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About me and the Fjällbacka game

  • The Fjällbacka game is the result of 60 summers spent in the community and a way for me, as a summer guest, to explain how important Fjällbacka is to me, and to show my gratitude for everything the community has given me. Three percent of the proceeds goes to FFF - Föreningen för Fjällbacka, a non-profit organization that I care a lot about. The target audiences for the board game are tourists, part-time residents and locals alike.
  
  • Covering six subjects, this is a game of knowledge. Each subject has about 29 questions and there are always three alternative answers, in case one needs to make a guess. Nature, society, culture, marine biology, history, and common sense at sea. On 40 of the 120 question cards there are GPS positions, making it possible to reach the destination to which the question pertains.

  • Different generations can play each other. It works well for both children and adults, you just need to know how to read. As a social worker, I feel it is important to interact face to face, and not just via a computer screen or telephone. That is what we were made to do, and it hones our social skills. We feel better that way. Recent finds in the science of the brain show that we lose those abilities we do not exercise. The game is also well suited for people who, in an entertaining way, want to learn a bit more Swedish. There is humour in the questions.

  • Using the community´s coat of arms as a decorative motif on the backs of the question cards is a way to strengthen community identity. Also, I am using the original version, with red fins (see The rules of the game). In all aspects of the game, the language used is easy to understand.

  • The game board´s background is painted by a well-known watercolourist, Lena Elg from Fjällbacka, and is a beautiful image to look at. Aesthetics is important to me. With Lena's kind permission, there are also five elements on the game board taken from her paintings. The photos are from my own family photo albums, in addition to images that are well known in the Fjällbacka area.

  • The game takes about 45-60 minutes to play. To play should be simple. You will learn about new things, and it is possible to make things more difficult for those who want to take things one step further. In the rules, there are suggestions on how to use more complex variants of playing. I do not mind if you make up your own rules, so long as everyone playing are in agreement.

  • A game developer has been involved in the process of creating this game. In the summer of 2014 we printed three prototype games, to allow for testing. It is important to have many test players. I received views and suggestions from different generations. Teenagers, children, retirees and middle-aged people. I have taken their points of view into consideration when finalising the game.

  • A game board must not be too small to be interesting, but must be foldable. The box for the game is no bigger than to fit in a boat's cabin. Both the box and the game board are printed on glossy paper to withstand water. The box is meant to look just as appealing as a piece of candy!

  • The game pieces are different boat motifs, in shifting colours. They are not plastic, but are made from wood so as to float if accidentally dropped into the sea. We have enough plastic in the Western ocean. The dice are indeed made of a plastic material, but this is because it makes them heavier than wood, thus making it easier keeping them on the game board. There is one green die for starboard, and one red die for port.

  • The first edition of the game was printed in 500 copies in October of 2015. It sold out in 2016. A second edition, in both Swedish and English, came out in 2018.
Isabella, June 2018