For the last decade, Gavin Birnbaum has handcrafted
a wooden game every single year. As his inventive
auction game Q.E. expands its cult success, the designer
tells us why his son is still the rst person he needs to
impress – and why he doesn’t consider himself a gamer
GAVIN IN
THE WOOD
Words by Matt Jarvis62 February 2019
Inspired, but without the idea of
approaching an established publisher
crossing his mind, Birnbaum decided to
cobble together a homemade version of
Cubiko himself.
“I purchased a bench grinder, wire, wire
cutters, fabric, bouncy balls, plastic snap cubes
and wedding cake boxes,” he says. “It took six
months to make 30 copies.”
An internet search and eight months later,
Birnbaum found himself selling out of his
handcrafted creation at the 2009 UK Games
Expo and the recipient of the Birmingham
show’s Best Family Game award.
“Next was Essen 2009,” he says. “I reckoned
I needed at least a hundred games for the
world’s largest board game show. However,
100 would be impossible for me to produce
so I approached some Chinese companies – it
soon became obvious that the game needed to
be made in wood, not metal.”WOOD-A, COULD-A
A decade on, what started as Cubiko has
grown into proli c independent publisher
Cubiko Games. Birnbaum continues to make
his inventive games by hand and, despite the
voluntary pressure of putting out at least one
game every year, little has changed in terms of
the way he nds inspiration.
“I enjoyed the whole process of developing
and releasing Cubiko. It was such an exciting
and fun experience that I didn’t want it to end;
however, I knew this would mean I would
need a new game for every year. It was going to
be di cult; I had no ideas and no inspiration.
How on Earth do you design a game?” he
says. “Basically, I hope that I get an idea. If I
do get an idea I drop everything and make a
prototype immediately, as crafting a new idea
is my favourite part of self-publishing.”
Now working in a self-built workshop rather
than his kitchen table, Birnbaum produces
his games out of wood, having rst turned to
woodworking “out of necessity to make my
designs” and a simple attraction: “Wood looks
beautiful.” He quickly came to appreciate the
material for its environmental bene ts (“Wood
products store the carbon that the growing
trees have removed from the air,” he explains,
giving them a much lower carbon footprint)
and its connection with nature and tradition.
“From oors to salad bowls, wood has
natural warmth and beauty; it is good for our
wellbeing,” the designer says.
eir wooden components make Birnbaum’s
games a rarity in the modern age of plastic
and card, but it’s not always been easy for the
designer to stick to his modus operandi.
“One challenge that can drive me to despair
is when components need to be identicalY
ou might expect someone who
has created a new board game
every 12 months for the last 10
years to be an obsessive player,
yet Gavin Birnbaum wouldn’t
describe himself as a gamer.
“I can’t remember the last time I bought
a game,” he admits. “I grew up on loads of
simple games like Risk, Cluedo, Monopoly,
Dover Patrol, chess, Scrabble, Battling
To p s – the list goes on. Nowadays, I haven’t
normally got time to play games and I
haven’t a clue about most of the games I see
or hear about.”It was in September 2008 that Birnbaum
emptied the contents of his son Samuel’s toy
box onto the carpet. Simply playing around,
he accidentally invented what would go on to
become his debut game, Cubiko.
“It was fortunate that the toys on the carpet
happened to include cubes and a bouncy ball,”
he recalls. “It was also lucky that the converted
perfume box had a tic-tac-toe wireframe
con guration that was covered with fabric.
“What then followed was a strange, but fun,
game of three-in-a-row where my four-year-old
son would place the cubes on the box but I would
rst throw and land the ball before placing.”