Have you ever wondered what to do with a degree in art? For Kyle Key ’07, founder of Keymaster Games, the degree has proved to be invaluable.
Key, a third generation Asburian, and one of over 20 family members to have graduated from the university, knew he wanted to be an art major. Choosing Asbury, however, took a little more convincing.
“I thought, there’s no way I’m going there,” said Key. “I don’t want to go to the same school as my older brother. But of course I visited and talked to professors beforehand. I knew I was going to be an art major. I ended up just sticking with fine art and my emphasis was painting.”
After graduating, Key got a job at Southland Christian Church as brand manager and designer for Southland’s communications team.
“I redid the logo for them [Southland],” said Key. “At the same time, I worked with James Donaldson, a grad who moved out in LA. We started working together and did work for fan events like Comic Con.”
However, Key quickly found that, while graphic design offered unique opportunities, it wasn’t his passion.
“I found out that I needed a third open-heart surgery, but it makes you assess what you’re doing in life,” said Key. “I started looking at all the clients I was working for and it was super fun, but that was the tipping point for ‘What do I really want to do?’ and I found that was making board games.”
That’s when Keymaster Games was born in Key’s garage with the first game that Key designed himself, a card game by the name of “Control.” The company now consists of four partners.
“We threw an idea up on Kickstarter and we ended up at $75,000,” said Key. “We immediately became an international company because we started shipping internationally. We release one or two a year and ‘Parks,’ one of our newer games, has been our biggest hit so far.”
“Parks,” Keymaster’s bestseller, hit Target and Barnes and Noble shelves in March during quarantine. The company’s biggest goal, however, is to design beautiful games, both in aesthetics and in mechanics.
“My fine art training has really influenced a lot of the art direction and aesthetics in Keymaster Games,” said Key. “It’s grown into a company that puts aesthetics and art on the same level as game mechanics, which, at the time we launched, was greatly lacking in the board game world. People just thought art was something you slap on to sell the game. I’d like to think we had a hand in raising the bar a little bit. I would credit my fine art lessons at Asbury to that.”
Key is proud of the artistic talent that his company utilizes to create his games.
“Half of our games are not internal art,” said Key. “We partner with artists that are the top of their craft.”
For Key, however, the most rewarding part of the process is seeing that fans enjoy what Keymaster Games makes.
“My most favorite part is when you have a game out and people are playing it and posting on social media about it,” said Key. “It’s really rewarding to see that you’ve brought the family together at the table and they’re enjoying a game we created.”
Keymaster Games is located in Athens, Georgia, and their games are available on their website, at Target and at Barnes and Noble.
