"My board games are naturally nonconfrontational." Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave speaks about family values and her late father's influence on her latest board game, Sanibel

Elizabeth Hargrave, the esteemed board game designer who brought us the avian delights of hit Eurogame Wingspan, has returned with the delightfully seaside-themed Sanibel. In this latest board game, Hargrave delivers us to the sandy isles of Florida for a nature-inspired foray into the timeless hobby of beachcombing. But as does every scavenged shell and gnarled piece of driftwood, Sanibel harbours a hidden story.

Speaking to Hargrave, I learned that Sanibel isn't just a game about collecting and collating oceanic detritus. It's as much a cozy contender for best board game as it is a time capsule, seeking to reawaken the nostalgia-starved hearts of kindred holidaymakers. It's a delicate dive into deep-seated family values of curiosity and compromise. Moreover, Sanibel marks a final farewell of a dedicated daughter in mourning of her late father.

A wave of inspiration

For we quiet few, tabletop gaming has long provided a sanctuary from the outside world. From board and card games to TTRPGs and solo journaling, tabletop gaming is a space to recharge and bolster our mental health, ready to take on the horrors of the world. For designers in the space, too, our beloved hobby has an incredible capacity to heal our wounds through the process of creation. Having lost her father back in 2025, Hargrave announced in the wake of Sanibel's release that it was a game dedicated to his memory. "This one has a special place in my heart because I made it for my dad who was an insatiable shark tooth collector and who loved shells as well," the post recalls.

"There are thousands of shark teeth in my parent's house", Hargrave tells me. Her father's love of which is clearly reflected in the game's scoring, since the player with the largest cluster of shark teeth gains a trio of bonus points. Collecting them is as easy as breathing, too. Players simply wander along the beachy board at their own pace, picking up the best if they get to a section first, or the most if they take their time. The challenge then is arranging your collection in an almost Tetris-like fashion on your personal board to create clusters and score points.

Years before Sanibel's creation, following an afternoon stroll along the real-life shores of that Floridian island, it was Hargrave's father who first sparked the idea for the game. "I have family that live near the beach in Florida, so my immediate family would go and stay with my aunt and grandmother near the beach. We'd go out for a good chunk of the day and read books on the beach, take long walks, pick up shark teeth and seashells" Hargrave remembers. "One day we came back and we were eating lunch, and my dad was like 'You should make a board game about collecting seashells on the beach!', and I was like 'Oh yeah! I can't think of one, and it seems like such an obvious thing to do a board game about'", she says. It's clear how palpable the idea felt at the time. "There's an immediate spark: We collect things in games, we move around in games. That clearly can fit with game mechanics," she muses. "It's just such a universally enjoyed thing that so many people can relate to."

Of course, plenty of games feature seashells as a resource – Doggerland, for example, lets you harvest shells and turn your stash into handicrafts to earn points – but very few games focus their entire theme around it. While Kula Kula uses collected seashells as a central currency to be traded up or stolen in a sail-by robbery, it seems most similar games lack that "chill but positive" vibe Hargrave tells me she was aiming for.

Warming the cockles

Sanibel could easily have been a chaotic race against the clock, but Hargrave says she "wanted it to be literally walking down the beach picking up seashells". No rushing, no panic, just the tranquil sensibilities that her family instilled in her through all those years of carefree beachcombing. "The style of games that I like to play is usually pretty chill without a lot of direct confrontation," she notes. It's something we've seen spill into her design work time and time again. "The only confrontation in Sanibel really is people picking up things before you do, but that creates a really nice point of tension."

Using a Tokaido style of movement in which it's always the lagging player's turn and players choose exactly how far to move, you're constantly pushing your luck and potentially sacrificing a treasure trove of goodies along the way. As Hargrave puts it, "The further forward you jump, the farther back you fall." It's almost as if you're in contest more with your own self than you are with each other.

"All of my designs are naturally nonconfrontational," Hargrave says. "That's just my personal vibe and probably something that I got from my family". This is a family who she says used to play a lot of Scrabble, a game many consider a classically cozy word game… until of course someone starts with the two letter words. Even as a peaceful soul, that kind of gameplay ruffles Hargrave's feathers as much as it does mine.

"My brother broke out 'za'", she says. "I was like 'what the f– what's za?' Apparently it is an acceptable abbreviation for pizza." Maybe on the East Coast, my dude.

Hargrave laughs as I remark on the stresses of knowing how far behind you are in a board game, and how easily that can create a confrontational atmosphere. In games like Sanibel, where obscured scoring keeps you guessing as to your opponents point total until the final moment, she says "I don't really know how I'm doing until the end, and I just enjoy the process and enjoy building up the thing". I can certainly relate as an avid detailer, and creative gamer.

Speaking about her games in general, Hargrave makes it clear that "They all have a sort of curiosity about the natural world, which definitely comes from my family and my upbringing." From Wingspan to Undergrove and beyond, nature is a constant theme in her work, and one many of us are drawn to on an almost primordial level.

As a fellow nature lover and board game designer, I'm excited to see what conches she's keeping up her sleeve with Sanibel, because a stroll down the beach sounds idyllic in light of current world events. We have the full review on the site now, so keep an eye out for that if chill seashell collecting is your kind of bag.

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