BOISE ( ) — Eric Olsen has been teaching high school math in Idaho since 2011. “Teaching is something that comes naturally to me,” Olsen said. “And I love working with students.
” But more recently Olsen discovered something else that comes naturally to him: creating games. The first game he created, Glyphics, was released in 2022. “I’ve played games my entire life.
I love games — board games, dice games, any kind of game, love them,” Olsen said. “But I never thought about making a game. Glyphics came about as I was sitting around a messy kitchen table .
.. and something clicked.
It just unlocked a cascade of ideas that has probably been sitting in my head for 30 years.” Olsen used a few random items on that kitchen table to create a picture. He then had his kids guess what he had made.
And voila! A game was in the making, and Olsen had a new passion. Glyphics was a surprising success, and found its way to Target’s shelves and other retail outlets. Building on that success, and also the fact that Olsen had created other new games, he and a friend started a small business called Messy Table Games.
Three games have been launched through Messy Table Games. But another game that Olsen created – Flip 7 – drew the interest of Usaopoloy (or The Op), a larger game company. Using its marketing savvy and strong brand presence, The Op Games has turned Flip 7 into a real presence in the game world.
In early November, Flip 7 was named a finalist for the Game of t.