender- son while we were both at college,” Kendall said. “He was making mov- ing lamps and things like that, kinet- ic art pieces. He wanted to open a gallery. And I was like, ‘That sounds like fun.’ So we talked about it a little bit and at the time escape rooms were becoming a pretty big deal. They were just moving into this area of the country, so we decided to do
12 May/June 2020 ¯ HER MAGAZINE