Garphill Games ("gar-fill") was established in 2009 by New Zealand designer, Shem Phillips. For their first five years, they designed a number of family-style games with very low print runs, which primarily sold across New Zealand. In 2014, the company launched their first ever Kickstarter campaign. This was for their biggest game yet: Shipwrights of the North Sea. The game gained a lot of interest and helped push Garphill out into the global scene. A year later they followed up with the highly-rated sequel, Raiders of the North Sea. Since then the company has continued to release quality games every year, picking up numerous awards and appreciation from players and reviewers alike.

Garphill Games is based out of Waikanae, New Zealand.