Summer Cooper loves games.  Board games, card games, video games — you name it.  

She took her hobby to a new level when she created her very own game for the Library Geek-Off last week.  The tabletop game “Survive College: Goshen Edition” won first prize in the competition.  For Cooper, a sophomore exercise science major from Elkhart, the game is an expression of her appreciation for Goshen College and the friendships she’s built here. 

The game Cooper created lasts 30 to 60 minutes and is played with two to four people. The goal of the game is to earn 120 credits, and the first player to do so is the winner.  

Each player receives a character based on a real GC student, and different characters each have different super powers.  For example, the player with the character “Naomi Ross Richer” receives an extra credit each round for longboarding to class.  

Players earn credits by rolling the numbers needed to pass different classes, and each round they get the chance to sabotage their “classmates’” success with downgrade cards like “forgot mask” and “relationship goals” that take away points.  

“My favorite game style would have to be card games that involve strategy,” Cooper said.  She wanted her game to involve strategy but also be simple to understand. 

Cooper has loved games for as long as she can remember.  “She has always imagined making her own board game,” said Spencer Waterman, Cooper’s boyfriend.

Waterman said Cooper is always on the lookout for new games to try out. “Every time we went to any store together,” he said, “Summer always wanted to take a detour through the board game aisle.”

He added, “If we ever go on a trip somewhere, it’s not uncommon for Summer to pack an entire duffel bag just for her tabletop games!”

Paper prototypes of “Survive College: Goshen Edition” were tested at game nights with her friends.

Cooper said, “They all enjoy getting to get their characters and getting to play funny cards on each other.”

Waterman also enjoys the connections to GC. “The thing I love about her game is that it’s filled with inside jokes relating to Goshen College,” he said. “Each time you draw a card, you’re probably going to have a laugh,” Waterman said.

For anyone wanting to play “Survive College: Goshen Edition,” Cooper said that the college library “might buy a copy so students might be able to play it in the library.”