According to Fortune Magazine Business Insights, North America had the leading global market share of board games in 2025 at $5.98 billion or 42% with a projected growth to hit $7.40 billion in 2026. In the U.S. alone the market size was $3.28 billion in 2025 with projections for continued growth through 2034.
“Board game cafes and restaurants provide various games for customers, which typically bring individuals together,” according Fortune Magazine Business Insights “The rapid evolution of board game cafes on the back of an expanding number of board game enthusiasts will propel market growth.”
That could be good news for Matt Golec and Arun Mehra. They spent eight years developing their board game, Shapely, which began hitting store shelves earlier this summer.
“Shapely has been great for us,” said Tony Vandenberg, owner of Black Moon Games in West Lebanon. “Matt and Arun had been regulars here on board game night so it’s been cool to have their board game in stock.”
Golec, who lived in the Upper Valley about 20 years before relocating to Wisconsin with his wife last fall, and Mehra, of Hanover, met at local board game nights at Triple Play when it was in Lebanon years ago. They understand the social element of board games as a reason many people play.
“It is a fun thing to do because it allows people to get together in person,” Golec said. “Board games are a very nice way to be social. That is what board games are about. They are a way to get together with friends.”
Golec had some experience in publishing games as co-producer of Penny Press in 2015, a board game that pits famous newspaper owners against each other in a race to produce the best newspaper in New York City. Mehra suggested they work on making a game together and that led to brainstorming different ideas over coffee.
“One germ of an idea was one that Arun’s son had about making things out of shapes and it went from there,” Golec said.
Shapely went through a number of iterations in the design and overall makeup of the game before the publishers, R&R Games in Florida, was satisfied it was ready for the market.
“You don’t come up with a final idea, you come up with a speck of an idea and you build on it and build on it,” Golec said.
The changes made came from feedback they received from gamers and others.
“A lot of it comes from being out in the field,” Mehra said. “You go to gaming conventions and you do a play test to see what they like and what they struggle with. This might work or what do you think about this.”
Many people who tried the game responded with what was good about the game and what parts they did not understand, which helped with redevelopment. The two summed it up as trial and error and getting their idea in front of as many people as possible.
“You keep the things that work and kick out the ones that don’t,” Golec said. “We did the game in various stages of development and went to game conferences to show off the game to a lot of people.”
Golec and Mehra test-marketed their game as often as they could.
“The hardest part of development is when you have an idea and you know game folks like it but it isn’t quite right,” Golec said. “But you still have to take it out to the public and show it. It is about getting in front of the right people who want this game and see the potential it has.”
Mehra compared the process of finding someone willing to publish Shapely a little like running a gauntlet.
“We had a number of people who were interested in the game and we had people look at it and pass,” said Mehra, 56, who works as a product manager for a large computer company, “You send it to the gatekeeper who says they like but need to get it past the team. You may or may not hear back.”
Eventually their persistence paid off and they got the breakthrough they were looking for about three years ago late one night at a well-attended gaming convention in Boston. It was there that R&R Games of Tampa , Fla., said they would publish Shapely.
Golec sums up the basic strategy of Shapely.
“Shapely is a game about making and guessing shapes,” he said.
It can be played by two to six players and takes less than an hour to play the three rounds with six players
Each player begins by randomly selecting four shapes and placing them on a small square called a canvas. Players turn over a word card telling them the shape they have to make, careful not to let the other players see it. There are 216 word cards that could be anything from a bus to a sofa, a staircase or an alligator.
Golec and Mehra said the game is a little like Pictionary but does not require drawing talent.
“A lot of people would tell us they like Pictionary, but it makes them nervous having to draw something quickly,” Mehra said. “Here, you can be artistic without having to draw and that takes the pressure off. Making the shapes is just a different skill and a lot of people will connect with that.”
Points are awarded and tokens are moved along a score track based on guessing the right shape and having others guess your shape. On the second and third rounds, the number of pieces to make a shape are reduced to three and then two.
“It has a modicum of strategy people enjoy, but it is not overwhelming,” Mehra said. “Folks who aren’t gamers like this and gamers like it. So far we have had positive feedback.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
