'King's Vineyard' a board game without board, designers say

The king is looking for a new keeper for his vineyard. He needs someone that can grow various kinds of grapes in nice even rows and keep them from wilting prematurely, but also knows when it's time to pull out dying vines and move on.

He will let you try out for the position, but will make three surprise visits to the vineyard in the course of your trial period to see how you are doing. He will reward prizes for good efforts along the way. If you end up with the best vineyard, and thus the most prizes, you'll get the job.

That's the premise behind "King's Vineyard," a new game by local designers Sandeep Kharkar and Dave Haslam, published by Mayday Games. It's debuting at a launch party tonight at Game Night Games.

It is the first published game by the design duo, although they have another six or seven games in various stages of development and review.

It also represents the fourth game this year to come out of the Board Designers Guild of Utah, says guild member Mike Compton. "And they've all been published by different companies, which says a lot for the local game scene," he says.

The guild meets regularly to play-test games and discuss various aspects of game design and publishing. "King's Vineyard" joins "Pastiche," designed by Sean MacDonald; "Trollhala," by Alf Seegert and "The Heavens of Olympus," by Compton.

In addition, local artist Ryan Laukat has done artwork for "Dominion: Cornucopia" and "Rails of New England." And guild member Brian Kelley, who has a new card gamed called "White Elephant," which simulates the classic holiday gift exchange game, is publishing his game through a website called Kickstarter. He had just received word that his funding goal has been met, so the game will be out in a couple of months.

So there's a lot going on with local gamers, says Compton, who also notes that Utah is getting quite a reputation in national and international game circles. (For more information on the guild, visit www.bgdg.info.)

But for now, all eyes are on "King's Vineyard" (with graphics by local designer Kevin Keele that make it almost worth the price of admission appearance alone).

It is actually more of a card game than a board game but has aspects of board game play. "We call it a board game without the board," says Kharkar.

What's fun, he says, is that when they first started out, the game was called the "Queen's Rose Garden," but that eventually morphed into the vineyard idea, which just seemed to work better.