Hello and welcome, fellow solo gamers! I’m Kamio, the person behind this blog. Here’s the story about how I discovered modern solo board gaming and how this blog came to be.
Life Before Board Games
A little over a decade ago, I got my first glimpse of modern board gaming with games like Pandemic and Betrayal at House on the Hill. I was thrilled to find that cooperative games were a thing. These games became my favorites with friends and family, but I didn’t think to explore beyond them. Back then, life was a whirlwind of commitments and responsibilities, leaving little time to explore this intriguing hobby fully.
Over my life, I’ve led various online communities on my hobbies. I’ve managed forums, blogs, and an e-commerce shop with a dedicated customer base. My past communities all had a very special niche.
Also, I’ve always been addicted to video games. Five years ago, I led a thriving video game community with 20 dedicated servers that allowed people to play my favorite video game (an MMO survival-type game).
Could this be a thing, solo board gaming…
Inevitably, I stumbled across boardgamegeek.com, affectionately referred to as BGG. Though I still had my video game community, I kept lurking on BGG and started a more diverse collection of board games.
At first, I intended for these games to be played with family and friends, but to my dismay, it became apparent that no one else was as psyched as me to play games all the time.
So, in the past five years, I decided that’s okay, I’ll solo my games! Now, it’s very rare for me to purchase a new game that doesn’t include a solo mode.
I became more fascinated with board games and even kicked my video game addiction (it’s been two years since September 2021). As for the video game community, I finally handed the reigns off and started updating my technical skills. I wanted to create a board game community!
Some Direction Please…
I have the time, energy and desire to contribute to this hobby, so this idea has been in my head for quite some time. I wanted to share my board game passion with the world but needed guidance. An exceptionally fantastic board game site already exists – BGG. So what could I do?
During COVID year, I picked up 3D printing as a hobby and thought I could make 3D-printed board game inserts and other fun accessories. An Etsy store selling board game accessories would undoubtedly be an adventure. But also a lot of work; I already knew how busy an online store could get with shipping and customers and I needed something less stressful.
I could learn 3D modeling and sell my designs… Speaking of accessories, I am really into board game “bling,” so I thought I could talk about that…
I also love photography, so I could specialize in sharing photos of board games…
Having no specific direction had me floundering.
A Turning Point
I lurked on the 1 Player Guild on BGG and other solo board gaming-specific communities for three years. Then I realized that’s my niche – modern solo board gaming!
Introducing – Solo My Games blog!
I started work on this blog two months ago by updating my knowledge of web development. I knew I would use WordPress for this blog, but I wanted to customize it however I wanted. So, I brushed up on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP.
For a board gaming blog, I created two new post types – Board Games and Contributors (designers/artists/publishers) and a ton of custom taxonomies like Genres, Themes, Complexities, etc… I could talk forever on this stuff, but this is a board gaming blog, so I’ll stop there.
BGG is the ultimate board game website, with all its vast community, it’s handy for information like user-voted game ratings and complexities. So a lot of information is gleaned from BGG.
Relevant Solo-Focused Information
However, I’ll be focusing on information relevant to solo gamers. No party or children’s games will be featured. We don’t care about “Take That” mechanisms or “Social Deduction”. We do care how well a game plays solo. How long it takes for solo play, or the footprint it takes up – information not really found elsewhere.
Since I’m a perfectionist, it took me forever to settle on the board game organization and the look and usability of the website. I’m sure I’ll change and finetune as we go.
Fast forward to today, and the solo board gaming blog is finally ready to go in September 2023!
What Will this Solo Board Gaming Blog Provide?
The main goal of this blog is to be a handy resource for solo gamers to find the perfect solo game for the occasion. Secondly, to lure more people into this fantastic hobby! Lastly, I want to share my enthusiasm, write about games, and share game photos.
This blog is for you, and I hope you’ll find it a handy resource to discover awesome solo board games without the distractions of a vast site. As solo gamers, we have particular questions that are frequently asked:
- How well does this board game play solo?
- Does this multi-player game have a solo variant?
- What’s the footprint of this game? Can I play it at my desk? On a train/airplane tray table? Or do I need a huge space?
- Need good solo game suggestions for the occasion? Browse the database to find what you’re looking for.
- Want to relax after work with a 20 minute light game, what’s out there?
- What new solo games are popular now? Or is it still popular after years?
- Do you enjoy looking at photos of solo games in action? This site will offer plenty!
Conclusion
This blog is designed to help spread the solo game culture; think of it as your resource. Let me know if you have ideas for improvement or feature suggestions.
Thank you for reading, and enjoy the site!
– – Kamio