Play games in Gunbarrel

If you love playing games, there’s a place around the corner that’s ready to become your new home away from home.

Karliquin’s Game Knight in Gunbarrel is under new ownership. James and Kayla Laird recently purchased the business from former owner Jackson Wood, and the Lairds are busy with the process of enacting their specific vision for the storefront. The focus is less on retail, and more on creating a gathering space for the local community.

James and Kayla moved here from Louisiana, where James worked as the senior engineer in a riverboat casino.

As often happens when children become a part of the equation, the Lairds’ trajectory shifted with the birth of their son Theodore two years ago.

Louisiana had just displaced Mississippi as the state with the lowest-ranked public education system in the nation, and the Lairds decided that wasn’t the environment in which they wanted to raise their son.

“All our decisions suddenly became about what’s best for Theodore. He’s number one,” says James.

Their plan was to start an internet-based game store, with the goal of moving the business into a brick-and-mortar storefront within a couple years, either in Colorado or in California, where James is from originally.

But when a friend living in Gunbarrel alerted them to the possibility of purchasing Karliquin’s, they decided it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

Since arriving in October, the Lairds already have made some modifications, with more on the way.

The central floor space is devoted to a number of large tables for game-playing, with retail shelving along the walls for games, books and various accessories.

There are a number of weekly game nights centered around well-known specific games, such as Magic: The Gathering, War Machine, and Dungeons and Dragons.

Thursday nights are “open game nights”, and there is a “demo” room full of games customers can try out for free. The back of the store has a kitchen area that is open to customers and game-players, with drinks and snacks available for purchase.

“Theodore is kind of the store’s mascot,” says James, as he walks around the store with Theodore happily perched on his shoulders.

Kayla runs a monthly “anime club” for kids, and Sunday afternoons at Karliquin’s now feature a Pokemon-based game, also for the younger set.

One specific family-focused innovation is a new children’s playroom, for which Kayla is currently designing and painting a mural, and which James pointed to as a key element in their overall plan for increasing the store’s accessibility to as many members of the local community as possible.

As James puts it, “The idea is a comfortable place for everyone to get together and game.”

Karliquins is located at 6546 Gunpark Dr. Suite 270, Boulder. 303-545-1745.