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Game lover doesn't play it safe, starts Gamefest

THE SEATTLE TIMES Adam Hill, founder and president of Gamefest, works out of his home/office in Issaquah.

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Who: Adam Hill, founder, president.

What it does: Sells board and card games, focusing on imported games from Germany. Also, the Gamefest Web site, www.gamefest.com, offers resources on the whole board-gaming world, including reviews, news, tips, and a section called "Ask Adam," where Hill recommends suitable board games via e-mail based on their age, preferences and time available to play.

Employees: Three

A gaming odyssey: Last year, Hill, 30, had a "stable and safe" job as a computer techie for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but quit to go into the board-game business after becoming hooked on a best-selling German game, "Settlers of Catan." Hill found investors and launched Gamefest in October.

Games people play: Hill, a Seattle native, perceived a niche market for what is called Euro-games or designer games, which is a growing phenomenon in Germany. Hill says the average German household owns 30 board games. German game designers such as Klaus Teuber, who created "Settlers of Catan" in 1997, are treated like pop stars in their country. Hill has been advertising on Google to get the word out.

What is out there: Gamefest's list of titles, which tops 1,300, goes far beyond Monopoly and Parcheesi. There are family games, games for kids, strategy games and trivia games. "There is a game for pretty much anything," says Hill. This includes saving the world from environmental disaster (Days of Wonder's "Terra") to surviving the dot-com crash as the CEO of an online pet store (Cool Studio's "Burn Rate") to stuffing discs into plastic pigs until they explode (Klee's "Fette Bäuche," or "Full Bellies").

In-house help: Hill shares an Issaquah office with Überplay Entertainment, a board- and card-game design company that started in 2002. Gamefest carries a number of Überplay's titles, including "New England," where pilgrims build up resources and settle the new American colony, and, under its Inspirational Games label, "Settlers of Zarahemla," a strategy game based on the Book of Mormon.

In the land of games : Home of games such as Cranium, Seattle is a magnet for the board-game industry, Hill says. Reasons abound as to why, but one could be the rainy weather, he says.

Booming business: Hill says every month the company sells 600 to 700 games, which are shipped to customers nationally and internationally. He projects the company will gross up to $500,000 this year.

— Brandon Sprague

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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