Do you ever look around the city and think to yourself, “Someone should make a board game about this?” Well, for the past eight years, the independent artists behind the gift shop Transit Tees have been doing exactly that.
From board games about the city’s history to puzzles of iconic maps to card decks featuring local wildlife, Transit Tees’ teams of creators enjoy the challenge of capturing all the things that make Chicago unique through interactive activities.
“We always want to have an insider’s angle, like, ‘If you know you know,’ and if you live here, you get it,” said owner Tim Gillengerten. “There’s so much joy here. We love celebrating Chicago and expressing that experience in our products so people can connect with the city.”
From Real Life to Board Game and Back
In their most popular game, “El: The Chicago Transit Adventure,” players race to strategically visit five El stations and return to The Loop before anyone else.
“We had a family tell us that they draw their five destinations, play the game, and then make a day out of physically going to each of those stops and exploring those neighborhoods,” Gillengerten said. “I love that they found a way to use the game to expand their knowledge about the city.”
It typically takes the Transit Tees team about a year to design a game, but they usually repurpose some of the art to create lines of related gifts and apparel.
“It’s been really fun for us to draw and design the games, and to strategize about creating the gameplay,” Gillengerten said. “When we made The El, I laid out a map of the CTA in the office. We all grabbed stuff from our desks, like a box of Tic Tacs and a razor, just started strategizing about how we could turn the concept into a game.”
The team’s most recent release is “Chicago Handshake” — a drinking card game named after the classic dive bar combo of a shot of Malort and Old Style chaser. It’s filled with trivia questions and challenges based on common city experiences.
You can sign up to receive updates about their next board game project, “Dibs,” where players can build a parking empire by saving spots with junk from the garage.
