Mental Health Professionals

Calling Mental Health Professionals!

Aloha!

Thank you for looking at D.I.Y gaming as a mental health resource for your clients, and a fun activity for yourself, friends, & family.

Our family has personally benefited from family and individual counseling. Being married, raising kids (triplets!), living through COVID, social media, politics, climate change, cost of education, cost of living in general...the list of stressors are as long as they are unique to each individual and group. The attention and care for mental health and seeking effective tools to reach and benefit people is as important as ever.

During our COVID lockdown experience, I discovered that making and playing games was an activity that helped our family connect and share meaningful times together. The more we put ourselves into it, the more we got out of it - and our mission to share "D.I.Y gaming" (do-it-yourself) was born.

3 Benefits of D.I.Y. gaming are:

• Taking a break from digital devices (and the rest of your noisy world)
It's easy to get comfortably numb watching other people do outrageous things, on our devices' screens, based on algorithms...or minimally moving our thumbs and eyes to score massive points / win imaginary awards / set off digital fireworks to celebrate preprogrammed rewards, but barely earned "achievements" won't give satisfaction or fulfillment in the long run. We should all take a break.

• Owning your experience
Roll dice, flip cards, move game pieces, keep your score - be a physical part of the fun. Your purposeful efforts are the reason it's fun to play and win. Engage your brain, challenge your thinking, hone your skills, try new things, and have fun doing it. It's your experience. Take ownership of and responsibility for it. The more you put into it, the more your get out of it. You are worth it.

• Sharing the experience
Play with others. When possible play in-person, face to face. Agree to a set of rules and follow them together. Compete, support, surprise, and laugh with each other. If you risk bringing yourself to the game and acknowledge what others bring to the game you are playing together, you'll make memories that stick.

3 D.I.Y. games characteristics:

• Cost
We want games to be accessible and cost is a factor. We support people buying as many $20-100 games if they can afford it, but for most people a large and expensive game collection is a barrier to entry.

Our DIY games are free or affordable digital downloads that are print-and-play. Your game board is the cost of a page of paper and available wherever you have access to a printer.

We promote building your own DIY Game Kit of dice, cards, pawns, etc...that can be reused across many DIY games again and again. Personalizing your custom kit makes every game more fun and reusing, renewing, and recycling game accessories is good for the environment and your bank account.

• Commitment (time & effort)
In addition to the financial cost, time and effort are commitments that influence people playing new games. I don't want to spend $50 and set aside 2 hours on a game I don't love and I don't expect non-gamers, kids, grandparents, and anyone with a busy life to do so either.

In general, in addition to being inexpensive, DIY games are simple to learn, have quicker play times, high entertainment value, and worth playing again and again.

• Variety
With low cost and low time/effort commitment, it opens the door to playing more games! Variety is the spice of life. If you try 100 different games, you are more likely to find the 10 (or more!) you love and will continue to play.

As we build our TMI Boom library of over 100 DIY games we will span an incredibly wide variety of games with a range of qualities - so there will be something great to connect with for everyone. We want it easy for people to find their favorites and more importantly, play them.

Where do you come in?

This is a grass roots movement. I am not a big company trying to maximize profits for investors. I am using the skills I have to make at positive impact on my community and show my kids that you can choose a challenging project/job/career that also contributes to society in a meanigful way.

We are reaching out to students & families, seniors, & the mental health community to reach the people that will benefit from and spread the word about D.I.Y. games.

What you can do right now?

1) Sign up for TMI Boom's FREE G.O.T.M. (game-of-the-month).
I'd love for you to do it personally (and play the games) as well as offer it as a resource to your clients.

We give out a totally free game every month to anyone who signs up with their email. It's how we give back to and build our community - no ulterior motives or shenanigans. Subscribers get a free DIY game every month with no strings attached.

2) Download a sample.
As an immediate resource for mental health professionals, please feel free to download these G.O.T.M. samples. Please try them yourself and share them. Our hope is that people will see their value and sign up for future G.O.T.M. games for themselves.

Inchworm™

Knock-Off™

Pathem® word puzzles

4 Sisters Solitaire™

Thank you!

Your time is valuable and appreciate you considering what DIY gaming has to offer to people' mental health and signing up for TMI Boom's G.O.T.M. program.

Feel free to reach out and share your thoughts. I'm always looking to connect.

- JK Cook

BONUS: Here's a 20% coupon code for the TMI Boom SHOP just for you.
"mentalhealth20"
DIY gaming is first and foremost about having fun - and our entertaining merch and games support our mission.