My name is Vivien Prouvot and I create board games. I first became interested in board games when I was 7 – I played Monopoly, retro games, and games I created myself. Ever since I was a kid, I connected with my friends through it. The very first game I created was some kind of adventure where you are the hero; I played them with my friends at school.
When it comes to designing games, I usually start with an emotion. Like, I am in a situation of my daily life and I feel something. And I’m like “can I recreate this feeling in a game?”, and then the inspiration comes. The gaming experience I want to create is all about immersion, realism, and the chase of the emotion (I’ll repeat it a lot). The age I design for usually doesn’t matter; I aim for the adult, but I also think about games for kids.
The thing I like most about designing games is communicating with others. I struggled all my childhood with building relationships. I didn’t have many friends, but could really share good moments by playing games. The best experience I’ve gained with creating board games is interacting with players. It’s always cool to see some kind of admiration in people’s eyes. Even if it’s only for a second, all your work is rewarded at that moment.
I started my own microbusiness as a board game animator in January 2017. I was going to board games party in bars from “les nomades du jeu”, and then I met a colleague named Maxime who believed in me and my passion. Since then, he finds work for me and we are doing well with the enterprise together. I think I’ll be spending my remaining life thinking about new board games. There are times where I think more than others but I always have a game being constructed in my mind.
I think creating board games has been a great benefit to my technological career. It brings me a relationship with a client and taught me how to be conscientious if needed. So if one day I start to demo in companies, this experience will make me think of the employees: “How can I make their life better with games?” My advice to anyone thinking about creating their own board games is to always be thinking new. If you bring your first game to an editor and it is refused, don’t stick to it. I believe that trying something new is very important to do often in your life. But more important is to follow what you’re feeling like doing every moment, even if it’s going out of your comfort zone.
Check out Vivien’s Board Game experience through the following link:
https://www.doyoubuzz.com/vivien-prouvot
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