The idea of creating Restart Round started during a conversation on a walk in Seattle,
Washington, in 2023. A simple question: "What if we made a game?"
If you and your friends like board games as much as us, you've probably had this type of conversation
before. "What type of game do you wish exists?" "What mechanics would you change on some of your
favorite games?" Usually, these types of conversations just lead to some fun banter and then everyone
moves on with their lives. We would know. We had many of them ever since we met at Cornell. The thing
that really bonded us for the first time was when we walked across campus to a board game night.
In that sense, Restart Round started during a conversation on a walk in Ithaca, New York, in 2013.
Since 2013, we've collectively lived across the country - New York, Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, San
Francisco - but games always kept us together. Playing random games on Board Game Arena, reuniting
in person and buying a new game, or getting together digitally to play the most influential game
of them all: Gloomhaven. After we started a Gloomhaven campaign during the early days of 2020, our
group became inseparable, spending hours and hours together on video calls. The name of the company,
Restart Round, is a callback to Gloomhaven. In the online version, if you messed up your move, you
could hit "restart round" to go back to the beginning of the round and re-try. Not our recommended
approach, but mis-clicks happen. It soon became a common joke among us that we should "restart round"
every time we did something stupid, games or otherwise.
While we were in Seattle, we "restarted the round" on that conversation we had had a million times
before and really thought about what our game would be. The result was Mole Park, our first ever
game. At first, Mole Park was just another excuse for us to get on a discord call and mess around
playing games. But soon we realized how good of a game we made and a new question emerged: "What
if we made a company?"
We learned quickly that it is a lot of work. But what we also learned is that we have an extremely
talented group of friends and family: creative minds, eloquent writers, experienced marketers, amazing
artists, dynamic musicians, skilled coders. Our games are uniquely us and are in many ways a love
letter to this group of talented friends.
As we officially started the company, we had a conversation about what ultimate success meant to
us. Lee summed it up perfectly when he said, "I want us to randomly meet a group of friends at a
bar or cafe and find out they played & loved one of our games. And when we tell them we made it they
say 'wow you guys made that, that's amazing'. That would be ultimate success." A nice sentiment and
one we take to heart. But at the end of the day, if we don't reach that level, we can always "restart
round" & start a new game. Let's hope we don't need to.
"As a former statistics major, I mentally approach games like an optimization problem. What strategy will give the greatest probability of success? And what random events can completely throw that strategy upside down? And then I hope that those random events occur because that's what makes games fun. Most of my favorite memories gaming are from the ridiculous turns no one saw coming.
"I love games! I grew up playing millions of games with my family, learning math from Monopoly (deal out the properties, it's way faster) and diplomacy from Risk (don't make a deal with my older brother Jake). I've come to learn firsthand how much games can do - they bring people together, engage and uplift them, and reveal their inner personalities. It was through games that I came to know and love the friends behind Restart Round, and in discussing and playtesting our own games it feels we're back in the college dining hall, our faces beaming and our aspirations inexorable. Let's make some games!"
"Hey fellas, I'm Lee! I play games for that singular moment where hours of work, close competition, and focus all collide and it comes down to one 50/50 dice roll to decide who's going to call the game 'unfair', 'rigged', and 'complete bulls***'. And then playing the same game 6 more times because it was actually amazing."
