Colorado’s Peter Ridgeway worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Alaska for several years. He recalls one of the job’s most memorable moments – a day in the field near Hoonah, in Southeast.
“I remember watching brown bears fish for salmon in a river, and was just, you know, taken by that whole experience," Ridgeway said. "And I thought that would be absolutely a great topic for a game that I was trying to design.”
Released in February, “Katmai: The Bears of Brooks River” features 24 real-life brown bears that call Katmai National Park home. Many of them have competed in Fat Bear Week, an annual bracket-style competition where chunky bears gearing up for hibernation compete for the most online votes.
The card game’s objective is to establish dominance in different sections of the Brooks River. Players earn “fish tokens” for each section in their control. The player whose bears win the most fish tokens wins.
“There's a lot of direct interaction between players," Ridgeway said. "It can be a little cutthroat or have a little bit of a bite to it, but it's all in good fun.”
Ridgeway says he designed the game’s first prototype at home during the pandemic. He took into account the unique characteristics of each bear and gave some of the cards special abilities based on the bear’s personality.
One of the game’s featured bears is Diver. He’s known for diving under the water to catch salmon. In the game, he’s more dominant if you place him next to a deep pool of water.
“That was probably one of my favorite ones to illustrate,” said Tom Lopez, the game’s artist. He says it was challenging to illustrate each bear in a way that reflects their personalities.
“One of the primary goals with all the illustrations in the game was to convey a strong sense of motion," Lopez said. "There's a lot of variety in the different poses of the bears in each card. ”
Lopez, who lives in Australia, says he researched each bear online before illustrating them. The team also worked with the Katmai Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit, to learn more about the park’s bears and how people can protect them.
Ridgeway hopes the new card game will instill a message of environmental conservation in a fun way.
“I certainly hope that when people play it, they fall in love with the bears, and then they realize how unique and special these bears really are," Ridgeway said. "Along with Fat Bear Week, they’ll begin to have a great appreciation for just the amazing environment and wildlife of Alaska.”
Despite being set in Katmai, neither of the game’s designers have been to the national park. But, they say working on this game has sparked an interest in visiting.
