Mythic Gems: TNT Creative Gaming’s first boardgame

When identical twins Ben and John Teich were growing up, one of their favorite nights of the week was family boardgame night.

“If mom was in charge, the game would be Yahtzee or Sequence,” John said. “My pick was always Monopoly, but no one ever wanted to play because it takes so long.”

“We all had our favorite games,” added Ben. “We’d play Clue, and all of the classic games.”

The brothers, both Marquette University alumni with degrees in mechanical engineering, may have outgrown family game night, but they never lost their passion for boardgames.

The pair, well-versed in the qualities that make a game compelling to its players, decided to create their own boardgame. Soon after, the Teich brothers formed TNT Creative Gaming in 2019.

The co-founders spent years creating the original game, which included different methods to play the game they named Mythic Gems. It is a strategy-based board game for 2-5 players ages 8 and older. The brothers then worked with Milwaukee-based creative professional Zachary Staszewski to develop the boardgame’s unique design.

In 2023, the game was finally complete. Next, the company needed someone to manufacture the game. Finding a company to produce the game was easy. What wasn’t so easy was covering the costs to manufacture the game.

After carefully weighing their options, the co-founders decided to raise the needed funds using Kickstarter. The U.S.-based crowdfunding platform was launched in 2014, and supporters have successfully funded more than 264,000 projects.

TNT Creative Gaming raised $15,577 in just 30 days from 277 backers who had the option of pledging as little as $1 to the project.

Despite the success of the campaign, the founders wish they had been better prepared before they began fundraising.

“We went into the experience greener than we should have,” Ben said.

Ben recalls a conversation he had with a friend shortly after the Kickstarter round was announced. “He asked, ‘how’s your marketing going?’ He then explained to me that we should have pretty much everyone you want to reach out to already established before you go into this…. and we missed it. We acknowledge that we didn’t do it right,” he continued.

“We had to pivot, and it was doing the thing I disliked the most in the entire process,” John added. “I went through my cell phone contact list, my Facebook friends and reached out to say ‘I haven’t chatted with you since high school, but just so you know, we launched a board game and would love it if you backed. It would mean a lot to us.’ Encouragements along the way definitely helped to make those personal asks a lot easier. We knew that we had made that mistake early on and we weren’t going to let that stop us.”

“The longest delay came in shipping and coordinating with a fulfillment partner that was able to get the games from the warehouse to us. We funded the campaign back in December, then we kicked them off right at the end of the year (2023). It took our manufacturer about a month or two to manufacture all the games, and then it was about three months or so for shipping. We got the games at our door in June (2024),” John explained.

The challenge now is to introduce Mythic Gems to boardgame enthusiasts.

TNT Creative Gaming returns to the grassroots approach that made its funding round successful. Rather than launching the game with a splashy advertising campaign, the company has opted to focus on local retailers and the founders’ relationships within the local boardgame community.

“We’re hoping that the growth and the legwork that we’re able to put in now that we have the product is going to help us continue moving forward. Being able to show people the game and bring it to game stores has been huge… it depends on a little bit of luck, a little bit of hard work, making sure you’re in the right place at the right time, and being very persistent with it,” John said.

With their first game now on shelves and more ideas in the pipeline, the Teich brothers are excited about the future.

“I’m always eager for the next game because I love the creative side of it. Where I thrive is developing the game concept and we work together to create those game ideas. I have a notebook that’s filled with ideas for next games… I want to get the next game up and running so we have the option to pursue a second game. Creating those roots of the first game to get the name out there will really help us with the second game option,” John said.

To learn more about this emerging company, or to view Mythic Gems, connect with TNT Creative Gaming here.