SDG Games Origin Story

My family really enjoys playing games. Game night is a fun tradition that we all look forward to. We have our favorite games we play all the time, which are a mix of board games, card games, dice games, and tile games.

We also have been blessed to be able to travel, so some of our favorite games are those that involve world geography. One of the Ten Days games is always in our current “favorite games” stack. I especially appreciate how Ten Days in Africa has given me a good sense of where countries are in Africa. 

Before we got this game, I could tell you where South Africa was, generally where Egypt was, and maybe a few other countries where I had personal connections with people over the years (e.g. Malawi), but most of the continent was a mystery to me. Now, I have a much better sense for where many African countries are. If you asked me to point out Ivory Coast (or any of a couple dozen countries or so) on a map, I may not put my finger precisely on the right latitude and longitude, but I think, by the grace of God, I’d be pretty close.

Of course, we also enjoy the Ticket to Ride games, although they can take awhile to set up and play, so we don’t play them every time we sit down to the game table. It’s especially fun to play a game where we “travel” to places we have been or with which we have some other personal connection.

So, it was in the course of playing these games that I started to get the idea for a game (or games) that would help give me a sense for Biblical geography. 

When I read the Bible, I come across names of places like Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth. Capernaum, Cana, Gadara. I read stories of Jesus or Abraham or Paul traveling from place to place, and I have very little sense for what those journeys might be like. Is Bethlehem near Jerusalem? (It is — about 8 km or 5 miles.) What about Nazareth, is that near Bethlehem? (Relatively speaking, it is not — about 155 km or 100 miles.)

How would I design a game that would be fun to play, that would teach me about the geography of the places I read about in the Bible, and that would be faithful to God’s Word?

Thus began the concept that is becoming SDG Games (the business) and Journeys with Jesus (the first product of that business). 

If this concept interests you, you can sign-up at the SDG Games website to receive updates as the concept develops and, Lord willing, eventually becomes a game that you can buy and enjoy.

This is the first article in a series on the Startup Strategic Journey of SDG Games.

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