Labour of love: A London man's journey to building a board game

Shortly before the pandemic, Tyler Darling was reminded of an idea he had more than 20 years ago. He wanted to make a board game, but life and a relationship got in the way.

"I found an old notebook with an old map that I drew, and I was like, 'Great, I'll work on this.' And I haven't stopped," Darling said.

The game takes place in a world called, you guessed it, Everland. And every 26,000 years a great evil returns. 

"And it's your job as heroes to work your way through the realms of Everland, cleansing them of evil, and returning the world back to its peaceful state," he said.

Darling's been testing the game for several years to find out if Battle for Everland is something people want to play. He said it has been a process.

"For the first two and a half years, (it wasn't going) great," Darling said with a laugh. "I got a lot of weird looks on some of the mechanics."

Darling plays a couple of times a week with friends, family, and people who reach out to him on the game's Facebook page. He asks for feedback, then makes changes and puts the best ideas in the game. 

"I'm actually getting a positive response now," he said. "People are asking me to come back and play again, and talking to me about strategy. Right now it's in a really good place."

Darling is going to keep testing his game, with the goal of one day creating something that people will be able to buy.