Inspiration is often found in unusual places. For Martin Soederhamn, it was discovered during a trivia game in Turkey. Fifteen years later, his first board game, Hexaquest was developed and produced with the help of a Kickstarter launch. Less than a year later, he is rolling out his second game, Hexaquest Party.
Soederhamn is from Denmark but came to Colorado roughly 14 years ago because the area matched his adventurous lifestyle and now lives in Longmont. He has been a diver, managed a marijuana dispensary, worked for a translation company and run a YouTube travel documentary series. A few years ago, he gave up his video production career to focus on developing board games.
Hexaquest is a strategic trivia game that players can customize by choosing categories that appeal to them and by adding expansion packs to the game.
Soederhamn said he wanted to design a game that made trivia fun for everyone, even those who are easily intimidated by the genre or feel they aren’t good at trivia. “It’s a game everyone will find something they like in,” he said.
His first venture into games sold over 10,000 in the first year and raised nearly double the fundraising support. The game can be found online at Amazon and at local retailers including Atomic Goblin in Longmont. Now back with his second game he hopes to repeat his success.
Soederhamn launched a Kickstarter campaign to jumpstart the development of his newest game Hexaquest Party.
Hexaquest Party builds off of the Hexaquest trivia game by adding wild party prompts such as singing, acting and drawing. Soederhamn also added new categories including paleontology, culture, sports, trends and animals. He said the new categories were inspired by feedback from Hexaquest fans who asked for more science and other relatable topics.
While these new categories can sound intimidating, Soederhamn said he has taken a new spin on them that make sure people continue to have a good time instead of being bombarded with questions that are too difficult to answer.
The Kickstarter campaign will run for 30 days with a goal of $18,000.
Keeping with a local feel, the marketing for the campaign has remained grassroots, Daniel Koegel, director of retail partnerships for Hexaquest. The company has placed a copy of Hexaquest at as many local establishments as possible that have a game shelf, he said. They have also partnered with local trivia companies to promote the new game through local trivia events.
“We like helping others who are local and just getting started. By keeping it local, we are helping them as they are helping us,” Koegel said.
The Hexaquest team will celebrate the launch of its Kickstarter campaign for the new game tonight at Left Hand Brewery, 1265 Boston Ave. at 5 p.m. They are inviting trivia and board game lovers, people interested in supporting local businesses and anyone who is interested in having a good time to join them.
