David Watts (game designer)

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David Gwyn Watts (born September 3, 1932 in Purfleet , Essex ) is a British game designer and former publisher of Rostherne Games . His greatest success was the strategy game Steam Horse , which was named Game of the Year in 1984 .

Life

Watts grew up in South Wales and worked from 1957 as a geography teacher in a primary school in Milford Haven , Wales, trying to bring the landscapes of Wales closer to his students by drawing maps and playing a railway game. From 1973 he sold his games mainly to schools, which used them as an aid in history and geography lessons. His publisher Rostherne Games was named after the name of his house in Milford Haven, which then sold the game as Railway Rivals with empty hex cards, where the players had to draw the cities, rivers and mountains themselves. The German company Bütehorn acquired the license in 1979 and came onto the market for the first time with steam horse and ready-made maps. After Bütehorn went bankrupt in 1983, Schmidt Spiel + Freizeit marketed the game. When Watts was offered early retirement that same year, he accepted it and continued to work as a freelance game inventor. By 1992 he had designed over 70 Dampfross cards.

In 1998 Watts retired and sold Rostherne Games. Watts has been married since 1958 and has three children.

Games (selection)

Dampfross came out successfully in several other countries and Watts made some additional maps, including a geography of China. In addition to this success, he invented numerous other games:

  • 1985: Bus Boss
  • 1986: Pirate Island
  • 1988: Peninsular War 1808-14
  • 1990: Chessington
  • 1990: Winchester
  • 1992: Overdrafts
  • 1993: Mine!
  • 1996: Scramble for Africa

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Instructions for the Steam Horse  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 4.7 MB), page 24 from Laurin-Verlag at dienstac.de@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.dienstac.de  
  2. ↑ Dampfross (Laurin edition) at gamecabinet.com (English)
  3. ↑ Steam horse in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
  4. ↑ 25 years ago. Game of the Year 1984: DAMPFROSS by David G. Watts , Homepage Game of the Year
  5. ↑ Spire Games distributes Rostherne Games at Spielbox
  6. ↑ Pirate Island in the Luding games database
personal data
SURNAME Watts, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Watts, David Gwyn; Watts, David G.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English game designer
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Purfleet , Essex