Time to Play

Zac and Fyfe love games, and importantly love helping people find the games they love.

Board games have a long history, but the last 30 years have seen an explosion and there has never been a better time to play a game.

What is the problem we solve?
We sell board games online and we help you find the right game. A great game that will give you and your friends and family a great board gaming experience.

There are literally thousands of games to choose from. Some retailers have more than 4500 different games… and less than 1700 of them are available. Everything else is back order, pre-order or just out of stock.

Are these games good? Some of them are.
Are these games great? Of course some of them could be.
Are those the right games for you? We yeah. Ummm. At least 7 of them, but the one you want is out of stock. And that one is coming out… probably later.

Time to Play is about having fun now. They are set up to help you pick the right game at every step in the process.

They select every game they stock, find the best reviews and how to play videos to make it easy for you to know if it is for you. Then before listing a game they find reviews they trust, and how to play videos. They write a short guide and link to other resources like BoardGameGeek. They add age recommendations, player counts, and every detail to help you make the right decision.

Both Zac and Fyfe play new games every week. Less than half of what they play makes it to the store. They are building a trusted brand for both hobby gamers who want deep complex unique experiences and parents looking for something that everyone loves on family games night.

They are constantly working on their range of buyers guides “How to find a Great Game?”

Let’s take a step back to the beginning. The (mostly-almost) entirely complete and accurate history of board games in Australia…

In the mid 80’s boardgaming in Australia was largely made up of the usual lineup of family games – Monopoly, Squatter, Uno, and Mouse Trap amongst others. Bought from big chain stores, holidays would involve arguments with the banker, stacking your Uno cards, and actively not playing Mouse Trap because what better fun than to make your own Rube Goldberg machine to catch a mouse?

As time moved on a new type of board game reached Australia’s shores. Dubbed ‘European Board Games’ because of their origin or Euro Games, this included the now classics ‘Settlers of Catan’ (1995, and renamed ‘Catan’ in 2015), Carcassonne (2000), and Ticket to Ride (2004). Customers would only be able to buy board games such as this in a very select type of store in Australia, and as such prices and accessibility were quite prohibitive. But with Internet shopping and a global market exploding during the 2010’s these once boutique games could be more readily accessed and thus a hobby was truly born.

It was these games that Zac and Fyfe became enamoured with. The best board games for them were clever games, well made games, games that rewarded thought, games that could be elegantly built on a simple roll of a dice or card flip to games that harnessed a sophisticated network of interlocking rules to make the brain truly work and decisions poured over. For both of them, one game would become a collection, each with a theme that would spark imagination, or with a style of game play that scratched an itch for the game night.

For both Fyfe and Zac a love of games was intertwined with the people they played with, and, more often than not, they became the duo that introduced these board games to their friends and family. They would be queried about what would work for an office party, for a classroom of young kids, or the best game to dedicate a day to exploring a tabletop galaxy. Between the two of them, just about every social situation that could include a board game could be covered, from thirty people trying to figure out who the werewolves were, to spending an evening alone solving an elaborate escape room in a box.

Collections broadened in scope when their own families expanded to include the pitter patter of little feet and curious hands, the focus shifted to introducing their love of games to their own children. What would be engaging, tactile, and above all, fun? Suddenly learning to take turns became a life skill, as was abiding by the fickle fate of a bad dice roll, and to win with grace (and unashamed glee).

Zac and Fyfe are always searching for the best board games, they research, read reviews and rules. The industry is growing exponentially with new games releasing every month, plus expansion and so many classics are getting a face lift.

They get the games they would recommend and provide fast shipping to get you your games sooner when you buy online.

If you need to buy board games, Time to Play is building a brand you can trust.