Cherokee Nation citizen and Absurdist Productions co-owner Will Thompson is the creator of PaleoVet, a dinosaur board game that encourages players to save these creatures from modern illnesses and injuries.
The Microscope chatted with Will about how he became a game designer, how he balances entertaining with educational elements, and his favorite moments he’s had because of the game.
Tell us about yourself and your background in game design.
I grew up in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, a small town in the Northeast part of the state in the Cherokee reservation. From a young age, I made little games to play with my cousins and friends, but I never thought about it as a career. I went to college at the University of Oklahoma for film and video studies. I worked at a television station for a while before applying for a job to design educational video games. They liked my enthusiasm and were impressed by some of the homebrew game materials that I had made, so they offered me the job. I spent the next decade making video games for high school and college students on a variety of subjects.
Over time, I became more into tabletop games and decided to try making my own. When my friend David Thomas built a prototype for Churrascaria: A Cutthroat Game of Gluttony, I asked if he’d like to form a company and actually publish it. We formed Absurdist Productions in 2017. Since then, we’ve published three board games, two role-playing games, and a couple of small role-playing game supplements. We’ve currently got at least four more projects in production.
What inspired you to create a game about being a veterinarian for dinosaurs?
I came up with PaleoVet while taking a break from designing Winter Rabbit — which was published later. I was looking for a design that would be family-friendly and still interesting for adults. I had recently watched the second Jurassic World movie and was intrigued by the idea of a paleontology veterinarian to help the dinosaurs. These weren’t just movie monsters; they were real animals that needed care, even if they were dangerous. I thought that was the perfect premise for a family game. From there, the basic mechanics came pretty quickly.
How did you approach balancing educational content with engaging gameplay mechanics?
My background is in serious games, so I have a lot of experience balancing engagement and education. In those instances, I try to directly tie the learning to the actions the player is taking in the game while maintaining an engaging story on top.
For something like PaleoVet, I wanted to focus on fun gameplay while also presenting the dinosaurs accurately. When selecting which dinosaurs to include in the game, we first picked out the classic popular species that everyone will expect. Then we went for dinosaurs that had unique features, like the vertebral spines of Amargasaurus or Liaoningosaurus and their habit of eating fish.
For the art style, we specifically told Zuzana Randáková that we wanted scientifically accurate dinosaurs in a storybook style. Zuzana is a children’s book illustrator, but was also working on a biology degree at the time, so she was very excited to take on this challenge. I think the result invokes the storybooks we all read as kids, but updated with more current scientific information.
What were some of the most challenging aspects of designing a game that combines elements of card and dice mechanics?
The most challenging part was balancing how quickly the dinosaurs wake up. I wanted the time pressure to influence players’ decisions while not making it overly punishing. Figuring this out meant trying a lot of variations. We increased and decreased how long dinosaurs sleep. We tried letting people lock in dice on dinosaurs between turns, and we had to come up with the “Alert!” mechanic. In the end, I think we got it to a fun place, which makes you aware of the time pressure, but also makes waking dinosaurs relatively rare.
Can you share any memorable moments or feedback from players that affirmed the success of PaleoVet?
My favorite thing is when families come to me and say it is one of their favorite games. This has happened a couple of times now, and I’m always floored. It is heartwarming to think that my game is the go-to for someone’s game night.
PaleoVet is a game of cards, dice, and saving dinosaurs for ages 14-65 million, sold in the Explore Store.
