A SCOTTISH company is releasing a game based on one of the fastest growing sports in the world, with the help of the local board game community in the capital.
HotShot Pickleball, created by Edinburgh-based Midnight Trading Co, offers an interesting interpretation of the popular sport pickleball, with a twist – the characters are actual pickles.
Pickleball is a mixture of ping pong, tennis and badminton, and is particularly popular in the US. It is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, with around 32 million players.
“The game is really an opportunity to celebrate this phenomenon in a silly board game that anybody can play,” Robert Gelb, game designer and director of Midnight Trading Co, told The National.
“Fundamentally, the game’s called pickleball, and so I really thought it should be a game about pickles.
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“So I took a second and started thinking if a pickle played the game, what that might look like.”
Characters have pickle-themed names, such as Kim Chee, Hugh Cumber and Baby Dill, with pickleball references and pickle puns sprinkled throughout.
But Midnight Trading Co’s debut game could not have been achieved without the help of the board game community in Edinburgh.
“A lot of the local board game scene has been involved in helping out with it,” Gelb told The National.
He pointed towards Ancient Robot Games, a board game shop and cafe on Leith Walk owned by Dougal Freir.
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“They’ve been incredibly helpful in providing advice and opportunities to play-test the game.”
Gelb also thanked Pickleball Scotland, the voluntary association based in Glasgow, for helping the game stay “true to form”.
“We’ve been engaging with them, not only to see what they think about the game, but to make sure that we’re hitting all of the little in-jokes about pickleball,” he said.
HotShot Pickleball enters production in November, following the success of a crowdfunding campaign which raised more than £8000 in less than 24 hours.
Gelb said the team hopes to release the game in May next year.
He added that he will be at Ancient Robot Games this Saturday, from 10.30am to 6.30pm, with pre-production prototypes of the game for people to come and play.
“If you’re a fan of puns, fast-paced board games or pickles, then you should play the game,” he added.
To find out more information about HotShot Pickleball, click here.
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