About
Flatout Games is a board game design collaborative founded in 2017 by members Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, and Shawn Stankewich. We are focused on creating innovative and elegant game experiences. We love puzzly games with simple rules, high replayability, and great tension and decision-making, typically with low-luck, high-skill euro-style mechanisms. Players’ options and decisions should be complex, rules should not be. We love products that have a light footprint, are immaculately detailed, are designed with clarity, simplicity, and elegance at the forefront.
As a design collaborative, we have several designs under our belt, including the Cardboard Edison and LUCI award finalist Point Salad (2019 AEG); Truffle Shuffle (2020 AEG); Public Market (2021 Talon Strikes Studios); Dollars to Donuts and Abstract Academy (2021 Crafty Games); TEN (2021 AEG); Verdant (2022); Cascadia: Landmarks (2023); Point City (2023); Deep Dive (2023); Point Galaxy (2025); Propolis (2025); and Satchel Quest (2025 Weird City Games) - with more exciting titles coming soon!
In early 2019 Flatout Games launched The Flatout Games CoLab. The CoLab is an opportunity for the founding members of Flatout Games to team up with awesome established and emerging folks in the board game industry and make cool things together. Our approach is to build the best possible experiences by involving everyone in the entire process. We strive to build passion in each of our collaborators through shared efforts and shared profits.
Our first project was Calico (2020) with members David Iezzi, Dylan Mangini, Kevin Russ, and Beth Sobel.
Since then we have published:
Cascadia (2021) with members Randy Flynn, David Iezzi, Dylan Mangini, Kevin Russ, and Beth Sobel.
Verdant (2022) with members Joseph Z Chen, Dylan Mangini, Aaron Mesburne, Kevin Russ, and Beth Sobel.
Fit to Print (2023) with members Dylan Mangini and Peter McPherson. This game was illustrated by Ian O’Toole.
Point City (2023) with member Dylan Mangini.
Deep Dive (2023) with member Dylan Mangini.
Cascadia: Landmarks (expansion) (2023) with members Randy Flynn, Dylan Mangini, and Beth Sobel.
Nocturne (2024) with members Fertessa Allyse, Joseph Z Chen, David Iezzi, Dylan Mangini, and Beth Sobel.
Cascadia: Rolling Hills and Cascadia: Rolling Rivers (2024) with Fertessa Alysse, Randy Flynn, Dylan Mangini, and Beth Sobel.
Cascadia Junior (2025) with Fertessa Alysse, Joseph Z Chen, Randy Flynn, Dylan Mangini, and Beth Sobel.
Knitting Circle (2025) with members Joseph Z Chen, David Iezzi, Dylan Mangini, Beth Sobel and Emily Vincent.
Point Galaxy (2025) with Joseph Z Chen, and Dylan Mangini.
Propolis (2025) with Joseph Z Chen, David Iezzi, and Dylan Mangini.
To date, CoLab games have been picked up for retail distribution and international licensing by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG).
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Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge that Flatout Games’ administrative operations and significant creative work, on designing and developing games, takes place in the traditional Coast Salish land, including dxʷdəwʔabš (Duwamish) and dxʷsəq̓ʷəbš (Suquamish) past and present. We honour with gratitude their continued presence and stewardship of the land.
This acknowledgement does not take the place of authentic relationships with Indigenous Communities, but serves as a first step in honoring the land on which we live and work.
At this time Flatout Games is making a monthly contribution to the Partnership With Native Americans, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to championing hope for a brighter future for Native Americans living on remote, isolated and impoverished reservations.
Resources:
https://native-land.ca/resources/territory-acknowledgement
https://nativepartnership.org/
https://raventrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Land-Acknowledgement-PDF.pdf
https://www.duwamishtribe.org/land-acknowledgement
https://smallbusinessbc.ca/article/the-importance-of-land-acknowledgements/