Boardgames
BALDERDASH
I invented Balderdash when I was in my mid-twenties and living in Toronto. My co-inventor, Paul Toyne and I has a friend who had invested in Trivial Pursuit and he was doing so well, we said “Hey why don’t we make a game?”
Balderdash was based on a parlour game that we both had played for years with our respective families and friends that was known in some circles as the Dictionary Game. Paul quit his job in advertising, I had several TV commercials running that were paying the bills and we immersed ourselves in creating the game. We researched like crazy for great words, even got locked in the University of Toronto library one night- but that’s another story. My wordsmith mother, Marg Robinson helped us with finding words too.
We had one advertising colleague do the box design and another do the board and we had a prototype done in very short order. Our Yorkville trademark attorneys not only invested in the game, they introduced us to a game manufacturing and distribution and at our first meeting they made us a deal. The game was actually completed and in available stores in under a year. We launched a test market of 2,500 games in Christmas 1985 and they ware all sold out before Dec 20th and all the mom and pop stores were taking orders. We were on our way!
We created great publicity and advertising efforts and the game took off and we were the #1 game in Canada by year three. We sublicensed to the States and then moved into other countries around the world. We created several other versions of the game – Absolute Balderdash, Beyond Balderdash. One with mutli-categories is the version that is selling currently. Over 20 million copies have been sold, worldwide and I feel like I’ve been selling laughter for twenty-five years.
I have to say, it’s a great feeling!
BALDERDASH
I invented Balderdash when I was in my mid-twenties and living in Toronto. My co-inventor, Paul Toyne and I has a friend who had invested in Trivial Pursuit and he was doing so well, we said “Hey why don’t we make a game?”
Balderdash was based on a parlour game that we both had played for years with our respective families and friends that was known in some circles as the Dictionary Game. Paul quit his job in advertising, I had several TV commercials running that were paying the bills and we immersed ourselves in creating the game. We researched like crazy for great words, even got locked in the University of Toronto library one night- but that’s another story. My wordsmith mother, Marg Robinson helped us with finding words too.
We had one advertising colleague do the box design and another do the board and we had a prototype done in very short order. Our Yorkville trademark attorneys not only invested in the game, they introduced us to a game manufacturing and distribution and at our first meeting they made us a deal. The game was actually completed and in available stores in under a year. We launched a test market of 2,500 games in Christmas 1985 and they ware all sold out before Dec 20th and all the mom and pop stores were taking orders. We were on our way!
We created great publicity and advertising efforts and the game took off and we were the #1 game in Canada by year three. We sublicensed to the States and then moved into other countries around the world. We created several other versions of the game – Absolute Balderdash, Beyond Balderdash. One with mutli-categories is the version that is selling currently. Over 20 million copies have been sold, worldwide and I feel like I’ve been selling laughter for twenty-five years.
I have to say, it’s a great feeling!
PICTIONARY MANIA
An independent inventor from Savannah Georgia named Ben Dallas somehow found me and sent me pitched it to the game division of Mattel.
They absolutely loved it and, because there were several unique drawing categories in the game, they asked us if we would be interested in attaching it to their monster brand, Pictionary. So far the game has only been available in the European marketplace but I am hoping that we will be able to launch it in North America soon!
SIZE MATTERS
A writers’ assistant on Celebrity Name Game had a quirky, homemade dice game that she co-invented when she was a bartender at a popular watering hole in Chicago.
The crew would play it in the production office. We created a prototype and pitched it to Playmonster, a game company that we are doing another TV game show project with. They made a deal with us, we helped them design and create the boxed game and they launched it in 2016!
