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Ask Curtis Paul to describe his board game, Xtreme Takeover, and he might suggest you're already familiar with it.

"I coined the phrase, ‘mini-chess,'" said Paul, a Potomac man who developed the game. "It has a lot of characteristics of chess but it's not as formal — it's got a hip factor, a cool factor."

Paul, who works in commercial real estate, first was inspired to develop a board game when he noticed his son playing with chess and checker pieces. A board game, he thought, could be a fun way to promote social interaction and decision-making skills for children — but in the age of the Internet, he needed something that would hold their attention.

"I wanted it to look like a movie opening," Paul said of the game's design.

Xtreme Takeover pits two armies of fictional "Xiacons" against each other to take over their opposing army's "bunker." On the game box, a black Xiacon and red Xiacon — sworn enemies in the game — face each other against the backdrop of a stormy battlefield. During the game, players develop strategies to determine their next move. But unlike chess, the roll of a die throws an element of chance in the mix — which makes the game more exciting for both children and adults, according to Paul.

"There's a lot of decision-making, which I think kids need," Paul said. "It's not a passive game — it's very much like you're the general controlling your little army of people."

Paul developed the concept at his home, decorating pushpins to represent the Xiacons and using a design firm to help publish the game. He launched a company, Curtlin Toys and Games, to help market it.

While he's not alone in his interest to develop a board game, he may have picked a good time to break into the industry, according to some observers. Some say the recession may have benefitted sales of board games, which provide relatively low-cost entertainment and can be used again and again.

"The whole idea of ‘staycations' — people staying at home for their vacations and finding less expensive ways to have fun, it seems that board gaming has benefited from that," said Kaarin Engelmann, a board member of the Boardgame Players Association in Baltimore. The group promotes the playing of board games and organizes the World Boardgaming Championships, tournaments that saw record turnout this year, according to Engelmann.

But even with more people turning to board games, an influx of new choices into the market makes it difficult for hobbyists to publish their own and make money, Engelmann said.

Though the industry can be difficult to break into, it's not without its share of success stories.

For Bethesda resident Dominic Crapuchettes, designing board games has been a lifelong hobby. A California native, he was working on a fishing boat in Alaska and decided to turn his hobby into a business after the fishing industry took a hit in 1997. He moved to the Washington, D.C. area, got his master's in business administration at the University of Maryland, College Park, and launched his company, North Star Games.

He's now in his fifth year of business, and his trivia betting game, Wits and Wagers, is sold at Target, Borders and Barnes and Noble. The game began tallying up industry awards, Crapuchettes said, and a television game show is now also in the works.

"It's a very fun industry — it's not a cutthroat industry," Crapuchettes said. Despite the growth in the board gaming market, he said, "it feels like we are all in this together."

In an Internet-driven society, one key element of interest in board games is the social interaction they provide, experts say.

Paul agrees. He also hopes parents will be attracted to the non-violent nature of Xtreme Takeover — Xiacons don't use weapons — and sportsmanship amongst players in encouraged. In launching the game this month, he planned to donate 20 sets to local Boys and Girls clubs.

"The game is back to basics — what we're trying to do is encourage kids to interact with each other, expand their minds, use strategy and see something in three dimensions, as opposed to looking at a screen," Paul said.