We Made That: The ETC Alums Behind “Uh Oh, Dino!”

Last year, 2006 graduates of Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and married couple Dave and Sabrina Culyba raised over $100,000 on Kickstarter for “Uh Oh, Dino!”: a cooperative board game that transforms players into dinosaurs rescuing their eggs while the board shifts under their feet.

Dave Culyba is currently an Associate Teaching Professor at the ETC, and Sabrina founded and runs Ludoliminal, the design and publishing studio behind “Uh Oh, Dino!”

This summer, they’re releasing a new expansion pack for the game. We talked to them about their design process, how they work together, and the successful Kickstarter campaign that brought “Uh Oh, Dino!” to life.

What’s your process for making a game?

Sabrina Culyba: It’s messy. It's very iterative. It has fits and starts. The first version of “Uh Oh, Dino!” came together in a couple weeks to get from initial idea to just scribbling on paper playtesting.

Dave Culyba: We got a bag of parts from a contest that Haba USA used to run where you purchase a bag of leftover game pieces and then you come up with a game and submit it. We got our pieces and the question was, “what do these parts inspire?”

Sabrina: We got these little chunky wooden stegosauruses and then we used Wingspan eggs and then some simple graphic tiles. Super rough, very simple! Now, the game has our own custom chunky wooden pieces and tiles and everything. It has had a core that you can recognize from the first prototype, but we did so much iteration and playtesting.

Dave: For example, originally, you rolled a die to determine your movement but now we have a draw bag. You have to recognize the fundamental design and mechanics and then see where they’re working and where they’re not working. Is it obvious what you do next? Is it part of the flow of the turns? The systems change based on where there’s friction. The core of the game is the same, but the execution changes in response to what isn’t working. That also flows into how you sell the game. There’s this transition that happens when the game plays really well and now you have to make it into something that people want to buy.

How did you make that transition into making “Uh Oh, Dino!” into a game that people wanted to buy?

Sabrina: It’s honestly just continuing to do the work to get the game across all the hurdles. From the beginning, we knew the game was a dinosaur game with a shifting board, so then you add the eggs that slot in. People were here for that, so then you iterate on the mechanics so there’s an interest curve and the moment-to-moment action is actually satisfying. Then, I have to get people to the table, or to walk over to the shelf in the store or click on a Kickstarter ad. We went through a complete art overhaul. We doubled down on the bright look and added a tiny bit of edge to it, and it’s given the dinos personality and made the game easy to sell on the shelf because people come over to it and want to see what it is.

Dave: When redesigning the art, we had the test: is this going to look good on a giant poster? If you make a big banner and put it up at Gencon or Origins, people are going to walk by. Is this going to pull people over?

Sabrina: One of the things that I look for when I’m working on the art and the components is moments of delight in touching and looking at the pieces, because that physical aspect of it is such a big part of what’s unique about the medium.

How do you balance collaborating on the games you design together?

Sabrina: I do all the business stuff, and most of the product design. But a lot of the early playtesting is joint. Before we playtest with outsiders or other families, we’re doing a lot of play tests and ideation ourselves.

Dave: That’s where road trips come in. When the kids are asleep, the conversation often goes to the game ideas we’re working on.

Sabrina: Whenever I’m doing prints for the final layout of the rule book, Dave is the first editor, reader, playtester, iterator. We have complementary art skills – I do more editing and visual design, and he has illustration.

Dave: I also run the laser cutter!

“Uh Oh, Dino!” is a cooperative game. What draws you to that kind of gameplay?

Sabrina: I love cooperative games. They feel so new and fresh and innovative, and yet they could have been made 100 years ago. There’s nothing inside of a cooperative game that’s technologically anchored to this point in time, it’s more of a cultural shift. I love being able to have open conversations about what we’re going to do as a group. With kids especially, you get to see how they’re thinking and you get to strategize with them. It’s about playing together.

Dave: When playing games with adults and kids, it’s fundamentally a different dynamic. You’re not competing from the same level. Cooperative games acknowledge that more. It’s more about what role adults or kids might take on, and I think it makes for a better family play experience.