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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spokane friends create Hammered Heroes, a board game that combines their loves

When friends and creative collaborators Adam Harum, Clancy Bundy and Adam Boyd get together to hang out, they often do so over board games and drinking.

“We found it to be a nice social thing to do,” Bundy said. “It’s a really fun pas time to take up – you get to hang out with your friends and make fun of each other.”

So before each hangout session, Bundy, the group’s self-described board-game aficionado, would search for the next best thing – something that perfectly combines the social aspect of playing a game with friends, with the tipsy benefit of pairing well with a tall glass of beer.

Eventually, they all thought, “Why not create one of these ourselves?” And if it purposely combines the two criteria – drinking and fun – even better.

“Which was probably a foolish thing to say because they said, ‘I think we can make one of those,’ ” Boyd said.

About a year later, Hammered Heroes was born. It was unveiled to the world via a Kickstarter campaign that launched a month ago, with a simple tagline: “The game designed to get your drunk friends into card games, and your card game friends drunk.”

Designed for three-to-five players, the game plays much like other popular card games such as Munchkin, Exploding Kittens or Smash Up. There are cards with “heroes” that have abilities and life points, quest cards with win conditions and “trap cards” that work to either help you win quicker or “screw over your friends,” as Bundy puts it.

And then there’s the drinking. Play too aggressively? You earn a “party foul” that equates to one swig from your drink. Play the same card as another? Drink. Lose a quest? Drink. Earn five “party fouls”? You’re out of the game.

But the catch, the three say, is you don’t have to drink – drinking just makes it more fun.

“We planned on making a game that worked and was fun first, then sprinkle on the drinking,” Bundy said. “And we were sober when we made the game, which I feel is important.”

“Yeah, we didn’t want to make a gimmicky game – it’s a game that’s fun to play,” Harum added. “The drinking just adds to the experience.”

The three friends, who all live and work in the Spokane area and graduated from Eastern Washington University’s film program, quickly learned that developing a board game is akin to fine-tuning a video game: It has to be fun, but not too hard.

For months they play-tested “Hammered Heroes” between the three of them before they felt confident enough to show it to others. Then they forced their friends to play, as they watched like hawks to see if they were actually having fun or just pretending.

Still in the developmental stages, they then showcased it around bars and Merlyn’s Comics and Games on Main Avenue.

“Seeing other people play was when things really started picking up,” Boyd said.

“Clancy was hanging out in bars with the game, and literally grabbing people and saying, ‘Hey would you come over and play?’ ”

What they found was that people were having fun. Actual fun. And they would ask when they could play again.

“I took that as a good sign,” Bundy said.

Then there’s actually getting a game off the ground. While they have a Kickstarter, promotional materials, a fully-playable demo deck and a website, the three learned that finding backers when there are thousands of other board games looking for the same thing is difficult.

Living in Spokane creates another hurdle, they said. While there is a “nerd” culture prevalent at places like Merlyn’s, they say it’s nowhere near as mainstream as it is in Seattle or other larger cities.

But at the same time, that creates an interesting leg up. Since they don’t have to compete with other board game makers it allows them to stand out, they said.

“It’s a nice balance of not being too overly saturated,” Harum said. “And there’s not like a jealousy angle here. Everyone is more supportive here.”

But the thought of a board game being designed from the ground up to include drinking doesn’t have everyone enthused, including Linda Thompson, the executive director of Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council.

After watching the promotional videos, she took issue with the lack of warnings about drinking and driving, and for making no mention of drinking responsibly.

She also criticized the game’s inclusion of parodies of fictional characters, including a card called “Harry Porter” – an obvious satire of the popular “Harry Potter” character from the children’s books.

“And we’re seeing cards depicting urinating in public places, and having words written on people’s faces,” she said. “All of these things are reflective of young people getting so drunk they have alcohol poisoning. It’s very discouraging all around.”

Thompson, who lost her son to a drunken driver, said she’s not against drinking games in general, but that she just wishes there was more thought put into drinking responsibly from the creator’s side.

“Obviously there are going to be drinking games,” she said. “But above all, we encourage safety.”