In this time of lockdown and limited recreational activities, some people have been finding entertainment in board games. And board game creator Christopher Naranjit is hoping people add his new game, Buyin' Scrap Iron; Old Battery Buyin', to their game collection.

The game gets its name from the popular slogan that is blasted from a speaker on a truck that drives through various communities in Trinidad announcing its mission.

Naranjit, 31, and principal and parenting consultant at Zenith Preparatory Learning Centre, told Newsday Buyin' Scrap Iron was his attempt at making a simple and affordable game.

"It plays one to six players and can be as short as five minutes long. It's designed to be played many times in a row like All Fours."

He said he has played the game with eight-year-olds but it is mostly played by the 20-35 demographic.

The art and graphic design were done by Ryan James and Kamron Julien respectively and Naranjit said the three of them put the game together during the lockdown in 2020.

Buyin' Scrap Iron is his third released board game; in 2019 he released Not A Real Place (NARP), which was a parody of monopoly; and 2020 Trini Taboo, a printable Trini version of Taboo, which he released for free during the first lockdown.

Naranjit explained all three games are products of his main board game business, Board at Home, which is a board game library where people used to pay to come and play from their more than 200 board game collection.

[caption id="attachment_895675" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Local board game Buyin' Scrap Iron; Old Battery Buyin' game box.
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"The objective of Board at Home and Buyin' Scrap Iron is to increase the amount of physical social time families and friends spend together and to increase the amount of mental exercise that Trinidadians and Tobagonians do in their spare time."

Board game epiphany

With a board game business and three games under his belt, one would assume Naranjit has long had a love for board games. But he explained that while he played them growing up he did so passively and if his friends invited him to a board game lime he would not be interested.

"I am not a fan of Monopoly, Scrabble, Chess, Snakes and Ladders. But I would play it to appease other people. I didn't enjoy them."

Then four years ago he played a game called Munchkin, a dungeon card game, and he found it a little more complex and designed for adults. He was exposed to designer board games where the creator places their name on the packaging and puts a lot of work into it.

He also learned there were more than 40,000 board games he had not heard of and he became fascinated by the mathematics and how much psychology (which he has a background in) was involved in some of these games.

"(I was fascinated they) took pieces of cardboard and wood and created emotions."

He said starting Board at Home in 2017 was an "obvious transition" for him and the response