Orlando board-game makers rolling into Science Night Live
A trio of Orlandoans who've created board games will appear at Science Night Live, the adults-only event Saturday evening at Orlando Science Center. They'll talk about the creative process and show off their cards, chips and penguin pieces.
Darren Humphrey's Waddle Waddle strategy game was inspired by a trip to Antarctica and has an emphasis on penguin conservation. It features six "suits" of cards that represent the six species of penguins, as well as the cooperation of scientists.
"There are real-world penguin scientists who have agreed to have their likeness in the game, and have vetted that everything's accurate and scientific, and you get to play as one of them as your character," Humphrey said.
Argentinian scientist Pablo Boroborogou agreed to participate if Humphrey gave $1 per game sold to a nonprofit that does penguin conservation. Humphrey said the game is plastic-free - not even shrink-wrapped.
"This is a game about conservation. We don't want to create a bunch of plastic," he said.
At the science center, Humphrey also will display early versions of the game board, which features a map of Antarctica. Game play involves collecting runs and three-of-a-kind sets of cards, known as waddles.
"There's a special thing you can do if you collect exactly two wattles of penguins in your hand with no extra cards, and you can play both of the waddles … Waddle Waddle," he said.
It's the first published game for Humphrey, who retired from a computer software company.
"I can't even really call it a side gig. It's like a hobby," he said.
JB Howell works as a full-time game developer for Druid City Games. He said he'd been a freelance designer for 22 years while also maintaining a career in IT.
"As a game designer I'm kind of all over the place," Howell said. "I'll make party games, I'll make deep, heavy-strategy games and everything in between, because I like the challenge of it."
For Science Night Live he's going to demonstrate a two-player derivation of his Wonderland's War game.
"Both games are essentially bag-building push-your-luck battle games," he said. "You have a bag and you have little chips - like poker chips, but they are all custom chips - and you're adding custom chips to your bag. And then when you get into battle, it's like a simultaneous pull and reveal with each chip doing a new thing in the battle."
"People just really love that energy of reaching into the bag and ‘What am I going to pull, and what are we going to reveal at the same time?'" he said.
The full-blown Wonderland will be seen at the event, but it's too time-intensive to demonstrate at the event, Howell said.
"That is our primary reputation in the industry - we make really good-looking games," he said. "So, nice table presence and just the way that it looks overall is a really big deal to us."
Barry Warren's game is called One of Us Must Die.
"It's a party game, but also kind of like a role-play game as well, and also a card game," Warren said.
Players enter a scenario, specific to a genre - zombie, Western, Harry Potter-ish - and according to the cards, one of them must die.
"It's really a cooperative game, so essentially what you're all doing is you're seeking to create the most fun and interesting scene that you can," Warren said. "You're bantering with your friends as these characters around the table, you're coming up with your creative backstories, and you're using the improv principle of ‘yes … and' to build on each other's ideas and thoughts."
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The cards also determine the winner, as opposed to a vote by the players.
"My hope and desire, and, really, my belief is that people will develop greater senses of humor, they'll become more confident, and they'll become more creative as a result of playing this game," Warren said.
He came up with the idea years ago, he said, but left it alone for a good stretch before introducing a homemade version to friends.
"We just kept laughing all the way through this game, and after that, I was like, that was so much fun, this game needs to exist," he said.
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Warren is in the late play-testing phase of the game, he said.
"My dream someday is that it would be available to anybody who would want to play it," he said.
Howell and Warren each will conduct 20-minute presentations, including Q-&-As, during Saturday's Science Night Live event. Humphrey will be on hand to demonstrate his game.
Other SNL events include a "Color, Code and Brainwaves" presentation by artist/engineer Austin Lubetkin, a quiz game with host Curtis Earth, a show called "Powers of Pokemon" and night-sky viewing with telescopes on the terrace. Participants have access to all levels of the museum, including "Phenomena," a traveling exhibit about illusions.
Event hours are 8 to 11:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and available at OSC.org.
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This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 1:43 PM.