Tara Hunsucker began her journey into card games when she was a little girl obtaining a few Pokémon cards to pique her interest.

Over time, she fell in love with the community these simple card and role-playing games had to offer, and now, she continues to grow that community through her own business, The Castle Games, which opened its doors in 2020.

“When we started out, we didn’t know anybody here except my family, and in just three years, we have created a community that comes together to play games and have a good time,” she said. “A lot of people really appreciate the space we have here.”

With more than 1,000 followers on social media and more than 300 active users on their Discord server, Hunsucker said the store has created a massive community that has been rewarding to see grow over the years.

Let’s go back to the beginning, however, where she found her love for fantasy, magic and games that started it all.

Hunsucker was born in Seymour and moved away with her mother when she was really young. Living in Maine until she was 7, they made the trip across the United States to San Diego, California, where she lived until she was 25.

It was in California where she found an interest in Magic: The Gathering, a collectible card game that Wizards of the Coast first came out with in 1993.

Each game of Magic represents a battle between wizards who cast spells, use artifacts and summon creatures as depicted on individual cards to defeat their opponents.

Players can and often strategically build their own deck of cards to use when playing. Hunsucker said she didn’t start playing and building her own decks until she was 15, but growing up, she could tell there were barriers.

“Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of women who played table-top card games,” she said. “I was definitely an outlier. I would try to get some of my friends who were girls to play, but they just weren’t interested like I was.”

Hunsucker said it was a deterring period of time and even at some points a little lonely being surrounded mostly by men. It wasn’t until she was exposed to tournaments and competitions when she saw how different she was treated.

“There were times where I wasn’t taken seriously because I was a girl,” she said. “I would sit down and they would think I wouldn’t know what I was doing. Eventually, I just learned to use that to my advantage.”

Hunsucker said while the table-top gaming community is made up of mainly men, she tries to advocate for more women in the gaming community.

“It’s an uphill battle,” she said. “Boys grew up and were exposed to this stuff more than girls were, but that is changing now. I see parents come into the store and they are bringing in their children and even their daughters.”

As Hunsucker advocates for a safe space within her own business, she said she is fortunate to have had supportive people around her growing up who made her comfortable to keep playing.

Hunsucker became fully competitive in table-top card games in 2017 when she entered her first tournament in a game store called Brute Force Games in San Diego. Upon entering the small backroom packed to the brim with the opposite sex, she said the experience was daunting.

“I was the only girl there, and I remember being utterly nervous,” she said. “I shouldn’t have been, but I was.”

Her first game what was known as a “mirror match,” a match played against the opponent who has a nearly identical deck, and due to her knowledge of the game, she caught a win.

“My opponent went to play a card that wasn’t legal in the format we were playing in, so I called the judge over, and I ended up winning that game,” she said. “I was so nervous when I did that, though. My face probably was as red as a tomato.”

By the end of the tournament, she ended up placing in the top eight.

Besides enjoying table-top card games in her free time, Hunsucker enjoys learning about cultures and understanding the different communities around her. Hunsucker also obtained degrees in anthropology and archaeology during her time in San Diego.

“After I got my degrees, I worked in the financial field, but it wasn’t that rewarding, honestly,” she said. “I always had a love for understanding humanity and found that other fields didn’t scratch the same itch that anthropology did. I was very inspired by a couple professors, and I learned so much about myself and the communities around me.”

With a special love for medieval history, Hunsucker said some of her biggest inspirations when world-building her own Dungeons and Dragons adventures are authors J.R.R. Tolkein from Lord of the Rings and George R.R. Martin from Game of Thrones.

“Dungeons and Dragons is essentially world-building, and when you have a background in anthropology, you understand how societies are created and cultures are formed, so it helps when you want to homebrew,” she said. “Those authors’ world-building aspects and their ability to tell a robust story that encompasses an entire world is just amazing.”

After she met the love of her life, Hutton, through an immediate connection through the love of music and table-top games, they noticed something when they were with her family here in town.

“We noticed that there wasn’t a game store in the area, and when we looked at Walmart, all of the card games, like Magic and Pokemon, were pawed over,” she said. “We took a chance and thought maybe this will be a thing, and it was.”

Now three years later and with two successful stores up and running, Hunsucker said she is on the go the moment she wakes up until the moment she goes to bed.

“First thing in the morning, I check emails and respond to staff to let them know about today’s events and things to do. Then I communicate with distributors, and then I usually make my rounds to the stores for customer interactions and any shop needs,” she said. “We also keep up with a large amount of online orders.”

With as much as 100 online orders a day, Hunsucker said it is important for her to stay on top of inventory, scheduling and keeping herself organized. However, she still manages to give herself at least one day for downtime.

“Self-care is very important, so I give myself one day where I will not look at my phone at all,” she said.

Even though it can be a hassle to own a business, Hunsucker said she finds meaning in many aspects of her job.

“Some people have told me that this store has changed their life, and that is really meaningful,” she said. “We all work toward a common goal, which is creating a safe space, and we do that with an amazing team. We all care about the community, and we want to give back.”

In the spirit of giving back, The Castle Games has been involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters by donating games, packaging cards for Christmas and currently running a charity raffle for the organization.

When it comes to the people and things that inspire her to keep going, she said there are multiple.

“I inspire myself and the community inspires me to keep going,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine having this place and then not having it anymore.”

In the future, Hunsucker hopes to open a third shop in southern Indiana and then eventually venture north to start the journey over again. However, the ultimate dream is to create her own empire.

“I think it would be cool to turn it into a franchise,” she said. “Just in the way you could go to a McDonald’s, you could go to a Castle Games.”

Overall, Hunsucker said she hopes to continue to provide a safe and fun space for everyone to enjoy, no matter the interest.