Liberty Street Games

Liberty Street Games was founded in 2009 by a husband and wife team. Working together, the husband, owner of an architecture firm, and wife, teacher by trade and homeschool mom of three, provided an excellent balance of artistic ability and creativity.

The Company is dedicated to creating quality, affordable and entertaining games. All of their products are made in the USA and create American jobs. Liberty Street Games believes in supporting local small businesses and uses their services at every possible opportunity.

Liberty Street Games is aware of the impact that manufacturing, fuel consumption, transportation, and large corporate infrastructure can have on the environment. Having a small urban footprint is an integral part of their business model and practice. All of their products are warehoused at an already existing facility in Battle Creek, Michigan where the games are manufactured. The manufacturing of their products in the USA drastically reduces the amount of energy spent for distribution. All of their games are made with partially recycled materials and printed using vegetable oil ink. They employ a four day work week and all employees work at home offices. All corporate meetings are conducted over the internet using online meeting software or on conference calls.

Liberty Street Games is the maker of Bailout! The Game and Bailout! The Card Game. Currently, they are in the development phase of another board game and another card game.

Bailout! The Game

The concept for the board game came about in September of 2008. The creators were sitting around the family dinner table and topic of conversation was about, you guessed it, the governmental bailout. Current events are a standard part of their homeschool curriculum. Since every news outlet in the country had the bailout running as their top news story, this was a teaching opportunity they could not pass on. Their kids found it interesting, but for 9 and 10 year old children, the concept was complicated. In order to keep them interested in the Bailout, the father remembered that he had a book about the history of Monopoly. The book discussed a time line of the game, but more importantly for them it spoke about the significance that monopolies played in American history. This peaked their daughters’ interest. “Wow!” the kids thought; a fun game that had to do with history. They learned that the game was created during the Great Depression and that during difficult financial times people stayed home instead of going out like they did for family game night. Almost simultaneously both children blurted out, “We should make a game about the bailout.”

The parents laughed and said, “Yah, we should.”

A couple of weeks passed. The family was sitting down ready for another fun filled family game night. It was their youngest daughter’s turn to pick the game that evening. She picked Bailout. The parents looked at their daughter and began to explain that bailout the game was just an idea and that no actual game existed. She interrupted them and said, “You always tell us that we can do anything. You know, mom and dad, you can do anything too.” The parents realizing how disappointed their children were drew up the first version of Bailout! The Game that night.

For the next three months the family spent their family game nights developing their own game. The children were an integral part during the development of multiple versions of the game. The girls were instrumental in making the game fun and exciting. This process brought them even closer together as a family.

They played Bailout! The Game for many weeks at family game night.

Like many Middle American families that owned their own small business, they too were feeling the money crunch themselves. Their business had declined significantly over the course of the past several months and they knew the economy was not going to fix itself. They enjoyed playing the game so much that they decided to take a chance on Bailout! The Game. They dipped into their savings and manufactured themselves 15 copies of the game. For the next several months they went from place to place conducting dozens of focus groups to accumulate reviews on the game. The response to the game was overwhelming. Players begged to keep a copy of the game.

Mass production of the game began in May of 2009.