From Medical Doctor to Game Designer: Interview with Dr. Thom Van Every

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I met Dr. Thom Van Every at a modest café in Guildford, just down the street from their GP practice. They arrived in NHS scrubs (morning clinic had run late), apologized for being 10 minutes behind, and ordered a coffee with the efficiency of someone used to tight schedules.

"Sorry—Tuesdays are always packed. Had a complex patient case this morning." He smiled. "Though honestly, even complex medicine is more straightforward than game design. In medicine, there are right answers backed by evidence. In game design, you're trying to create fun, which is completely subjective."

Over the next 90 minutes, we discussed their unlikely journey from operating theatre to game table, the five-year slog of creating Smoothie Wars, and why a medical doctor decided business education needed fixing.

Origin Story: Why Smoothie Wars?

Sarah: Let's start at the beginning. You're a practicing GP—how did you end up designing a board game?

Thom: Completely accidentally. November 2018, I'm helping my eldest daughter with Year 4 homework about supply and demand. The worksheet's awful—cartoon apples, circle whether prices go up or down, no actual understanding required.

I realized she could pass the test through pattern-matching without grasping the concept. That frustrated me. Economics is taught so abstractly—graphs, definitions, memorization. Real understanding comes from experience.

I thought, "What if kids could feel supply-demand dynamics instead of memorizing them?" Games make abstract concepts tangible. So I sketched out a rough idea: kids competing to sell products at different locations, experiencing how competition and demand affect profits.

That sketch became Smoothie Wars.

Sarah: Why smoothies specifically? Why a tropical island?

Thom: (laughs) Honestly? My kids love smoothies, and I wanted something colorful and appealing. Early versions were about generic products—"widgets" or "lemonade." But that felt bland.

The tropical island theme came from a family holiday to Barbados. We visited beach vendors selling fruit smoothies, juice, coconuts. Watching them compete for tourist custom—that was supply-demand in action. I thought, "This is the game."

Smoothies are familiar enough that kids relate, exotic enough to be fun, and the business model is simple (buy fruit, make smoothies, sell to customers). Perfect game theme.

Design Process: Concept to Publication

Sarah: Take us through the development journey. How many versions did you create?

Thom: Five major versions, each fundamentally different.

Version 1.0 (2018-2019): Way too complex. Stock market simulation, fluctuating prices, trading mechanics. I was designing for adults, forgetting kids need simplicity. Playtests were disasters—nobody understood it, games took 90 minutes, children hated it.

My wife told me bluntly: "This isn't fun. If you want to teach kids, they have to actually want to play."

Version 2.0 (2019): Overcorrected. Made it super simple—basically roll dice, draw cards, move forward. My 8-year-old could play, but my wife and I were bored senseless. Zero strategic depth.

Version 3.0 (2020): Breakthrough. Introduced the location system. Suddenly it worked—kids understood "Beach has lots of customers" intuitively, but positioning created real strategy. This was the structural foundation of the published game.

Version 4.0 (2021): Refined the ingredient economics. Balanced costs vs. revenues, introduced exotic ingredients, tested different demand card distributions.

Version 5.0 (2022): Current published version. Polished, playtested 200+ times, ready for manufacture.

Sarah: What was the hardest design decision?

Thom: Luck vs. skill balance. How much randomness do you include?

Too much luck (Version 2.0), and adults disengage—"My decisions don't matter." Too little (early Version 3.0), and the game becomes a solvable puzzle—"Optimal strategy is always X."

I spent six months testing different demand card distributions, dice impacts, event cards. Finally landed on ~30% luck, 70% skill. Enough luck that kids can occasionally win, enough skill that better players win consistently over time.

Validating that ratio required tracking 100+ games and correlating player experience with win rates. Tedious, but essential.

Balancing Medical Practice, Entrepreneurship, and Family

Sarah: You work 3.5 days per week as a GP. How do you find time for Smoothie Wars?

Thom: Poorly, some weeks! (laughs)

My schedule:

• Monday-Thursday: GP practice (8am-6pm, usually later with admin)
• Friday: Smoothie Wars—order fulfillment, customer emails, playtesting new variants
• Weekends: Family time, but evenings I work on game development (writing content, marketing, financial admin)

It's exhausting. Some weeks I question whether it's worth it. I could drop Smoothie Wars, earn more as a GP, have more free time.

But then I'll get an email from a teacher: "Your game helped my students understand economics for the first time in 10 years of teaching." Or a parent: "My daughter uses business concepts from the game in everyday life."

That impact—seeing the game genuinely help people learn—makes the exhaustion worth it.

Sarah: Does your medical background inform game design?

Thom: Absolutely. Medicine is about systems thinking—heart affects lungs affects kidneys, everything's interconnected. You can't change one variable without affecting others.

Game design is identical. You can't change ingredient costs without affecting pricing strategy, which affects location values, which affects pivot timing. It's a system.

My medical training taught me to think in systems, anticipate second-order effects, and test changes empirically (RCTs in medicine = playtests in games).

Biggest Challenges and Surprises

Sarah: What nearly killed the project?

Thom: Manufacturing, honestly.

I had a working game (Version 5.0, playtested successfully). I thought the hard part was over. Then I tried to manufacture it.

First manufacturer: Quoted £12/unit for 1,000 units (£12,000 total), but quality was terrible—thin cards, poor printing. I rejected the samples.

Second manufacturer: Higher quality but £18/unit (£18,000). I didn't have that capital.

Third manufacturer (finally): UK-based, £15/unit for 1,000 units, acceptable quality. I scraped together £25,000 (£15K manufacturing + £10K artwork, shipping, website, marketing).

Bootstrapped from personal savings. Terrifying financial risk.

Then logistics: Where do I warehouse 1,000 game boxes? (My garage, uncomfortably.) How do I ship? (Learned fulfillment logistics the hard way.)

I nearly quit twice during manufacturing phase. Thought, "I'm a doctor, not a supply chain manager."

Sarah: What kept you going?

Thom: Two things. First, I'd already sunk £25K—sunk cost fallacy in action! (laughs) Though honestly, I believed in the product enough to see it through.

Second, my eldest daughter (14 now) said, "Dad, you've worked on this for five years. You have to finish it." Kids can be surprisingly motivating.

Vision for Educational Impact

Sarah: What's your ultimate goal for Smoothie Wars?

Thom: I want every UK child to experience business education through play before age 14.

Currently, business and economics are taught through textbooks (abstract, boring) or not at all until GCSE/A-Level (too late). By 14, kids have formed beliefs about "I'm not a maths person" or "Business is for other people."

But if they play Smoothie Wars at age 10-12, they discover: "Oh, I can think strategically about money and competition. I can understand market dynamics." That opens doors.

Ambitious goal: 1,000 UK schools using Smoothie Wars by 2028. We're at 200+ now. It's reachable.

Future Plans and Potential Expansions

Sarah: What's next? Expansion packs? Digital versions?

Thom: Three projects in various stages:

1. Expansion Pack "Market Mayhem" (Q3 2026, confirmed):

• 3 new locations (Airport, Food Truck, Farmers' Market)
• 30 event cards (Weather, Regulations, Trends)
• 6 new exotic ingredients
• Price: £15, works with base game

We're finalizing playtests now—it adds variety without obsoleting the base game.

2. Educational Edition (2026, in development):

• Enhanced teacher resources (lesson plans, worksheets, assessments)
• Curriculum-aligned content (UK National Curriculum mapping)
• Bulk pricing for schools

Teachers keep requesting this. It's a priority.

3. Digital version (2027+, exploratory):

• Mobile/tablet app
• Solo play against AI
• Online multiplayer
• Tutorial mode for learning

We're in early discussions with developers. Big undertaking—would need £50-100K development budget. Might seek investment or publisher partnership.

Sarah: International versions?

Thom: Yes, but carefully. Translation is straightforward (rules, cards). Cultural adaptation is harder—fruit preferences vary (dragonfruit common in Asia, exotic in UK). Currency (£ vs. € vs. $).

Considering French and German translations for 2027. Want to maintain educational effectiveness, not just translate literally.

Advice for Aspiring Game Designers

Sarah: What advice for someone wanting to create an educational game?

Thom: Five lessons:

1. Fun first, education second. If the game isn't genuinely enjoyable, the educational value is wasted—nobody will play it. Your game must earn the right to teach by being fun enough that people choose to play repeatedly.

2. Playtest ruthlessly with your target audience. I tested with 200+ people before publishing. Early versions failed badly. That feedback—watching 8-year-olds get confused, seeing teenagers get bored—that's what drives improvement. Your instincts about "this will work" are usually wrong. Trust playtesters.

3. Iterate, don't perfect. I could've playtested for another year, tweaked another dozen variables. But launching Version 5.0 (good enough, not perfect) and getting real-world feedback proved more valuable than endless internal refinement.

4. Understand your constraints. I'm not a game industry insider. Couldn't get publisher meetings. So I bootstrapped. Play to your strengths—I had medical credibility for educational positioning, entrepreneur experience for business setup, and financial capital to self-publish. Your constraints and advantages differ—identify them, lean into strengths.

5. Be patient. Quality takes time. Five years from concept to published game. Most people quit after one year. Persistence is the differentiator.

Sarah: Any regrets?

Thom: I wish I'd networked in the game design community earlier. I worked in isolation for 3 years, reinvented wheels, made mistakes others could've warned me about.

Find your community—game design forums, local designer meetups, online groups. Learn from others' experiences.

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About the Author: Sarah Mitchell interviewed Dr. Thom Van Every across three sessions in June 2024, discussing the creation, impact, and future of Smoothie Wars.

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Experience the game five years in the making. Order Smoothie Wars, read the complete origin story, and join the community of players and educators using it worldwide.