An aspiring young designer, a Maine lobster fishing game, and a playtest that became a community moment
Jun 05, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.
BAR HARBOR — An article in Working Waterfront inspired 12-year-old Lily Sanders that she had to play Corker, the game featured in the article. Working Waterfront is a commercial fishing publication. And the game? It’s set right in Penobscot Bay.
It was intriguing and cool, so Sanders reached out to the designers of the game. And then she asked them to play.
“When I first read The Working Waterfront, I thought it was cool to read about local game designers. Then my mom said we could email them, and they not only answered but offered to meet us to play the game,” Sanders said in a press release sent out by Anchor Point Games.
That interaction helped inspire Sanders who is designing a board game for a school project.
Sanders’ project isn’t about lobstering though. It’s about feline genetics and breeding.
She met Anchor Point Games co-founders Cindy Wren and Gregory Birgfeld at Choco-Latte in Bar Harbor during Memorial Day weekend. Wren and Birgfeld are based in Searsport.
“The result was Corker’s youngest play tester to date and an afternoon that drew attention from families, café patrons, and other aspiring game designers,” the company said.
At Choco-Latte, Sanders and her stepdad, Colin Samuel, set up and played the strategy game.
“The play test was also the first public outing for Anchor Point’s new flexible neoprene game board, which rolled out across the café table for an easy, portable setup,” according to the release.
“The way the cards are written makes it feel real, almost like it’s actually happening to you. I learned a lot about lobstering,” Sanders said.
Focused on the economics of lobstering in Maine, players get to captain lobster boats. On three fishing zones, the players set and haul traps, time trips and try to find the best market price to sell their lobsters.
“I enjoyed meeting Cindy and Greg and was impressed with how they have created such a unique game inspired by their connection to coastal Maine,” Samuel said. “I also really enjoyed getting out-fished by my step-daughter.”
Despite a long lead, Samuel lost to Sanders in the final round thanks to a harbor business card that wiped out Samuel’s last haul.
After the game, the designers checked out Sanders own game prototype and then the fundamentals of game design.
“They even gave me advice on my own game that I’m working on,” Sanders said. “Maine has such an amazing sense of community.”
Corker draws from the real economics of Maine lobstering. Players captain lobster boats, set and haul traps across three fishing zones, and time their trips to port to sell at the best market price. Wren and Birgfeld brought the game to Vinalhaven, in March, and met with working fishermen there to test it.
“When I saw people smiling and laughing and groaning, ‘aw man,’ ‘oh yay,’ seeing that emotion of them being involved in the game was the most rewarding part,” Wren told the Working Waterfront.
Birgfeld added, “My favorite feedback was a guy telling another person, ‘Oh my God, that happened to me last year.’”
The duo know the area and the industry. A corker is a great catch.
The game involves approximately 20 turns that is meant to bring the players from that hard shell season right after winter, to soft shell season and back again. A tide card tells the Penobscot Bay conditions before turn begins. Dies are rolled. Traps are set. Traps are hauled. Boats move to different parts of the bay.
“A lot of the game play involved tangling ropes, stacking traps improperly, changing weather around the islands, ledges, open ocean. Key mechanics is that if you stay in-shore where it’s safer you haul fewer lobsters, but if you gamble for deeper water or lobsters where fewer people fish, you run the risk of the weather changing or the buoys being washed away by whitecaps or some other event,” Birgfeld told the Working Waterfront. “You’re thinking every turn how much risk you’re willing to take on. People start feeling the pressure to bring in more money.”
And that becomes part of the game. And the game? It becomes part of the community not just as it’s played, but as people learn about it, help create it, test it out, and as kids like Lily Sanders are responded to and taken under the game creators’ wing.
“That sense of community extended beyond the playtest,” according to Wren. “Before Lily’s family arrived, another family stopped at the table thinking the game might be open to play. Their ten-year-old son wanted to know everything about it, while his father shared that he and some friends had once sketched out a game idea of their own. At the next table, a stranger asked to read the rulebook while he finished his drink. By the end of the afternoon, several people had signed up for updates on the Corker Gamefound campaign.”
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Corker is scheduled to launch on Gamefound in 2026. To follow the campaign or sign up for updates, visit corkerthegame.com.
About Corker
Corker is a 2-6 player strategy board game set on Penobscot Bay. Players take on the role of Maine lobsterboat captains, setting and hauling traps, navigating changing market prices, and competing to earn the most from their catch. Inspired by the real rhythms and economics of Maine lobstering, Corker combines accessible gameplay with meaningful strategic choices.
About Anchor Point Games
Anchor Point Games is a Maine-based tabletop game company founded by Cindy Wren and Gregory Birgfeld. The company creates games rooted in place, community, and real-world systems, with a focus on strategy, storytelling, and authentic connections to Maine life.
PHOTOS: COURTESY ANCHOR POINT GAMES
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