Eric, it was great to meet you in person at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair and the TAGIEs! Congratulations on your extraordinary success. Can you share with our readers when and how you got into game design?

I got into games in the summer of 2020, right in the middle of Covid. I grabbed some knick-knacks on the kitchen table and arranged them into a picture. Since I take way too many pictures for no reason, I actually have a picture of the picture. Can you guess it?

My kids reached over and started making their own pictures. One thing led to another and within a few months I began using a 3D printer and sending baggies full of shapes and word cards to my friends to play. That eventually turned into my first game, Glyphics. It is still hard to imagine that something this simple can lead to putting a product on the shelf at Target and creating a game company. You have heard the saying “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. That little Christmas tree was my first step.

I knew absolutely nothing about the game industry. When I realized I might have a viable product, I reached out to Bananagrams because I knew they were family-run. Rena Nathanson put me in touch with GPI, where I spoke with Mike Fisher. To make a long story shorter, David Blanchard, who runs family and party games at The Op, used to work at GPI. He became my game agent and got Glyphics placed with Big G in less than 60 days. Big G then got it into Target within a few months. Being so new to the industry, I didn't realize how unusual it is to get a game signed and in a large retailer so quickly. Glyphics has incidentally just been re-released by The Op! 

During this whole process, something unexpected happened: my brain started focusing entirely on creating games. If you look for the color blue, you suddenly see it everywhere, right? I had never thought about game design before, but after Glyphics, the ideas started coming all the time. The second concept I had was Flip—now known as Flip 7. 

Why Start Your Own Game Company?

The short answer is because I eventually wanted to do games full time. Only in extremely rare cases does licensing a game earn enough money for a designer to make a living. There are designers with over 50 licenses who still have their regular jobs. There are games that win a TOTY or a Spiel, and the designers still don't make enough from royalties to go full time. (Royalty rates are a conversation for another day!) As it turns out, I have been extremely fortunate with Flip 7, but I had no way of knowing that would happen.

I actually started my company before licensing Flip 7. In fact, Flip 7 was going to be our very first Messy Table game! But when I licensed it to The Op, my partner and I pivoted, and our first Messy game was Booty Dice! (That's pirate booty, just to be clear.)

License or Publish?

I do both because that works for me. I love being an entrepreneur and I have a great partner, which makes it a lot more fun and much more likely to succeed. On the other hand, we have more games than we can publish ourselves, so I still actively look for licensing possibilities. Most designers I know prefer to license. It really depends on your personal goals and how you want to spend your time.

Tell Me a Little Bit About Flip 7?

Everyone thinks of Flip 7 as party blackjack, but I actually got the idea from a variation of poker I played with friends in high school. We played a version of 7-card stud where, instead of going for the best poker hand, we went for the most points. If you got a pair, the pair would drop out. So, if you had low points, you might stay in hoping another player with more points would pair up and lose some. That was my starting point!

I also want to say that for any game to take off like Flip 7 has, the stars have to align in some way. I believed Flip 7 was a strong game from the start, but if I had self-published it, most likely you still wouldn't have heard of it. Through an extraordinary set of circumstances, the game ended up at The Op. The team there—including Tony Serebriany, David Blanchard, O’Neil Mabile, and Brian Greenwald, with huge support from Dane Chapin—are simply brilliant at what they do. A huge thank you to them, and for making me feel like I’m part of The Op family.

What is Day to Day Like?

My day-to-day involves lots of online meetings and email conversations with other inventors, publishers, distributors, manufacturers, influencers, and others in the industry. There's also content creation and responding to posts, and many strategy sessions with my partner.

Conventions are sometimes part of the schedule now, and they’re one of the coolest things about working in games. I have met so many amazing people! Then, every so often, I get to spend time designing and playtesting new concepts! I'm hoping to do more of that next year.

Any surprises? 

I did not anticipate all the feedback—all the stories and anecdotes. All the cool pictures and little notes from people creating great memories with their friends and family while playing some of my games. It’s a great feeling. I love my game nights with my friends and family, and it’s a little surreal to realize people out there are adding my games into their game nights! There is some negative feedback mixed in with the positive, but I try to ignore the haters :) Also, not to be morbid, but it’s cool to think that my games might outlive me and be something I can leave to my awesome kids!

What about 2026? 

I can’t wait to see what happens in 2026! Messy Table is launching two new games. The first one is Tally Up (Flip 7 meets Farkle), which will be a Walmart exclusive starting in March—that's a big new thing for us. I've also licensed a game that will launch at Gen Con, which is exciting. Messy Table will be expanding to Europe and into more brick-and-mortar stores in the US.

I have a handful of games in development, some of which could be signed soon. Also, I'm really looking forward to watching what happens with Flip 7 and Glyphics with The Op. Believe it or not, I think Flip 7 is just getting started. Exciting times ahead!