- So my wife and I have been lifelong gamers, and we've attended a number of gaming conventions around the Midwest, and we were coming back from one.

And of course, you know, the energy and the excitement when you're leaving a con, you got all this fun stuff you did, all of it, you just lean into it for the entire time you were there.

And so we're kind of blue sky mining talking about, "Well, what if we won the lottery or what if we did this?"

And we realized about an hour into the drive that we were no longer talking about it as the theoretical, like if all went perfect, we said, "Oh yeah, I would open up."

At that point it was a game cafe concept.

And looked across the car and said, "You would?"

"Yeah, I would."

And so we realized we were no longer in the abstract, we were now in the possibility.

And so that's where it started.

- [Chris] Possibility turned into reality on the banks of the Grand River in Grand Ledge.

A passion for gaming and community are two of the vital ingredients in this homebrew concoction.

And there are different ways you can play.

- You can bring games, or you could rent games from our library of about 550 games.

So if you've really got a game that you all love to play, that you just want to continue here, or have a space that no one has to clean the house or choose the snacks, they can come in here and then they play the games as well, all for the classic fee.

But then they have access to over 500 games if they're doing our premium fee, which means games that come out all the way back to 5,000 years ago to five days ago so that folks can go and play Go or they can play the game that just came off Kickstarter yesterday.

- [Chris] Order yourself a cool beverage or snag a salty snack, and enjoy a warm and welcoming gaming environment.

- [Jeff] When we were working on creating Homebrew, one of the things we really wanted to be was sort of a place that everyone could feel comfortable coming into.

Obviously, like I said, my wife and I are gamers.

But when we take a look at it, we wanted you to be comfortable, if you hadn't played anything but "Yahtzee" when you were a kid, to come in, have a comfortable place to relax with friends, and maybe pull a game out.

One of the most popular games that gets played more often than any of the others is "Guess Who," the old two person game where you're just flipping up and trying to decide which character they've got selected.

It's always fun to watch folks who just kind of smile, I mean many of them adults, that just go, and they grab that, they have the nostalgia, and they go sit down and play.

- [Chris] There are new releases to choose from, classic games to revisit, and once a week there's a group of gamers who roll the dice and take a chance on learning a game as a group.

- So every Wednesday afternoon we hold what we call "Old Dogs, New Games."

All of them are retirees or veterans who come in.

Some have been gaming all their life, some are actually new to gaming, or have returned to gaming after all of their adulthood.

Now they're back to playing things they enjoy.

So we bring out a new game, one many of them may not have ever played before.

So we learn the rules and we kind of just kick the tires and see how it goes.

Sometimes it's a new game that they find that gets into the repertoire of the games they wanna play when they come in on different day.

Other times you're like, oh there's, that one's just not a good fit.

But overall it's a chance for folks to gather, and keep their brains active, and learn, and have a group of people that they can laugh and tell the same bad jokes with every Wednesday.

- I played games since I was a kid.

Through the Navy, obviously played a lot of card games while we were at sea.

Got into it a little bit deeper than I thought I would get.

There's a million different games out there.

Got my wife and my son involved.

Then he started the gaming for "Old Dogs, New Tricks" during the week.

So we started showing up here during the week on a weekday.

I met other retired folk and veterans, and we got our own little group that plays on Wednesday, and we had a lot of fun - [Chris] At Homebrew, there's an easy way to let folks know the status of your game.

Maybe you're looking for additional players, or you're interested in having people learn about the game you're playing.

- For us, in wanting to create that community and create that space where people felt like they could actually interact.

You don't have to know all the people here to actually have a chance to maybe talk with them, play with them.

The Meeples became sort of the shorthand.

So the green maple means you're looking for additional players.

You can put that out.

It also takes the onus off of us Midwesterners.

We don't have to feel rude.

We can actually walk up, because they have a sign saying that they're open to talking and we can ask if we can play.

The yellow Meeples allow folks to go and say, look, we're started, but we loved the idea of someone else knowing the game that we love so much.

We're more than willing to teach you, because we want you to be here next time, 'cause it's more fun with more players.

So the yellow Meeple says, we'll teach you, but we probably can't involve you in the game.

And the red actually kind of takes a look at the other part of our community as gamers, where some of us, our social cues need to be a little bit more enhanced.

So this one allows us to realize, oh, they don't want to hear about our way of how we played that game and just put the red Meeple out.

- [Chris] Whether it's checkers, chess, D&D, or Connect Four, you're sure to find a good game, a good group, and a good time.

- It feels amazing.

It really does, because we want to be that place that, whether you're a person who knows every one of the latest games that are out there, or haven't played anything since you and your siblings played "Chutes and Ladders," that you feel comfortable coming in.

And we want folks to realize that this isn't a perfect place.

This is just the perfect place for them to get together and meet other folks.