Game Forge was Nick Alcorso's recovery from a brain injury, now he's saying goodbye

No longer able to work, living with chronic headaches, memory issues and depression, Mr Alcorso needed to find purpose and to rehabilitate so he dove into a passion: he purchased a board game store.

Now eight years on, he's gone full circle.

The Launceston man has closed his George Street board and card game business, The Game Forge, to return to the world of accounting having recovered from injuries he sustained in a car crash in 2013.

The store was a long-time home for gamers of all creeds, many of whom spent hours upstairs in the building rolling dice in role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, which Mr Alcorso was an enormous fan of growing up and still dabbles in.

"I purchased the shop as an antidepressant, because I needed something that could get me out of bed in the morning," Mr Alcorso said.

"And that's exactly what it did for me: it gave me a place to go every day and be somewhere I was passionate to be."

Mr Alcorso said goodbye to Game Forge in late January to begin working full time at the University of Tasmania's Tax Clinic, a federally funded, free tax and accounting service for at-risk or low income clients.

"It was kind of serendipitous; I was finally back to being able to work full time when this job at the University appeared," he said.

"I am so pleased to be able to apply my knowledge and expertise in an area that is so clearly beneficial to the community.

"It couldn't have been a more perfect role, or better timing."

He credits Game Forge with "achieving its ultimate goal" of bringing him back to mental health and to a place where he can work again, and said that board games, too, had played their role.

"When you look at the gamut of games that we play, a kind of practice for skill sets that I was rebuilding: problem solving, memory, social interactions," Mr Alcorso said.

"Ultimately, it was the board game community that was my recovery process."