LOGAN SQUARE — Two Logan Square roommates have high hopes for their soon-to-launch board game.
The goal in Road to Infamy is to run the most infamous crime operation in Chicago.
The crime-themed game places players as wealthy gang leaders competing against each other in search of the type of Chicago fame that has made our city's gangsters household names.
"The gangster theme made sense, just living in Chicago that was an easy choice," said Andrew Nerger, a co-creator of the game. "
Nerger and co-creator Jeff Chin have been friends since high school and have been roommates living in Logan Square the past two years.
This is their first go at a board game, but the two have been involved in gaming in varied forms before taking this leap.
"We've been gaming for our entire lives," Nerger said. "We used to play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons. ... Creating stuff has always been something we've been interested in."
The idea to create a board game actually started as an online forum-based role playing game the two created that was based on the Hunger Games series.
"We spent a long time discussing that Hunger Games RPG and a lot of times we got so frustrated with it," Nerger said.
It dawned on them to make it into a board game.
What started as little pieces of cut out drawn on paper, then printed out graphics, gone to board game meetups, conventions and eventually a full prototype turned into Road to Infamy.
The 27-year-old creators created a Kickstarter to mass produce the game and hit their $4,000 goal within four hours of launching the funding campaign. As of Friday, they had raised more than $12,000.
The decision to go through with creating the game might have something to do with what Nerger and Chin didn't create about 10 years ago.
"When we were 17 we basically created Cards Against Humanity," Nerger said.
Their homemade version appropriately dubbed "Balls to Balls" never made it outside their circle of friends.
Now that Road to Infamy has hit its Kickstarter goal, the creators hope to have the games printed and shipped by the end of January.
The goal of Road to Infamy is to have the most Infamy Points at the end of the game. Each hand you attempt to either hire a specialized Gangster, buy Contraband or bribe the Cops. To do this, players simultaneously play bid cards, one each turn. After 3 turns, the player with the highest bid for each designated prize wins that prize.
Chin, who has illustrated three children's books, hand illustrated the entire game.
“The game is about seeing what’s on the board and anticipating your opponents’ next moves,” Chin said. “A player who can recognize strategies and deceive opponents will have a major advantage.”
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