When insurance broker Ardell Olsen started producing his first board game it cost him $13 apiece, and he was selling each for $11.
It doesn't take a Philadelphia lawyer to tell you at that rate the company won't be around long, unless someone is willing to throw thousands of dollars away.Eventually, Olsen got his costs down on the board game "Book of Mormon Quest" and between 1993 and 1994 sold 50,000 copies. His latest creation, "Biblequest," hit the stores last June and already has sold 25,000 copies. He believes sales will hit 100,000 this year as people begin buying Christmas gifts.
Olsen, who said sales of his games will reach $1.1 million this year and are expected to hit $5 million next year, is thinking seriously about not going back to the insurance business.
As planned by Mary Kay Lazarus Public Relations, one day in early December four employees in each of the stores where the two games are sold will play the games in front of customers. The winners from each store will compete against each other, and the winner will play the game against an unnamed celebrity with a donation made to a charity selected by the winner.
Olsen started thinking about producing a religious-theme board game in 1984 when he walked through Deseret Book and couldn't find one. He tinkered with designs and concepts and as time went on he concentrated on bringing a Mormon game to market.
He started production of the game in 1992 under the name Horizon Games, 1117 E. Country Hills Drive, Ogden, and wanted to get it to market by the Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April 1993.
Marketed through ZCMI, Deseret Book, Seagull Book and Tape and other major retailers, "Book of Mormon Quest" sold 50,000 copies in two years.
"I wanted a game that was fun and also a learning experience, but not too intimidating," said Olsen. "I wanted to teach the truths about the LDS faith in a subtle way with the learning coming by answering questions about the Book of Mormon," he said.
The game includes a book with 400 true-false and multiple-choice questions about the Book of Mormon. There is a multicolored board, movers and a 12-sided roller. When a player answers a question correctly, the roller is thrown and the player moves the number of spaces shown on the roller.
Olsen said he went with a 12-sided roller (die) to overcome the concern of those who may equate dice with gambling.
The object is to get into the Celestial Kingdom section of the board in the middle by going through several spaces marked baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, temple marriage and enduring to the end.
Players landing on some spots on the board can pick a "chance" card that can be provided by the family. These cards can contain activities that fit the family such as taking out the garbage, washing dishes, going to the park, bearing a testimony or going to a fast-food restaurant.
Olsen said his first 500 games cost $13 each to produce, but once he started making them in large quantities the costs dropped. People at the Industries for the Blind put the game's tokens, movers and roller in a plastic bag, put the board and other items in the box and then sealed the game in a plastic wrapper.
The movers and small tokens come from Minnesota, the board is made in Salt Lake
City by Hiller Industries, the book is printed in Salt Lake City by Seagull Printing and the outside box comes from Warneke Paper Box Co., Denver. Salt Laker Evan Twede did the graphics.
With the emphasis these days on improving family values, Olsen said his games can play a role in helping family values as families gather to play games and enjoy each other's company.
His second game, "Biblequest," is a non-denominational board game centered on 22 stories from the Old Testament. Each story has 20-25 questions and by the time the game is over the person gets a condensed version of the story. The game has an eight-sided roller and tiles containing words that must be put in phrases. Players go from one field to another to win.
A logical follow-up for Olsen is a game based on the New Testament, and he is thinking about translating his games into foreign languages for sales overseas.
A native of Neola, Duchesne County, Olsen served in the U.S. Navy from 1961-65 and flew anti-submarine patrols off the coast of Vietnam during the conflict with Vietnam. He didn't see any hostile action during the conflict and laughed that he saw more whales than submarines.
He attended Dixie College and the University of Utah for a combined 21/2 years and in 1966 went into the life insurance and financial planning business full-time, eventually becoming a chartered life underwriter.
He sold life insurance in Salt Lake City for Sunset Life Insurance Co., Olympia, Wash., and spent seven years in Europe selling life insurance to military personnel stationed in Germany and England. He returned to the United States in 1987 and settled in Ogden.
Olsen developed the design for his first game while selling insurance.