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The Game Designer, his life, his work, his passions...
Christophe Boelinger discovered the game world at the age of 7. He began creating games at a young age. Starting with simple variations of chutes & ladders, he worked his way up to more and more serious and complicated creations.
Throughout his gamer's life, the author discovered, played and enjoyed all sorts of games. Board games, roleplaying, wargames, figurines, brainteasers, classic games and card games were all part of his hobby.
Just about the only sort of games he wasnt crazy about were classic card games and games using historical figurines. His creations are therefore as varied as his many influences.
As you read on, you will discover that Dungeon Twister came about from the crossroads of all these influences.
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Over the years and up until 1998, Chris designs remained just a hobby, something that he shared with those around him and his fellow gamers. A creative outlet and a personal hobby to share with his friends for fun evenings of play. He never for a second thought that his games would one day be released to a larger audience.
As President of a gaming club he founded in Nice (Jeux, Tu, Il), he began to test his prototypes on a larger audience of about a hundred players from all different backgrounds. This was the start of positive reviews of his games and the testers were a great source of motivation and encouragement!
In 1998, he took part in the Boulogne-Billancourt Game Designers Contest and won the Silver Sim award with Grande Surface (not released). This recognition motivated him to submit 4 games the following year: A Dogs Life, Halloween Party, Snowboard and Cache-Mot.
Halloween Party and A Dogs Life made it to the final selection. Halloween Party was awarded the Silver Cup. The two games will be released by Eurogames Descartes and Snowboard by Tilsit.
His incentive doubled by his success, new ideas kept coming to him and all of his old finished and unfinished projects came out of the attic. His circle of players kept growing and time was growing short to test all of his new creations.
A comic book and super hero fan since he was a kid, Chris to this day has a gigantic collection of US comics (Marvel, Strange, etc.). As a child, he tried (sometimes successfully, sometimes not!) to draw his favorite super heroes. He would invent stories and sketch drawings of his favorite comics.
As a gamer and fan of X-Men, Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Punisher and many other Marvel icons, his dream was to create a game based on super heroes.
In 2002 a part of this dream became reality when Tilsit asked him to take a shot at designing Spider-Man, the board game. This coincided with the release of the Spiderman movie.
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Chris has a personal collection of about 1200 games. Are there any that he takes out to play more than others?
His 5 favorite games: Space Hulk, Full Metal Planet, Go, Magic and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
His most played games: Settlers of Catan, Set, Abalone, Blood Bowl, Warhammer Battle and 40K, Manowar and just about any of the Games Workshop collection, Fief 2, Formula De, Civilisation, 1830, Carcassonne, Entdecker, Jungle Speed, Nautilus, Kahuna, Tally Ho, etc...
Chris is also equally involved in many other things, especially sport and music.
Sport is an essential and vital part of his well-being, just as much as creating games is!
In fact, the two pastimes are often linked and many of his ideas found their start while he was on vacation skiing: after a great day snowboarding, evenings with his fellow gamers became the birthplace of many of his games!
And as for sports . . . . anything that slides! Whether its snow, water or wind, the author enjoys snowboarding, windsurfing, rollerblading, kite-surfing, monoskiing, mini-skiing, skateboarding, ice skating and so on! And he has been an accomplished squash player since 1999.
(Editors note: Take it easy, Chris! There are still many more Dungeon Twister expansions for you to create!)
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Music and writing have been two of his loves since the age of 8, when he began writing poetry and verse and a the age of 13 when he began to become interested in music and dance.
This passion grew throughout the years and at the age of 20, he bought himself his first keyboard. He became a singer/songwriter and writes music in the R&B, Rap, Soul, Funk and electronic (House, trance, techno, drum & bass and jungle) style
Just as with the design of his games, this passion became a personal pleasure and the only people to hear his work were friends and local clubs. He has never tried to get them recorded but maybe that will change one day!
Games, creation, music, sports and comics are all part of a life that is much to short to discover it all. Like Dungeon Twisters Arch-Mage, all he has to do is find the secret to immortality!
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Ludography
 1991 - Cyborg inserted in the 9th issue of Rôle Mag
1998 - Grande Surface « Silver Sim » at the 19th Boulogne Billancourt game creator competition
1999 - Halloween Party « Silver Cup » at the 20th Boulogne Billancourt game creator competition
2000 - Halloween Party published by Eurogames Descartes in the Blue Games collection (France, US, Germany)
2000 - A Dog's Life published by Eurogames Descartes (France, US, Germany)
2001 - Snowboard published by Tilsit (France)
2002 - Fantasy Business published by Eurogames Descartes in the Blue Games collection (France, US, Germany)
2002 - Spider-Man, the board game published by Tilsit (France, US, Germany)
2003 - Pussy Cat published by Goldsieber (Germany) 2003 « Spiel der Spiel » in the 2 players game category
2004 - Chat Perché (Pussy Cat) published by Asmodée (France)
2004 - Service Risqué inserted in Jeux sur un plateau magazine #7 (France)
2004 - Dungeon Twister « Basic Set » published by Asmodée (France)
2004 - Monstro Folies published by TF1 Games, in collaboration with Ludovic Maublanc (France)
2004 - Dungeon Twister « Paladins & Dragons » published by Asmodée (France)
2005 - Dungeon Twister « Extension 3-4 joueurs » published by Asmodée (France)
2005 - Dungeon Twister « Basic Set » published by Asmodée (US)
Next: Les pêcheurs (Fishermen) published by Tilsit (Nuremberg 2005 ?)
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