This February, we’re celebrating games on Knowledge Commons through KCWorks spotlight posts on social media! Many of our team members play different kinds of games and we wanted to help you get to know our team better through our love of gaming.
Bonnie Russell, Product Manager
While I had been an active gamer in the 90s and 00s by the 2010s I had gotten out of the habit. Did I mention that I’m a huge dinosaur fan? In May 2016 a group of developers at Urvogel Games launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to create Saurian, a survival simulation game that tries to replicate the Hell Creek Formation in what is now Montana in the United States. By working with paleontologists and paleobotanists the devs sought to build the most realistic dinosaur game ever created. I backed it on Kickstarter, and in August 2017 started playing. It’s 2025 and I still play the game. I’ve died more times in the game than you can possibly count, but getting to experience life as a tyrannosaur, a Dakotaraptor, an ankylosaurus, or even a triceratops surrounded by the plants and landscape of the Cretaceoous period is a dinosaur nerd’s dream. Highly recommended for those who want to live and die as a giant (or not so giant) reptile in ancient Montana. It ignited my love for gaming again.
Larissa Babak, User Engagement Manager
I am grateful to my colleague Stephanie Vasko for getting me addicted to Wingspan, a lovely game where players add birds to forest, grassland, and wetland habitats. My favorite part of the game is that every round is different, so your strategy and gameplay changes around based on the cards and special features each of your birds has. Plus, did you know that some birds use projectile vomit as self defense?! I wouldn’t have if not for the bird facts printed on the cards! I am also really looking forward to digging deeper into Civilization VII, which was released a few weeks ago.
Ariana Costales Del Toro, Graduate Assistant
For the past two years, I’ve been slowly making my way through Spiritfarer, a cozy game about dying, grief, and letting go. It may sound grim, but it’s probably one of the most heart-warming and beautiful games I’ve ever played. The gameplay is pretty straightforward as you meet, care for, and say goodbye to the different characters that cross your path, but the game also allows players to take side quests that involve foraging, farming, crafting, fishing, or cooking. Cooking in this game is a dream! I love playing around with ingredients to discover real-world recipes like Paella, Aloo Gobi, or, my favorite, Chilaquiles. As a person who gets attached to fictional characters, I have cried more times than I am willing to admit while playing this game. The process of accepting the inevitability of death is both heartbreaking and healing, and that’s why I’ve taken my time with it. There are moments where I play it every chance I get before I drift from it, only to get back into it with the same fervor as before. I recommend it a hundred times over.
Martin Paul Eve, Tech Lead
I am an avid player of Dominion, which has become a weekly board/card game fixation for a group of friends for well over a decade now. The game centres around a set of kingdom cards, some of which are actions, some treasures, and some victory. The idea is to end up with as many victory cards as possible, which can only be bought with treasures. However, actions allow you to interact with other players – for example, by attacking them – and it can become quite strategic. We used to live about 15 minutes away from our friends and we would all gather at each others’ houses, with a delicious takeaway meal, and play a few games’ worth. Then we moved a long way away from them AND the pandemic struck. It was at that point that we realised it was possible, with two sets of the game, to play over Skype/remotely. And so, every Sunday, we settle down and play a remote game or two with them. It has been and continues to be a fantastic way to see friends regularly, even at a distance, although it can get overly competitive. The game has also gone through many, many expansions and one of our friends finds herself wishing we could just play the default, unexpanded version. We keep teasing her by buying her new expansions whenever her birthday comes around!
Mike Thicke, Developer
Although I am a lifelong gamer, having played and written about both Magic: the Gathering and poker professionally, these days I mostly play games with my kids. A trend that I really love in games over the last decade is the rise of cooperative games. My wife and I have played a lot of Pandemic and Pandemic: Legacy, or we did pre-kids anyways. Recently cooperative games aimed at children have become increasingly popular. Two of our favorites are Outfoxed and Gnomes at Night. Outfoxed is a mystery game where you play chickens trying to discover who has stolen a pie. It is a chill process-of-elimination game where you gather evidence and eliminate suspects. Gnomes at Night similarly has you chasing a thief, but it is faster paced and requires communication between the players as each has private information not available to the other. Both of these games are great fun for our six-year-old. They’re a bit too challenging for our four-year-old twins, but I think in a few months they could be ready.
Ian Scott, KCWorks Lead Developer
I’ve always been a big fan of role playing games. I got into Dungeons & Dragons as a kid in the 80s (think Stranger Things) and I started up again a few years during the game’s recent renaissance. The combination of story, imagination and social connection have always been magic for me. But I also enjoy a good RPG video game. Most recently I’ve enjoyed piloting my own ship across the galaxy in Starfield–a game with a lot of haters, but one that my inner 10-year-old loves. You get to build your own space ship! And fly it around in a story!
Dimitris Tzouris, Infrastructure Developer
I enjoy playing both board games and video games. During the pandemic lockdowns, we played a lot of Scrabble and Taboo with my family. I also had fun playing the video game Among Us during that time. I haven’t played any video games since then, but I would like to make some time for that. In the past, I really enjoyed playing relaxing games such as Braid, a clever platform game that introduced time manipulation as a game-playing tactic. I also enjoyed both Flower and Journey, created by indie development company ThatGameCompany. In Flower, you play the wind, blowing over fields and making them bloom. In Journey, which is also a game without words, you play a robed character who goes up a mountain. This game is like meditation. I also remember playing The Last of Us when it came out, but I didn’t get to finish it. I still listen to its soundtrack though.