Peachtree – It all began with a root canal.
Tom Spencer journeyed four hours round-trip to see his dentist about an aching tooth. Three visits later, his tooth was healed, and his head was full of ideas. In the 16 hours spent driving back and forth, he invented a board game.
“On that last trip home from the dentist, I got out poster paper and drew the game board by hand,” Spencer said. From there, he expanded on the rules and strategies until Castle Odyssey came to life.
Game playing was a happy part of Spencer’s childhood.
“We still love to play,” he said with a smile. His own children grew up enjoying board games, which proved to be a good investment for Spencer.
“My son Todd is an architect,” Spencer said. “He does graphics and design. I had done a rough prototype by hand and used pieces borrowed from other games.”
Todd swooped in “with his expertise and made the board a lot more attractive.” So the board was gorgeous, but had no pieces aside from ragtag stand-ins Spencer collected while designing the board.
Enter Tri-County Early College High School. Spencer learned that the school had a 3D printer and offered to donate a second if the students could help him create the intricate pieces for his game.
Challenge accepted. Under teacher Alissa Cheek’s guidance, the project became part of their curriculum.
“Printing the knights was a real pain,” team leader Mylan Dockery said. “Every time we’d go to take the supports off, the knight would break. We had hundreds of failures.”
Spencer said when they finally perfected the graphic code, Dockery handed him a bag of broken knights as evidence of their tenaciousness to the task.
“We were relieved when we finally got it right,” Dockery said with a laugh.
The game, set in 1233 Medieval England, centers around four competing knights who must joust, collect taxes, and display leadership and military skills to be chosen as the king’s number two. The action is card driven, with a good deal of trickery and strategy involved.
“My favorite part is the jousting,” Spencer revealed, “because if somebody beats you, you want to re-challenge for revenge.”
Student team member Pablo Gelabert is excited to see where the game goes next.
“I’m proud to be a part of something that will be going into the real world,” he said at the pizza party game Spencer organized to thank the students.
“Whether my game makes money or not, it’s been fun. It’s been a hobby, and I feel really good if I can leave something behind for people to enjoy,” Spencer said.
“I think it will give me a good feeling if 50 years from now, somebody plays a game that has my name on it.”