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Before Hasbro purchased Western Publishing's game group, a
friend worked and played for Western. He would bring down
games that they were preparing to market like Outburst,
Pictionary, SolarQuest, and others. What fun that was!
It was just as fun to listen to the "rags to riches" stories
about the inventors. I thought to myself, "How hard could it
be to come up with a great game?" It's harder than people
realize. It took a few years before we had a working game
that appealed to more than just a select group. The kicker
is that even with a great game (Hollywood's Reel Schpeel has
generated many awards and accolades and has a history of
repeat orders (Click
here for YouTube interview), it is just as hard (make
that harder) to get your game on the retail shelf, as it is
to develop it. And I am not a novice when it comes to
business – I have an undergrad business degree from Notre
Dame and a MBA from Loyola and had owned my own businesses.
After networking with other game inventors, I knew that I
was not alone, far from it.
That is how DiscoverGames.com evolved. Since beginning in
1997, we have helped many inventors. I only wish such an
organization had been available to me when I started. It
would have saved me a lot of time, energy and money. We
promote our member’s games at various shows, list them on
our site, send Member Updates about what is happening in the
industry and suggestions on promoting their games and are
available if questions arise.
I remember our first Toy Fair in 1994; we had prototypes of
our first game and had planned to go into production in the
fall. I remember telling people we were going to produce
25,000 games initially (5,000 would have been a better
number). Talk about green!
It wasn't until 2001 when American Movie Classics wanted to
have their name on Reel Schpeel that I was able to obtain a
licensing agreement by bringing them together with
University Games. The result was the Reel Clues movie game.
I still have Reel Schpeel available and am receiving
royalties from a competing product. One just never knows. I
have other games in my stable, both finished products &
prototypes.
A word of advice, if you think you have the next Monopoly (a
phrase I hear weekly), don't quit your day job. Even Hasbro
will tell you that if Monopoly came to them today, they
wouldn't license or buy it because it doesn't meet the
criteria for a successful game. Getting your game, any game,
to market takes hard work and perseverance.
There is a terrific book on the industry by Eric Clark,
The Real Toy Story
that is available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. It
gives a great overview of the difficulties involved. I am
honored to be oft quoted.
My efforts to get the word out about Indie games, the
positives of play and how much fun it is to play games led
to another venture...
In 2003 I founded The Chicago International Toy and Game
Fair,
www.Chitag.com, the first ever non-hobby show for toys
and games open to the public in the United States. Although
popular in Europe, it had not been tried in the U.S. Below
are comments from some of our exhibitors and attendees:
More than in past years, we found families attending,
playing and buying the games we had to offer. They all had a
good time and chose to take the good time home in the form
of games. Thanks for this wonderful opportunity! Jay
Tummelson, President, Rio Grande Games
Chi-Tag provided the right venue for us to share information
about our needs for the Canadian market. The buildings
amenities, inventors forum, quality of displays and
Chi-Tag’s staff all contributed to exceeding expectations.
Where can you go to meet new inventors, listen to industry
heavy weights and enjoy the city life except Chi-Tag and
Chicago? We'll be back. Gary and Linda Stortz, Stortz &
Associates Inc.
I had a great time at Chi-Tag this year. Not only was it a
lot of fun but the people I was able to meet both personally
and professionally were fantastic. John Hanley, Funatical,
Australia
WOW! What a great time we had at the Chicago International
Toy & Game Fair!! Thanks to the FANTASTIC sponsors who made
our day even more enjoyable!! Special thanks for providing
the Girl Scouts with such a great opportunity to meet the
inventors, play the games and wrap gifts!! We look forward
to spreading the word for next year's event!
Denise Janci, Girl Scout Leader and Mom
We have extensive media coverage and the timing to introduce
the fourth quarter items is perfect. The interactive play
encourages attendees to purchase.
Through the past several years at ChiTAG, we have also grown
our Toy and Game Inventor Event Conference,
www.tagie.net.
Here is what an attendee had to say:
"I've been
to the New York and Toronto Toy Fairs but appreciated ChiTAG/TAGIE
the most for two reasons. The first was industry insight
given by the expert panels. Companies such as Hasbro and
Barnes and Noble covered everything from what the major
retail buyers were looking for, how/why decisions were made
and to how to save on manufacturing. This was topped only by
the opportunity to have a one-on-one with experts that were
all very generous with their time and suggestions. ChiTAG/TAGIE
is a must for anyone who wants to understand the toy and
game industry or market their product. I came away from the
event both professionally and personally enriched."
- Gary Nolan, National Director of New Product Development,
Inventarium, Inc.
Starting ChiTAG in Chicago gave us the great opportunity to
sit down with the Mayor of Chicago. Several years ago we
gave him a proposal to do a summer theme of play (like the
Cows on Parade everyone fondly remembers). The City did it
in 2007 and we partnered with them to help and have been
involved in City events since involving kids bringing in
toys and games from our exhibitors. A fantastic opportunity
to expose so many more people to the benefits of play.
I believe in the importance of play and that it can reverse
a disturbing trend in America today. A Study by Duke
University reports that in 1985 Americans said they had only
three close friends and today they have only two. In
addition, the number of people who say they have no one to
discuss important matters with has doubled to one in four
and intimacy in families is down as well. The Study can be
found at::
http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/June06ASRFeature.pdf
This means people have fewer people to turn to in times of
crisis like Hurricane Katrina and fewer people participating
in community groups.
Not only is play undervalued in this country. Our industry’s
inventors are as well. Play
Entrepreneur Tim Walsh sums it up,
“If you sell a million books, you're on the New York
Times Bestseller List. If you sell a million CDs, you're
on the cover of Rolling Stone. If you create a toy or
game that sells over 200 million copies, no one has heard of
you.”
It can take
just as long or longer to develop a toy or game and they
entertain for extended periods of time, can be handed down
to and shared with the next generation as well as collected.
To honor inventors, we founded the Toy and
Game Inventors of the Year Awards Dinner,
www.tagieawards.com. It is a magical and fun evening
with the most creative people in the industry.
These three synergistic events were summed
up by an attendee:
"The Toy
and Game Inventor Expo with its culminating Inventor Awards
Dinner followed by the Chicago Toy and Game Fair is making
Chicago an important place for me to be for four days in the
week before Thanksgiving. Any gathering for inventors, both
veterans and newbies, will draw inventor relations folks
like me and then there is the added attraction of watching a
big group of our consumers interacting with our products at
the Fair. Like Toy Fair, and the Licensing Show, ChiTAG will
continue to be on my annual travel calendar."
- Mike Hirtle, Head of Global Product Acquisition and
Inventor Relations, Hasbro
In addition to our events, we promote play throughout the
year with our exhibitor’s toys and games at various shows,
events, media and all over the Internet, partnered with the
American Library Association on their Games, Literacy and
Libraries Committee as well as through our
www.GamesforEducators.com and at our Educators Forum at
ChiTAG.
Someday I’d like to see a re-up of the old Coke commercial
I’d Like to Teach the
World to Sing in Perfect Harmony replacing the word
‘Sing’ with ‘Play’. I envision our inventors on stage
singing the song with other celebrities and clips of kids
and adults of every ethnic group playing together… and they
can be drinking Coke, too. That song can stick in your head,
so I want it in every head that we should all be playing
together. We need to teach the world how important play is
for society and that their inventors make a difference.
Mary Couzin,
Executive Director
mary@discovergames.com
Chicago Toy and Game Group
www.ChiTAG.com Chicago Toy and Game Fair
www.DiscoverGames.com World's Largest Co-Op of Game
Inventors
www.TAGIEAwards.com Toy and Game Inventors of the Year
Awards
www.tagie.net Toy and Game Inventor Event Conference
www.GamesForEducators.com Games for Educators & Games in
Education e-news in partnership with Live Oak Games
www.GamesForFundraising.com - coming soon!
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