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Suki & Kartik‘s Journey
Pair two enthusiastic couples together during a pandemic; the result is board games! During COVID, Bay Area couple Suki and Kartik got together with friends to play board games. What started as a fun night out eventually became an obsession. “We played over 70 board games during the pandemic,” Suki and Kartik told India Currents.
The experience got them thinking – what about taking a hobby and making it a passion project? That was the genesis for ‘Desi Board Games’ (DBG). Yet Suki, Kartik, and their team did not view DBG as just a board game – as desis who have grown up in different parts of the world, it was more about connecting with their roots.
Desi Board Games (DBG) now has three games on the market – Desi Feud, Raja Mantri Chor Sipahi (King, Minister, Thief and Soldier), and Cricket Champions. Two more games – Andaaz Apna Apna (Style Of Our Own) and Bollywood Rummy are under development. The games, which are made in India, are available in the UK, the US, and even Australia. What makes DBG’s games stand out from other board games is that they’re family-friendly and can be played by all age groups.
Board Games, Desi Roots
Suki and Kartik test the board games with their friends and spend most weekends developing games with desi roots that reflect the fun interaction with their friends.
“The games are desi-themed, but you don’t necessarily have to know about Indian culture, which is great,” says Suki.
“Raja Mantri Chor Sipahi is like a lot of games where there’s bluffing, like Mafia. It’s named after a popular childhood story, so it also has a great recall value. And we created Desi Feud because we wanted a trivia-style game where everyone can chill.”
When creating Desi Feud, the DBG team ran a survey among desi folks between the ages of 18-60. “We had a survey partner and sent the survey out to different age groups and partners. We saw the most popular answers and then we stack-ranked them. We brainstormed the questions, went through all sorts of possible questions, and came up with a superset of questions,” adds Kartik.
Seeds of Success
Suki and Kartik are steadily achieving success with DBG. They recently reached over 3 times their funding kickstarter goal for their new game, “Cricket Champions”. “It’s a great way to understand the strategy of cricket, for cricket lovers, and even those who don’t have an interest in the game,” says Kartik enthusiastically. “It’s a dice-throwing game. You either bat or bowl, and you try to score the most amount of championship points at the end.”
He explains the technicalities of playing the game. “You roll the dice and pick the best combination of scoring on runs, and then you keep that with your third roll. When you bowl, you also get to do it three times, and you pick your best combination of wickets taken and special points. The game goes up to five rounds. Up to 10 people can play the game – and it’s very addictive – that’s the feedback we have gotten till now,”
Gender-neutral games
Their gender-neutral games will encourage more women to join in, “This is why it’s important to have game nights,” says Suki. They once hosted a game night where guests assumed they’d leave in an hour after playing a game or two. “They ended up playing for five hours!
Folks need to get over their initial hesitation to play, adds Suki. “Sometimes you just have to get over that barrier.” She also saw a correlation between people who loved video games and playing board games.
The global vision
An inventory-heavy business like board games needs planning says Suki and Kartik. The DBG team handles the upfront cost, and plan for the next year based on estimates from a year earlier. Marketing spend is usually on social media and ads. What makes their games stand out is also its quality – each piece is carefully crafted and curated. They also have convinced grocery stores in the Bay Area to sell their games. “Right now, we are just having fun with it.”
Their vision is to take DBG global.
“We would love to have our presence in a few more countries,” they say.
They aim to boost their engagement online with a new portfolio of games which they plan to double by the end of the year. “Then we will take a call on whether we double down on some games or focus on sales and distribution. “
While their goal is to expand and sell, a key part of the journey is to understand what people like to play. “The desi market is very different from other demographics – our games are simple and easy to learn and cost-effective – all things that appeal to the desi audience.”
Find out more about Desi Board Games here!