Morgan City: The Game, Idea came to Dinger in a dream one night

Morgan City resident Jason Dinger’s dream turned into reality has the attention of board game connoisseurs worldwide.

A prototype even sits on the desk of a potential publisher in Europe.

Last Valentine’s Day, Dinger and his wife Donna celebrated by eating dinner and playing board games at home. Their collection is around 100 games now.

Valentine’s night, Jason Dinger went to bed and awoke around midnight from a dream. The dream involved a board game idea about the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival.

“I grabbed my cellphone because it was late at night,” Dinger said. “And I just started texting ideas to myself so I wouldn’t forget them.”

Waking up the next morning, he began creating the board game Captains of the Gulf.

As far as trusting the dream, “the thought of trusting it never crossed my mind because it enveloped me,” Dinger said. “The dream woke me up. I woke up and it was so vivid in my mind.”

It started gradual, a 52-card card game.

“I pictured the dock here,” Dinger said. “I pictured the folks out there. I didn’t have time to stop and think about trusting. I just grabbed my phone and started texting the ideas.

“It enveloped me. And I tried to find sleep, eventually.”

He spent every waking moment working on the game outside of the time he spent working for the city and teaching martial arts to kids.

The initial concepts of the game were all in his dream. The game cards would have multiple uses: licenses, crew members, boat upgrades, and a space for the.

“From the initial playtest, we felt like there was something there,” Dinger said. “It was ugly, but we felt like something was there. We added some things and took some things off.”

After nearly 70 playtests, with his wife and others, the game is complete and has been submitted game publisher Spielworxx, for review. Spielworxx is based in Germany.

Game designers and reviewers have raved about it on social media and encouraged Dinger to get it published, Dinger said.

Dinger describes the game as “easy to learn, hard to master.” It is his first board game invention. He performed all of the art work and graphic design.

With encouraging social media reviews of the prototype, Dinger received an invitation to attend Heavy Con. It’s an invite-only board game convention put on by the hosts of Heavy Cardboard podcast.

Dinger prefers securing a publishing deal over self-publishing his product. However, his only stipulation is the game must remain true to its south Louisiana roots.

“It has to be about the Gulf of Mexico,” Dinger said. “Morgan City’s got to be on the game. That means more to me than any dollar amount. It’s got to be true to my heritage.”

Dinger’s grandfather was a shrimper. Almost a decade ago, he helped his father-in-law weld a 55-foot, steel-hull boat.

“It’s in my blood, you know,” Dinger said.

Dinger has two other Cajun-themed games in the works: JambaLiar and Sweet Harvest, which is about running a sugar cane farm.

Dinger manages the IT and Purchasing Department of the City of Morgan City.