George Seibel of Listowel was driving along Highway 10, north of Orangeville when he noticed a sign at the side of the road and said to his wife, “This place could be called ‘a finished physician’.” Or in other words, a “done doc” or Dundalk, a town in Ontario.
From there, Seibel has turned his quick car game into a full-blown board game called ‘Nyms du Geo’ with more than 400 different puzzles about towns in Ontario.
Seibel said he took inspiration for the game from a whole host of other games.
“The game teaches us about the counties and the names of towns in Ontario,” explained Seibel. “The name of the game comes from ‘homonyms, synonyms and antonyms of the earth’.”
The game took Seibel about a month to create, and six months to get produced. The Ontario edition is one of six prototypes – the others including three provinces and two states.
Seibel also sees the sale of his game as an opportunity to raise some money for causes which he values; Autism Canada in honour of his granddaughter Eva, and the Mennonite Central Committee to help fund Haiti relief efforts.
The game is to be sold at hockey venues around Woolwich and Listowel – and at the Zehrs supermarket in Listowel on Feb. 6 – for $30, $10 of which will be donated to the MCC and another dollar going to autism research.
“I would like to keep fundraising until everyone in Haiti has the same standard of living as I do – so forever.”
