Plymouth cousins could be next big thing in tabletop gaming

(KMSP) - Josh and Adam Carlson grew up playing both video and fantasy role playing games. Now, they are going back to the basics by coming up with their own creations.

"We are at the right time. There is a resurgence coming with gaming at the table. It’s one thing to be there, but you have to have the right content and provide the right content and that's where we're hitting it right on," Chip Theory Games co-founder Josh Carlson said.

The cousins from Plymouth created their own board game called "Too Many Bones: Undertow" where elf-like characters called Gearlocks try to take out seven different tyrants who pushed them out of their homeland.

They started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 to produce the game, and so far, they've raised more than 10 times that amount, becoming the fifth most funded Kickstarter project ever in Minnesota.

"The backers grow and if you treat them well and listen to them and are engaged with them and are willing to incorporate some of their ideas into the games, they feel vested are a part of it and help you make it," Carlson said.

Five years ago, the two Carlsons decided to roll the dice and start their own company as a part-time passion. 

But after a handful of successful projects, it has turned into their full-time jobs.

"It was a passion, a hobby and fortunately we've been blessed with a couple of successes which allowed us to do this full-time and have employees as well," Adam Carlson said.

"Undertow" is a sequel of sorts to their biggest hit, "Too Many Bones," and they hope gamers continue to be swept away. 

"We struck a chord with Too Many Bones. It just blew up and so we're riding that road and watching it closely and to see what those triggers are for people and why it’s so interesting for them," Josh Carlson said.

Undertow is not a "gateway game," as they call it. It's clearly for experienced gamers.

The Kickstarter campaign still has a couple of days left.

In all, they'll order about 5,000 games which will arrive to backers in June of 2018.