Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Maya Gay
April 19, 2020 - 6:00 PM
Staying indoors is bringing families together, and Okanagan board and card game creators are seeing more people purchasing their items online.
Maya Gay created Basecamp Card Co. as part of a school project when she was 16. In December 2019, the Kelowna resident released a second edition of her card game, which combines a regular card set with a fun Q&A game for participants.
A majority of her sales are now in the United States since store locations and wholesalers are temporarily shut down.
She thinks more people might be playing the cards because they’re in isolation, but the numbers are hard to quantify since she’s only been publishing online social media ads in the last few weeks.
“They’ve been going really well and it made me reconsider how I should be doing my sales if I want to focus more online,” she said. Gay hopes online sales will be able to cover the lack of business from wholesalers during the pandemic. Normally her cards have been selling in stores across Canada and online.
READ MORE: Okanagan moms getting shamed for taking kids shopping during COVID-19 pandemic
The card game provides a fun way for people to interact both in-person and online, she said.
“Even if you’re on a Zoom call with someone else, you can still have all those questions and it’s a great way to get back to your roots and reconnect with people,” Gay said
Kelowna board game creators, OOMM Games and High Rollar Games, are reporting an increase in sales, which they think is due to more people staying indoors.
Jonathan Thwaites, creative director with OOMM Games, a board game company, said the business has seen an uptick in sales for already released products over the past few weeks, but sales for pre-releases have dropped.
“In general, (it seems) people don’t have a lot of money to spending on products they won’t be getting right away,” he said.
"We’re heard from a lot of customers that they’re looking for games that they can play with their families or significant other,” he said. “Lots of people are looking to play things either with their kids and teenagers and since a lot of our games are geared towards the eight-16 audience and up, it’s a good family-style game that our audience is looking for right now.”
The board game company has released four games so far and players can buy them online.
It’s a similar situation with Kelowna’s High Roller Games, which has created the popular Trailer Park Boys Oploy and Vikings: Raid and Conquer.
READ MORE: Trailer Park Boys game created in Kelowna
The company has experienced roughly a 30 per cent increase in online sales compared to last year, and the Trailer Park Boys game is doing particularly well, said CEO Derek Hodgins.
“It really does look like people are coming together more than ever and having the time to (play) these games,” he said, adding that their app Trailer Park Boys: Greasy Money is also being played more compared to last year.
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