Third Layer Games creates interactive, immersive games that ask us to look at the world — and each other — through a new lens.
We invent, create and design social and party board games for 2-10 people that help us playfully go a li’l deeper. We have been either teaching creativity (Alex) or designing patterns (Jarmo) for 20 years.
Our first game, Senseption, comes from an exercise Alex teaches called Sense Ratings. Jarmo and Alex came up with the idea for Sense Ratings on a 12-hour flight when Alex was moving to London in 2012. The exercise has been a giant hit with her creativity workshop attendees, but it turned out it made an even better board game.
ORIGIN STORY
TLG is the creation of Alex (she/her) and Jarmo Järvi (he/him).
One Saturday night in January, Jarmo asked Alex:
“If you were ever going to design another board game*, what would it be?”
By Tuesday, they had a working prototype.
WHO WE ARE
Alex has worked as a Lonely Planet author (Explore Every Day, Tuscany & Umbria), journalist, editorial director, one-time standup, creativity educator and speaker, and poetry mentor in a psychiatric hospital. She is the co-CEO, director of creativity, quality control engineer and social media intern.
Jarmo Järvi grew up in Jyväskylä, Finland and lived in London for a decade before moving to the US with Alex. He’s a solutions architect in the cybersecurity industry, as well as a maker, designer and bowhunter . He is the co-CEO, CTO, CFO AND COO.
Muppy is a bichon, poodle, chihuahua rescue who likes walkies, his best friend Pippa and literal long walks on the beach.
Jarmo and Alex met at a castle in Spain (as you do) and now live with Muppy on Bainbridge Island, WA. (You can read Alex’s suggestions for Bainbridge and the Olympic Peninsula in the next edition of Lonely Planet PNW.)