Celebration of New Locally Designed Board Games

The Macomb Park District and the Western Illinois Museum invite the public to play new, locally designed board games on Sunday, May 7^th from 1:30 to 4:00 pm.  To celebrate the games, created as part of the eight-week workshop given by Rok Locksley, teams will be available to introduce their designs and share the motivation for creating their game. In addition to playing the games, there will be a silent auction of donated games, a chance to vote for the People’s Choice Award and to enjoy refreshments.

This celebration is well suited for all ages and commemorates the birthday of the inventor of Monopoly, Lizzie Magie, who was born in Macomb on May 9, 1866.  A wide variety of games have been designed including Order Up!, a father/daughter-created game for all ages about building tasty snacks; Gnome Home, an all-ages racing game about garden gnomes going home; Mansion Maker, a family-created game about building your dream house against all odds; Quests & Queries, a trivia game about fairy tales where you are trying to win the most gems; Iconic Inventors, a fun matching game, where you are learning while challenging your memory; Dante’s Inferno, a two-player cooperative game in which you journey through nine challenging realms; Weather Wizards, a mother/son-team creating a game about tackling climate change; and Forgottonia, a quick, fun card game where you are trying to build a flight of craft brews before anyone else.

The public is welcome to drop by the Museum anytime between 1:30 and 4:00 pm to play some or all of the games. The silent auction and voting for the People’s Choice Award will begin at 1:30 pm and conclude at 3:30 pm, when the auction funds will be awarded to the winner, and a Lizzie Magie birthday cake will be served.

This workshop is co-organized by the Western Illinois Museum and the Macomb Park District.

This program is funded in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Additional funding was provided by a grant from the Illinois Humanities, with funds from the State of Illinois American Rescue Plan Act.

The Western Illinois Museum is located at 201 South Lafayette Street, one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square. The building is handicap accessible and there is free parking available. For more information contact the Museum by phone at 309.837.2750, text at 309.837.2613, or email at info@wimuseum.org.

About Sir Rok Locksley:

Rok Locksley is a Peace Corps Fellow and recent graduate from Western Illinois University where he received a Master’s Degree in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration. He currently works for the Macomb Park District as the Superintendent of Support Services. Locksley has worked with the Macomb Park District since 2020 and has created The Macomb School of Magic board game, a cooperative game that focuses on park issues such as litter and vandalism. He has created board games for the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps professionally. As an artist and designer, Locksley has created board games for clients for life events such as weddings, graduations, and corporate training. He is currently working on a 2-player dueling board game called “RagnaRok!”

Locksley served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Moldova from 2005 to 2008 where he was knighted for his community development work. Locksley then worked as the Illinois recruiter for the Peace Corps from 2009 to 2016.  From 2018 to 2020, he served a second tour in the Peace Corps with his partner, Genevieve, in the Philippines. He began his graduate studies at WIU in the Fall of 2020. In 2022 he won the RPTA Outstanding Graduate Student Award at WIU. Prior to his service with the Peace Corps, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from James Madison University and worked as a professional artist.