Meet Our Makers: Aryelle
Meet Our Makers is meant to feature and celebrate the unique individuals that make magic happen at Top Shelf in a variety of ways. We are so proud of our community and we would be nothing without our creative leaders and makers. These results come with a roller coaster of experiences though, and at the end of the day, we're all just people, doing what we can, the best we can and we're here to celebrate the magic that can come from a cocktail of passion, community and lots of glue... so much glue.
Here's to our first Maker:
ARYELLE
The 2020 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to the company and our makers rose to the challenge. All public entertainment came to a stand-still and we were left at home, bored. Our team was lucky enough to have some master minds amongst us to bring the fun home and with that,
Top Shelf Games was born!
Who are you?
Hi, I’m Aryelle! I am a yoga practising dog mom who loves to travel and all things spooky. I am very competitive and love games that can bring people together while still firing them up.
How did Top Shelf Games start?
We both [Aryelle & Adam (to be featured later)] adore Halloween and wanted to bring the spirit of halloween into peoples homes to provide a way for people to still celebrate and have fun during these COVID times. It all spiralled form there in the best way possible!
What was your experience with designing and building games?
My experience before creating our first game box was nada. My background is in Law and Health Science so it was all very new to me. That being said I have always been a fan of puzzles and escape rooms, so I was extremely excited to try the challenging task of building an escape room in a box.
What inspired this Escape Room box?
Our love of escape rooms and Halloween mixed with the determination to provide people some spirit during these difficult and isolating times really motivated us to give it a try.
Perth, Ontario has a lot of interesting history, so we really leaned into the folklore that exists there and tried to keep our story grounded where our spirits are made.
We are now continuing our collection of games because not only do we love to make them, but our customers have been incredibly supportive and excited about them. If we can continue to bring the fun to peoples doorsteps in a safe and conscious way, then we will continue to strive for the best, most fun games we can.
What were some obstacles you faced along the way?
What were some obstacles you faced along the way?
Hand making anything when you have to do a hundred is very time consuming. We have shifted from completely handmade boxes to a variety of different boxes with a mixed variety of handmade details. Our Seance of Victoria Hall Experience Box (our 1st) was incredibly gruelling with extremely late nights, super glue everywhere and a very messy work space. Since then we have been way better at organizing, planning ahead and perfecting elements. We’ve started a more technology based game series so that we can cater to more people better. [Check out our Z Files Game] We have also started a card games series to give more variety in what we produce, allowing us to develop our skills even further.
Vision for the future?
We want to continue to deliver a variety of games to our customers so they always have something to bring home and celebrate. It is extremely important for us to be able to entertain people and bring them together with every game we make as people have been very isolated, and our dreams for this part of the company is to keep people safe, having fun and mentally engaged.
Aryelle is part of Top Shelf Games, an ongoing initiative to break ground in the at-home game industry and keep our community having fun. Aryelle works alongside Adam who will be featured next time. The Seance of Victoria Hall Experience Box was the beginning of something unmatched at Top Shelf. There was countless hours put in by every staff member to deliver a unique experience for the world's first COVID Halloween in Ontario and we think we did pretty good.
Let us know what you think though! Check out our efforts
here and support your local makers today.
