Biome Builder was the first tabletop game I designed from scratch. After attending GenCon, I spent months reminiscing about the simple card games of my childhood. On the train ride home from the Playcrafting Bit Awards—where I helped my team accept the Best Tabletop Game award for Killer Snails’ first game, Assassin of the Sea—inspiration struck. I jotted down a rough draft of the rules in my phone’s notes app.

The next morning, I picked up ten inexpensive packs of cards from DollarTree and began testing the mechanics. After convincing my mom and now-husband to play it on repeat, I brought the game to my team at Killer Snails. They immediately recognized its potential and helped refine the gameplay and scientific elements. Later that year, we successfully funded the project on Kickstarter, exceeding our funding goal by over 400%.

Since its launch, Biome Builder has won multiple awards and has become a staple in classrooms, helping students learn about ecosystems, food webs, and energy transfer.