Meet Maddy and Kristen | Co-Founder, Foulplay Games

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maddy and Kristen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maddy and Kristen, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?We originally started as fans of the murder mystery game genre. I hosted murder mystery games as a high schooler and when Kristen and I met at Western Washington University, we wanted to host murder mystery games as a fun way for college students to connect and make first-time friends. This passion turned into Foulplay: A Murder Mystery Club, where over the years, the club grew from 10–20 to over 40-50 members.

While we started hosting monthly murder mystery games from other companies, interest grew in writing our own murder mystery games with unique themes, tailored characters and settings, and more gender inclusivity. We wrote a few games of our own in college and helped other students do so as well. It was incredible to see folks make lifelong friends (and some people even got married after meeting at Foulplay!), but it was also a great way to explore, play, and imagine. We often joked of starting a murder mystery company someday, but it took a long time to take the first steps.

Nearly a decade later, we were still hosting murder mystery games and started to see a real need not only for gender inclusive characters, but for party games that geeks could host on their own, connect with their friends and family, and help them build skills and confidence as a host and social connector. We wanted to write games that played with history and pop culture, were easy and fun to host, and where everyone could see themselves in a story.

What should our readers know about your business?

Foulplay Games is a women-owned small business based in the Pacific Northwest and we write and sell murder mystery party kits for folks to host and play in-person or online with their friends and family. We started our company in 2019 with the goal of empowering geeks to host their own killer murder mystery parties as a way to connect with their friends, family, and coworkers. Our origin story: we ran a murder mystery club at WWU and not only had a blast, but also witnessed how structured and immersive role-playing games were a natural ice-breaker and provided a space for college students to make their first friends. Loneliness is currently a national conversation of concern, and it can be difficult for adults to make friends and build social connections. We saw a need–especially in the geek community–for structured support in hosting fun, social gatherings.

A big part of our company values and founding principles is inclusivity, play, and connection. We believe everyone should see themselves in a story, and we create our games and experiences with every type of geek in mind. Our party games consist of gender-neutral characters, content warnings so hosts can make more informed choices on what theme they choose, and easy and flexible rules for hosting on your own.

While we provide guidance to people to host their own parties, we also host in-person events where we have seen a huge need for social gatherings; we’ve hosted at various conventions around the PNW, including GeekGirlCon and Emerald City Comic Con. We are so proud that we’ve been able to host at conventions we have been attending for years! Our pop-up murder mystery game, WANDERSTAR, that we featured at Emerald City Comic Con was the 8th most searched program in the ECCC app during the entire con! While the Seattle freeze is real, folks were excited about a structured opportunity to engage with other attendees.

As a small women-owned business focused on growing and expanding our brand, we are aware that women are still very underrepresented in the board gaming development industry. The game industry is full of underpaid temporary work and it feels empowering to publish our own games without waiting for permission to break in. We’ve learned how important it is to believe in ourselves. Foulplay Games is co-founded by Maddy Vonhoff and Kristen Johnson, and we met at WWU in 2008. Running a business that brings so much joy to geeks feels amazing and to do it with your best friend feels even more so.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Foulplay Games would not be what it is without our original members of Foulplay: A Murder Mystery Club at Western Washington University! Thank you for showing us the need for adults to have a space to imagine and play.

Website: www.foulplayco.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/foulplay.co

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/foulplaygames

Twitter: www.twitter.com/foulplayco

Facebook: www.facebook.com/foulplayco