THUNDER BAY – A Thunder Bay board game designer has gotten a major boost from an unexpected source, scoring an online endorsement from South Park creator Trey Parker.
Parker, half of the duo behind the mega-hit animated show that’s persisted through 25 years, anointed locally-made Summit: The Board Game his all-time favourite game during a recent appearance on the online show The Dice Tower.
The moment has become a boon for the tile-laying game, which allows players to compete or collaborate as they work to ascend a mountain amid unpredictable challenges.
“This game I think is really underrated,” Parker said, praising its cooperative version for a focus on teamwork and strategy, saying it immediately forces players to make difficult thematic choices.
“Right away, you decide how much oxygen you’re going to bring, how much food you’re going to bring – you get to make that choice. It really is, you have to be prepared and you have to know what you’re doing.”
The pick surprised the hosts of the show as a lesser known title, though they also complemented Summit’s game-play.
It came as an even bigger shock to Conor McGoey, the Thunder Bay resident who created Summit as a way to distract himself from a stressful day job in 2017.
“It was crazy,” he said. “Out of nowhere, my social media channels exploded with friends reaching out and sharing a link to a video I knew nothing about. [It] was a shock to me, and I think to most people watching – especially because it would have been released five years ago, now.”
The impact was immediate.
“Things exploded,” McGoey said. “We sold about 450 units in two days in the U.S., ran out of stock, so now we’re moving stock down from Canada to the U.S. We sell worldwide, so our sales across Europe and Southeast Asia have all picked up as well. It’s driving a problem, in a good way, [that] we’re going to need a reprint soon, just because of that instant demand.”
The spike in interest may be new, but McGoey has been quietly building a successful game creation studio, Inside Up Games, in Thunder Bay since finding initial success with Summit.
That initial project exceeded its Kickstart goal of $55,000 in 2016, thanks in large part to a dedicated following in the local gaming community, and launched at The Gameshelf the following year.
Inside Up’s catalogue has grown to include nearly a dozen titles since then. The company raised nearly $750,000 in its most recent Kickstarter for the newest game, Earth.
That success has allowed McGoey to make running Inside Up his full-time job for several years. The company now has three other employees, and could add more, he said.
He has worked on the game in conjunction with local artist Jordan Danielsson, of Lost Art.
The quality of life and cost of living of Thunder Bay has helped allow him to chase the dream, he said, along with strong local support.
Still, the “South Park bump” came as a shock, he said.
“We’re used to building up hype slowly. We go to conventions or people tell friends about it and it’s very organic, people fall into the game. This was just literally an explosion – it was crazy.”
Summit remains among Inside Up’s bestsellers, even before Parker’s comments. McGoey is currently working on a third expansion pack for the game, and hopes the new buzz will mean Summit eventually sees a full reprint.
Asked what sparked his interest in games, McGoey points back to his childhood.
“Growing up we didn’t have a TV in the house [and] I have three siblings, so we played a lot of card games and board games,” he said. “Then when I started my own family, I wanted to get back into [board] games. My wife and I played a lot, and then as our kids grew up, we’ve been playing games with them too.”
He believes part of Summit’s enduring appeal is its flexibility, appropriate for cooperative play with younger children or an all-out games night with competitive friends.
With Parker’s comments amplifying the game studio’s reputation, and gaming conventions set to restart with the easing of COVID restrictions, McGoey is feeling good about Inside Up’s future.
