# Deer-hunting game has Monopoly style



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Deer-hunting game has Monopoly style

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/COL08/510090322/1004

Sunday, October 9, 2005 
By John Eckberg Enquirer staff writer E-mail [email protected]

Like a lot of great ideas, the board game Whitetailopoly about hunting white-tailed deer was born in a bar after a couple of beers between old friends.

Newport resident Darin Overholser, 26, was visiting his hometown of Newcomerstown, in eastern Ohio, during Thanksgiving break in 2003 when pal Dirk Gadd, an elementary school teacher, said he had an idea for a board game.

"It came to him while he was up in a deer stand hunting," Overholser said. "He had his bow, but he wasn't seeing anything, so he was thinking of all the different Monopoly games out there and how there ought to be one for deer."

Two years later and on the cusp of their first Christmas shopping season, Overholser has traded in his stand-up comedy gig and free-lance illustration work to become an entrepreneur and stump for Whitetailopoly.

"We had no business experience or background, but we were able to make it happen," he said.

Based on Monopoly, the game has hunting ranches for sale instead of resort real estate, allows players move pewter game pieces such as a bullet or a deer antler rack and has a Division of Wildlife holding area instead of a jail.

Once a player owns all ranches of the same color, instead of houses and hotels, they add cabins and lodges.

An angel investor anted up $40,000 for production. Already, about 2,000 games have been sold.

Overholser and Gadd hope Whitetailopoly will crack the American board game market for years to come - estimated at as much as $350 million annually by the Game Manufacturers Association, a trade group of 1,000 manufacturers, distributors and retailers based in Columbus.

The game sells for $29 and is available through their Web site, www.whitetailopoly.com, or in Cabela's fall catalog.

Among the business lessons Overholser has learned along the way:

Interview plenty of involved parties.

They talked to dozens of hunters for ideas for draw cards that bring problems or bonuses like "Fall out of a deer stand" or "Win archery contest."

Seek alternative revenues such as advertising but don't expect revenue and give up if the effort stalls. For instance, they sold five board spaces to real-life hunting ranches, "but they were not the best ranches, so we decided that we'd not take anybody's money," Overholser said.

Don't give up.

"We thought we'd have to wrap it up a few times, but hunters told us it was about time for a game like that so we pressed on," Overholser said.

Trademark, trademark, trademark.

Overholser and his partner have since locked down Waterfowlopoly and Wildturkeyopoly and hope to bring those games to the public in coming years.

John Kaufeld, communications manager for the Game Manufacturers Association, thinks the pair has a winner.

Because board games are about bringing families together, board game sales are growing, Kaufeld said.

"Products like this are especially valuable for men, for dads to spend time with their kids," he said.

"One thing some guys have trouble with is sitting down and talking. A game provides the framework."


----------

