Discovering the Kickstarter campaign for Peaks, a new mountaineering board game where players scale some of the most iconic mountains across the globe, was thrilling for me as a board gamer and outdoor enthusiast—it beautifully merged my two passions!

Keen to delve deeper, I connected with UK-based board game designer Sam Gray, the mastermind behind Peaks. 

After five years of dedicated work on Peaks, Sam shares his insights into the inspiration, creative process, and extensive research that breathe life into this game.

Hey Sam! What inspired you to create Peaks?

I wish I could say it all fell into place as I reached the summit of a big peak, but unfortunately the reality is rather boring. A very successful game about birds was released in 2019 called Wingspan, and I was thinking about how it had captured the imagination of myself and many others - it was such a clever idea to have a big deck of birds of the world like that. I thought ‘what about a deck of mountains of the world?’. Although Peaks feels and plays very differently to Wingspan, I must credit it with the initial spark!

Peaks Boardgame
  1. Tell us a little about yourself

I’m an engineer in the rail industry by day, board game designer by night.

I love hiking and live right next to the Peak District, so it’s nice to be so close to some great walks, but since having a baby my spare time has mysteriously disappeared…

  1. Can you share any behind-the-scenes content?

Playtesting! After the initial spark and some brainstorming of how a game about climbing mountains all over the world could work, I got to work with a pencil and paper to make the first prototype. It didn’t work, of course, but through constant playtesting and iterating on what didn’t go well, it slowly turned from a broken game, to a functional game, to a fun game! 

Here is an image from my very first playtest in October 2019 - just paper and a few components borrowed from other games!

Playtesting Peaks
  1. How did you choose the iconic trails and mountains featured in the game? 

After I had compiled a list of all the mountains I felt deserved a place, I took to the internet to read blogs about the most breathtaking/beautiful/famous/interesting etc. mountains of the world. For the game I needed roughly the same number of mountains in each continent, so narrowed my search down until they were roughly even. I also needed a range of mountains that were all climbable, from simple touristy trails like Mount Vesuvius and Mount Fuji, to complex expert achievements like El Capitan and K2. It’s safe to say I know a little more about the mountains of the world now!

Peaks boardgame
  1. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the characters? 

In Peaks, you meet companions by climbing some of the more popular mountains. Companions help you in a certain area in the game - some may excel at rock climbing, some with navigation, and some with the simpler hikes. They are fictional, but there is the opportunity to get yourself drawn in the game as a companion, so kind of real!


 

  1. What was the most exciting part of the development process for you?

Although I really did enjoy the brainstorming, researching, and developing, the playtesting has got to be the most exciting part. Firstly it’s great to play games and pretend it’s ‘work’, but it’s also so rewarding to see others have fun with something you’ve created. 

 

Peaks Board Game

 

  1. How did you gather feedback during the development process?

Feedback is everything in game design. If someone doesn’t like something, or finds something frustrating, you need to know! Most of the feedback is gathered in a discussion at the end of each playtest, but it’s also very important to pay attention to how players react to things during the game - do they seem bored when something particular happens? Excited? Frustrated? Delighted?

Although it’s important to make a fun puzzle for players to enjoy in its own right, I think an important part of board game design is facilitating memorable, meaningful, fun interactions together, and so I really leaned into aspects that encouraged players to negotiate and even work together, despite the game being ultimately competitive.

 

Peaks Board Game on Kickstarter

 

  1. What kind of collaboration with the mountaineering community went into the game's artwork and overall gameplay?

In the game, each mountain has values of energy, experience, and gear required to climb it. To ensure thematic accuracy, I researched each and every mountain for hours, making use of information posted online by the mountaineering community. I watched and read over a thousand climb reports and contacted various local guides to get a feel for each mountain in the game and make sure I was representing it as accurately as I could. I also posted a list of the mountains online ranked by difficulty and got some great further feedback from the community there.

Everyone who posted a video or written climb report, answered my questions, or gave me feedback has helped me to make Peaks as authentic as it can be.

Peaks Board Game

 

  1. How do you think Peaks stands out from other outdoor-adventure themed board games?

There are a many games from all over the world about climbing one mountain, but Peaks is about climbing many mountains all over the world. In a game of Peaks you can start by climbing mountains such as Scotland’s Ben Nevis and South Africa’s Table Mountain as you build your stamina and experience, before attempting tougher climbs such as Slovenia’s Triglav or Ecuador’s Chimborazo. At the end, you could be attempting Switzerland’s Matterhorn or Nepal’s Annapurna, and there isn’t another game out there that can capture someone’s entire mountaineering career like that.

Peaks Board Game
  1. Can you share some of the gear items that players can collect and how they impact gameplay?

You’ll need to use your gear to get up some of those trickier mountains. As the gear has to apply to a vast array of mountains, there isn’t any that is too specialised, but you will see tents for any multi-day climbs, harnesses for climbing, crampons and ice axes for any mountains that involve glacier treks or snow climbing, climbing shoes for rock walls, and oxygen for the few 8000ers that have made it into the game! 

Peaks Board Game

 

How to Play?



Peaks by Tangerine Games is available to support on Kickstarter. If you’re as excited about this game as we are, head over to Kickstarter and help bring this mountaineering adventure to tables and campsites everywhere!

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July 17, 2024 — Jessie Soo