“Baby Boomer: Have It All!” – Aussie Game Manufacturer Goes Live
Announcement posted by Fat Rain Games 16 Aug 2023
Fledgling Queensland games company Fat Rain Games has launched its initial foray into tabletop board games – to a mixed response.
With the game going live on the Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign Platform on Tuesday August 15 2023, the generation who the game lampoons have responded in various ways.
Mum Likes It
“Well, my mum likes it!” is the response from games creator Dave Eden, continuing “but I think it has been mixed. Some have been a bit sensitive and worried that they will be mocked. But also I’m not sure that the Baby Boomer generation overall love boardgames, or indeed has the empathy needed to see themselves through their children’s eyes”.
Indeed, one journalist accused the company of attempting a ‘cynical quick-buck cash-in on people’s misery’. Had the company anticipated such vitriol?
“This was a massive surprise” says Dave, “but I think it speaks to how important the issues are that we’re addressing in the game in a humorous way – the massive inequality of wealth, the housing crisis, the aged care crisis – they all impact people's lives in such huge ways."
Generation Clickbait
Indeed, it seems there is a “click bait” element to the game as a whole, in that the name and focus will potentially get a few angry seniors interested and spreading the word through their outrage.
“Certainly we are trying to catch the wind of a public debate – to make a game that resonates with what is happening in the culture” grants Dave, before admitting to ‘senior’s moment’ himself in the lead-up to the launch. “Oh it was terrible! I misunderstood how Kickstarter worked and I launched the campaign too early, then cancelled it, and this killed the whole thing! Burning multiple months of work.”
Unexpectedly, this ended up having a bit of a silver lining.
“It made me step out from behind the screen and talk to our community of supporters directly, and the support I received has been really positive. I think it shows that we love an underdog! And a stuff up! And someone who is honest about it!”.
With the crowdfunding campaign running for three weeks from today, where will the spoils of this ‘quick-buck cash-in’ go?
“Most of it on production and logistics (which is a moving feast). Pay back a few debts and perhaps enough money for some take-away and fancy beer. Also would be great to start building the foundations for the game to really get off the ground.”
The Game Itself
So how does Baby Boomer actually work? “Baby Boomer: Have It All!” takes less than an hour to play, with up to six people able to play.
At the start of the game all players are assigned a Baby Boomer whom they must help to find happiness. Each Boomer is unique – some are wealthier than others, some are unhealthy, and some like their children.
Happiness comes from wealth and grandchildren, unhappiness from poverty and not having a place in the retirement village. But different Boomers place different values on these things. This creates your challenge: to make decisions based on your Boomer’s personality, balancing the competing goals of wealth and grandchildren.
Steering your Baby Boomer towards fulfilment will lead you into conflict with other Boomers who are also trying to arrange fruitful relationships for their children and competing with you for houses and investments.
Each turn you must choose to either play for yourself or play for your children – do you make yourself rich or pour money into your kids’ looks, career, and personality to help them find a partner?
Baby Boomer: Have It All is now live on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/babyboomer/baby-boomer-have-it-all-relaunch/
Fat Rain Games is an Australian board games company based in Queensland. We hope that our games make you laugh and cry (but mainly laugh) about the world we live in. The vision for our company is to make a small contribution to a better world by helping people to laugh at things that are difficult to talk about. We think of games as a form of catharsis, and we love games as a uniquely human activity that’s also good for us. Vive homo ludens!
More game images to view and download: https://bit.ly/BabyBoomerFRG
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/babyboomer/baby-boomer-have-it-all-relaunch/
Website: https://fatraingames.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fatraingames
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fatraingames
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatraingames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FatRainGames1
If you would like more information, pictures or to receive promotional materials for the game itself, please do get in touch. To arrange an interview with someone from the Fat Rain Games team, just ask!
Cormac Sheehan
Purpose Communications
Email: cormac@purposecommunications.com.au
Phone: 0416 712 812