By Debbie Adams
Dylan Mullins and his family have spent “the better part of two years” developing a board game,
“Consultation,” scheduled to launch on Kickstarter on October 2. This is their first
venture into entrepreneurship– their first product ever– and designed and assembled in Roanoke.
They are a “self-funded and self-operated family business and plan to keep it that way.”
Mullins describes Consultation as a “light-hearted, unique party board game designed to get
people to have fun and get out of their social shells– a tattoo-themed, card-prompt drawing game
that blends tattoo style drawing, trivia knowledge, and challenge completing.”
“It’s okay if you are not good at drawing because having the best drawing is not the only way to
win,” he explains. “Sometimes having the worst drawing is actually the best! Everything from
how the game is played, all the way to some of the card ideas, came from actual tattoo artists
themselves; but you don’t have to be into tattoos or tattoo culture to play or like the game.”
The back of both decks of cards used in the game were designed by Joshua Kiser, the owner of
Bad Wave Tattoos in Roanoke.
As for why they chose to produce a board game, Mullins says, “Our family is honestly a bunch
of creatives, so creating and making stuff is commonplace and was pushed on us when we were
younger. For me, I have always had an ‘itch’ to create a card/board game ever since I was a kid. I
remember drawing and coming up with my own version of Pokemon cards, and even trying to
make a football board game, all before I was 10. It’s something I always wanted to do, but never
had the ‘aha’ moment or sat down and actually thought about doing it for real until the
foundation of what Consultation should be came to me– a game that is fun and exciting but
changes every time you play it. That feeling of once you played a game once or twice, you’ve
experienced what it is fully, doesn’t really exist with this game.”
Mullins says his family enjoys the occasional game night together– everything from Yahtzee to
Throw Throw Burrito.
“In our house, and with our family, when we get together to do something, we just like to make
each other laugh and spend quality time with each other.”
The packaging says Consultation is for ages 8+, but “that is just because we believe that is a
good age where kids can read the cards and understand what they mean and what to do. Our son
has been playing it since he was five.
“The game is very family-friendly; there really isn’t any questionable or adult content. The
absolute most ‘adult’ like card in the game is ‘Draw a star with the name of one of my exes in it,’
which can either be removed or explained as we have in the past with kids who did not know
what it meant. But, as in anything, we always would want parents to use their own discretion in
deciding what is appropriate for their children. There is nothing ‘too adulty’ about the game
though.”
“Our 7-year-old son helped play-test it from the very beginning, and we had nieces and nephews
help play-test as well, who are 10 and 16, respectively. They all gave input and some ideas to
help make the game play better and gave us a better overall sense of what we had and what else
we had to accomplish.”
The box comes with enough components to let the minimum number of people play (three), but
the game can technically support up to 10 people playing at once. When you buy your copy of
Consultation, it will come with three drawing pads, three multicolored pens, two decks of cards,
one digital timer, and one instruction booklet.
“We are not looking to become rich with this or even sell it off to a bigger company. This is
something I’ve always wanted to create. This isn’t the last product or idea we will do, it’s just the
start. But hopefully in the coming years you’ll see us and our logo at local shops and events
around the Roanoke area.”
Mullins is 30 years old, born and raised in Vinton. He works a full-time job as a quality
coordinator; Consultation is a “passion project.”
“This is my first time jumping into the business world and that is why we are taking it slow and
doing things step by step,” Mullins explains. “We are trying to do everything in the smartest way
possible without overreaching or overextending ourselves, trying to keep that mom-and-pop shop
feel alive even in the digital age.”
A friend of his sister introduced Mullins to Josh Kiser’s tattoo work many years ago.
“When we were coming up with what we wanted the back of the cards to look like we were
going for an American traditional style; we wanted someone who was not only great at doing
that, but also local to us here in Roanoke, and he was our first choice. We were honestly
shocked, but grateful, that he decided to work with us on this project.
“Josh even helped come up with ideas for the game and gave us some card ideas as well. I am a
person who loves tattoos and tattooing culture. I view tattoos as one of the most personal, but fun
ways of self-expression that someone can have. That thought process is really what made this
game a reality and those core philosophies drove what would become Consultation.
“Consultation was really a mixture of a few different ideologies I wanted to bring to the gaming
world. My first core idea was that it has to be fun, but also different every time you play. A lot of
games are fun the first few times, but after a while they can become stale just doing the same
thing over and over. And the fun can get sucked out of a room sometimes when you realize you
have to draw the same thing for the 10th time that night. So, we made our product different by
adding two things.
“First, we added personal trivia to some of the Request cards. So instead of a card just saying,
‘Draw an alien,’ our cards will say ‘Draw an alien eating my favorite bag of chips’ or ‘Draw my
favorite zoo animal surfing.’ That way, depending on who gets the card, the drawings will alter
in some fashion. We wanted to take it a step further to truly make every drawing unique, but to
also cover my second core idea– to make the game exciting and fun with challenges.
“As anyone who ever worked in a business dealing with customers knows, there are always
challenges and crazy requests coming from them. That’s where the ‘Stippleation’ cards come into
play. These are the ‘challenge’ cards and will make either the entire group, or just one person, do
a challenge either before, or while, drawing. For example, someone could have to do their
drawing on someone’s back, but the person cannot sit still while drawing. Or everyone would
have to draw using only their thumb and pinky.
“While developing the game, I ran into one problem– I am not good at drawing, and I know there
have to be other people out there like me who are kind of embarrassed to show off our drawings.
“That’s when I knew my third core idea– to make it so being the best in the group at drawing
doesn’t mean you get to win automatically– helps. You can win a round by getting the piece of
trivia correct, having the best drawing, or even by having the worst drawing. We really set out to
make a game that is truly fun but can be enjoyed for many different playthroughs and years to
come.”
While the game components are assembled in Roanoke, they are not made here. Mullins says
they are exploring ways to make that happen along with potential local sponsorships. Contact
him at mufnllc@gmail.com or keep up with them through https://www.instagram.com/mufn.llc/
or TikTok @consultation.game.
Currently, the only way to purchase the game is through the Kickstarter campaign at
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mufn/consultation.
