Interview with Elizabeth Hargrave, Designer of Wingspan and now The Fox Experiment

boardgamequest.com:

There could be no better moment to have an informal chat with the talented designer 

Elizabeth Hargrave, who created Wingspan, and now The Fox Experiment, is on Kickstarter. The campaign finishes on the 1st of October 2022.

Elizabeth Hargrave games, Tussie Mussie, Mariposas, and Wingspan, are widely regarded as examples of great talent as a game designer.

I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I have enjoyed having a friendly chat with Elizabeth.

This interview was initially published in Roll & Mind.

Why did you choose to go into board game design? How did it impact your career and personal life?

I first decided to start designing a game because of a specific conversation with some friends where we talked about the themes of the games we were playing and how none of the themes was really about topics that interested us. Then my husband said, “what if there was a Race for the Galaxy but with birds?”. We were playing a lot of Race for the Galaxy at the time. Then my brain just grabbed onto that idea. So, I started brainstorming and playing cards against myself, and for a long time, it was just a side thing, a hobby, which I think is true for most game designers. You definitely can’t just quit your day job because you’re working at a board game. Even for people that are successfully published designers, it is just not enough of an income stream to make it your day job. Because Wingspan was so successful, I did eventually quit my day job. I was doing consulting work before and was freelance, so I had some control over my schedule. I was able to work around conferences and things.

It didn’t impact much in my personal life. It’s a different type of work, but I don’t always feel I have more control than before. There are