Marbushka

A personal post is coming…: our daughter is turning 18 this weekend. Some of you who follow us from the beginning may know that she was my muse and the reason we started to design and publish games 12 years ago. As a graphic designer mom, I wanted to show her how she can use her drawings to create her own games… and I went too far.  We drew and played together. She witnessed my first attempts with ready-made boxes and pawns, painting them one by one at night beside my “normal” work. From the very beginning, she gave me inspiration and enthusiasm to go on. We tested the games together and being an artist herself she was the only person who understood my struggles. She is my ‘masterpiece’, my only creation which is perfect and I am extremely proud of. Happy birthday my treasure! :-) 

Yesterday we were talking about characters. My daughter was really upset about the new trend in movies where all characters turn out to be mean and dirty at the end. Nobody is perfect, there is no question about it, but we all need to believe that we can improve and reach a higher level of good if we try to. My daughter’s disappointment proved that Bruno Bettelheim has a good point in ‘The Good Enough Parent’ (I had a vague memory that I read it in that book) that children need positive heroes because these creatures (like Santa) impersonate the goodwill of others and makes the world less scary place for them. The new heroes make us suspicious and mistrustful of others, I do hope it will change soon. Until then, I keep on trying to make my characters positive in our board games and I hope the topics and the goals meet real virtues. Maybe this serious post is not in balance with the funny pictures above, but the fairies of our Glasshouse game are the essence of what I think about posit...