‘Garland-Opoly’ flew off store shelves last month. Where is the game from, and who made it?

Game night in Garland just got more local.

In addition to the traditional Monopoly, Garland now has its own version called Garland-Opoly.

Players can land in places like Lake Ray Hubbard, Firewheel Town Center, Texas Skatium, get stuck in traffic and rent the Urban Market or the Granville Arts Center.

The localized version of the game features multiple local attractions, factories, mom and pop shops, and more.

Garland-Opoly, a localized spin-off from Monopoly, hit Walmart’s shelves last month. The games sold out within a week, said the game’s developer, Late for the Sky.(Deborah Morris)

Residents raved about the game online, and District 2 councilor Deborah Morris gained prominence on social media about the game. The game sold out quickly, so avid buyers had no chance of snatching their own copy.

But where did the game come from and how did it end up on the shelves at Walmarts in Garland?

The localized Monopoly game was produced and manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio – more than 900 miles from Garland.

The game’s developer, Late for the Sky, is a small family business that has been making board games for over 35 years, said Michael Schulte, marketing manager for Late for the Sky. The company employs approximately 40 people and has produced Monopoly spin-offs for more than 1,000 US and Canadian cities, including several in Texas. Other cities and colleges in Texas include Austin, Houston, Tyler, Dallas, Texas Tech, Midwestern State University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

There’s no specific reason Garland was selected, Schulte said. The company works with Walmart and has its own market research team. After doing thorough market research, the company picks cities that it believes would respond well to the game. Local pride plays a role in the decision.

Local governments are not involved in the process, said Schulte. Garland City employees didn’t call the company to come up with the idea.

“No one in the government is ever involved in choosing one of our cities,” he said.

Three or four employees work on each game at the same time. They do all of their research virtually and select local attractions and businesses to be featured on the game board based on the online conversation to the community.

When Late for the Sky and Walmart don’t work together to produce a localized Monopoly game for a particular city, community members can pay the company to make a game for their hometown. In this situation, however, Late for the Sky would only act as a manufacturer.

“So you would be responsible for marketing and reselling your game,” said Schulte.

In this case, community members would also need to purchase at least 1,000 copies of the game.

The first 1,000 copies at Walmarts in Garland were sold out within a week, Schulte said. Potential players should expect to see new inventory in the store sometime next month.

“Tell the Garland people to be patient,” said Schulte. “There will be more.”

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