News

Board games are like movie scripts – everyone has an idea they believe could become a blockbuster if only they were given the chance to produce it.

So it's fitting that the creator of the latest rising star in the board game world just happens to come from the film industry.

Filmmaker Tom Quinn, an assistant director on Chicago and The Sentinel, is one of the creators of Things…, the latest Canadian board game to reach the mass market, following in the tradition of Rummoli, Balderdash and the world famous Trivial Pursuit.

Even though the current generation has moved on to video games, the market for classic board games has remained steady, and the industry is one where someone with an entrepreneurial spirit and a quality idea can still find success.

In the case of Things…, that means 128,000 copies sold across Canada without any help from the gaming market's big boys – the Hasbros and Mattels of the world. That number pales beside the 20 million copies of Trivial Pursuit sold in 1984 alone, but was impressive enough to catch Hasbro's eye.

Mr. Quinn's odyssey in the realm of white dice and small plastic men began almost a dozen years ago in the Northern Ontario town of North Bay. His love of games is hereditary. His father's parents dabbled at cards and charades, his maternal grandparents Scrabble.

Things… started out as a game he and his friends would play on boring Friday nights. They would come up with topics meant to elicit hilarious statements.

They ranged from “things your parents forgot to tell you” to “things people do when no one is looking.”

“At that point the game wasn't called Things…; we just started throwing silly topics out and tried to come up with responses,” Mr. Quinn said. “But it got to the point where our friends didn't want to play anything else; they wanted to play “The Game,” as they called it.”

Within a few years, his friend Mark Sherry suggested the pair team up with Mr. Quinn's brother, Ted, and go into business producing physical versions the game.

The first prototype came off the line in 2002, and a small initial production run landed the game in a North Bay toy store, where it sold moderately well.

Later the same year, the trio headed south to a Toronto toy exposition to gauge the reaction of game industry gatekeepers.

Although 17 retailers placed orders, none bought more than a dozen. After calling around to find out who the retailers liked to deal with, Mr. Quinn's group settled on a distributor who signed on after playing the game himself.

It wasn't long before Things… started appearing in nearly every independent toy and game store in Canada, selling more than 128,000 copies along the way.

The game won a 2006 Children's Choice Award from the Canadian Toy Testing Council. It was at the award ceremony where the heavy hitters in the board game world took an interest.

Hasbro made the trio an offer they couldn't refuse, and, in the coming year, Things… will hit shelves in Barnes & Noble and Target stores in the U.S., as well as other stores throughout the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

“This is not the normal thing that happens,” Mr. Quinn said. “Every year, hundreds of games come out, and maybe two or three of them hit. You can't imagine the amount of games that come out every year.”

Chris Byrne knows exactly what Mr. Quinn is talking about. Known online as The Toy Guy, Mr. Byrne is a New York-based independent toy analyst, one who sees new board game ideas every day, some of which are downright wretched.

“The barriers to entry are fairly low compared to a lot of the toy industry, but getting a strong game is really challenging,” he said. “If there are 500 new games which might be introduced in a year and 50 of those make it to market, maybe five will make money in the first year.”

Big board game companies can take on new games because they invest millions in revamping and updating flagship offerings such as Monopoly, Clue and Scene It? with special novelty editions. These titles generate the revenue that allows companies to take chances on upstart games such as Things… . (Monopoly alone has dozens of theme editions ranging from city-specific boards to versions based on Star Wars, the Simpsons and the NHL.)

DVD-based games such as Scene It? are expected to be popular Christmas choices, a boon to the gaming industry. But even a possible slowdown in the broader economy isn't likely to hurt the business, Mr. Byrne said.

“When the economy goes into recession or decline, it tends to actually be very good for board games because people are more likely to stay at home for their entertainment,” Mr. Byrne said.

Mr. Quinn said he and his partners looked at a timeline on the lobby wall of a Hasbro office during a recent visit that listed the debut dates of the company's legendary games, including Monopoly, Sorry, Trouble and Scrabble.

It was a humbling moment, he said.

“It's still weird to think that we are going to be on there one day.”