One of the things we like to do here at The Malted Meeple is give some extra attention to our favorite board game publishers and designers. In our monthly Publisher’s Spotlight we provide a bit of background on the publisher, discuss a few of their games, and may even announce a visit to The Meeple by some of the publisher’s representatives!
In this month’s Publisher’s Spotlight, we are proud to feature our friends from USAopoly!
USAopoly is a company that specializes in licensed board games and other products. The company is based out of Carlsbad, a city in North San Diego County.
The company was formed 25 years ago by the Chapin Family in the city of Encintas, just south of Carlsbad. Their very first game was called La Jolla Opoly honoring one of San Diego County’s most beloved seaside cities. This lead to a full partnership with Hasbro to begin making versions of Monopoly for famous cities and all fifty states. But the company was always looking for new opportunities and soon added famous sports teams and colleges to the mix, creating custom Monopoly games for each. USAopoly earned its name from this agreement.
Their early success with licensed custom Monopoly products evolved into a focus on licensed properties – brands, video games, movies, TV Shows, Books, and so much more! USAopoly has made Hasbro games designed around these kinds of licenses for years. However, Hasbro hasn’t been their only partner. In recent years USAopoly has worked with several other companies in the hobby game industry including: Steve Jackson Games, famous for their Munchkin line; Czech Games Edition, famous for their Codenames line; and Fireside Games, famous for their Castle Panic! line. They have also had great success with their Telestrations line which is a Malted Meeple Favorite and with their recent Deck Building Game: Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle which released at Gen Con in 2016.
USAopoly is serious about fun and games! This is the mission statement by which the company strives to create each new product. Each member of the team abides by the company values: Bring a smile, Play fair, Honor your word, and Give it your best! These values shine through the products that they create – games that bring people together through a shared experience.
Their passion for games drives them to create new and exciting games for a variety of different licenses. For USAopoly, there isn’t a single license that at least one member of the team isn’t passionate about. Sometimes it is this very passion that drives an employee to create a product, from concept to reality, based solely on the belief in the idea!
So what’s on the horizon for USAopoly? Well right now they are collaborating with the artist collective, MONDO to create an original game based on John Carpenter’s Sci-fi Horror Cult Classic: The Thing. The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 is a hidden identity game that serves up tense gameplay and great atmosphere. 2019 will mark the 10th anniversary of their best-selling game, Telestrations and they will be creating a special anniversary edition and will release more details at New York Toy Fair in February 2018. We will have to stay tuned!
The next time you visit The Malted Meeple or Ravenwood Castle, be sure to ask for your favorite title from USAopoly, such as Disney Codenames, Telestrations or Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle.
Karington Hess is a lifelong gamer whose passions for hospitality and all things game-related led him to Ravenwood Castle, where he served as an Innkeeper before joining The Malted Meeple. When not pouring beers, crafting milkshakes, or teaching boardgames, Karington can be found behind the DM’s screen, weaving intricate stories for his fellow gamers.