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Arne Lauwers
Inventor of Arne, Pictureka! (Project X) and more….
Early in the new millennium Belgian Arne
Lauwers, owner of his own private language schools in Belgium,
was looking for a new challenge. So one evening he went to sleep
and said to his wife: ‘Darling, by tomorrow I will have invented
a game’. ‘Sure honey’, his wife said and she went to sleep. Only
to discover the next day that indeed he had invented a card
game. Up till now over 1,000,000 of his line of
‘Arne’
card games were sold in over 42 countries. And it gets even
better, just a few months ago another of his games, called
Project X, got licensed off to Hasbro.
So what has happened since he changed his
name card from
The answer lies in a multitude of things he did:
‘My way’.
One thing
is for sure; his approach of getting a game from his brains to
the shelves has been less than classic. His stubborn approach,
typical for somebody from Flanders, was the toughest one but
also proved to be the most successful one. The first big
difference with many inventors was that he financed everything
himself and because of that he was able to have the finger on
the pulse in about every possible stage of the development,
production, marketing & sales of the game. This was a good
learning school. Like this, he could gather knowledge about the
business, its own special way of working, the people and
companies involved, etc. He made about every possible mistake in
the book but each time he learnt from those mistakes, until a
certain point of maturity and experience was reached. The small
size of his operations made it possible to react fast. And due
to the own funding he did not have to listen to self proclaimed
‘professionals’ giving him all kinds of advice on what not to
do. He just did his own thing and that led to some very original
and new ideas, like the living board principle.
‘Terra Incognita’.
This is a Latin expression and it means ‘uncharted lands’.
Markets that were considered by the existing players too small
or not worth the effort became his first markets. It was Arne’s
belief that you can sell a game everywhere, so why not build the
market yourself. The results were spectacular; he was able in
under 5 years to get his games everywhere. There are sales of
his games from Tasmania to Spitsbergen, from Kuala Lumpur to
Vanuatu. Every time Lauwers Games went to the market and
explored it. He teamed up with local people and listened to them
very carefully. Like that he learnt things like a green box
means bad luck in China but is deemed very pretty in Italy. Or a
black box would be considered something from the devil in one
country were as the same black box would imply something of
refined taste in another.
‘Trust’.
His whole idea of partnership is based on trust. He did not sign
the first contract that passed his door and he followed the
golden rule: never trust somebody that introduces himself with
the words ‘Trust me’. A nice example is the entry into the
Russian market. Arne got approached by a young entrepreneur who
had the ambition to enter the Russian market with the games of
Lauwers Games. The partner was not referenced but he had a
superb vision. So they set up a meeting in Vienna (Austria) and
started to talk for many days. 6 months later all the games of
Lauwers Games were translated into Russian. The Arne games won 2
silver medals and Project X was chosen as game of the year in
the Russian Federation. Flarus Trading got the distributor of
the year award and continues to bring Arne’s games to the
Russian Federation.
‘Patience’
with an academic degree in Chinese history and the title of
Sinologist, Lauwers is like a fish in the water when it comes to
doing business the Asian way. When somebody crosses his path, he
likes to get to know him better before doing business. In the
past, he took many flights to the other side of the world just
to have lunch with a potential partner. This is according to our
‘Western standards’ a very unconventional way of doing business
but that is how he did it. Up till today many partners have
become personal friends and that is something that Lauwers
values most.
‘Globetrotting’
With entering in the game business Arne was able to develop one
of his main hobbies, to travel the world. Whenever possible he
takes his kids and wife along. The highlight was a road show in
Australia with John Hanley,
‘From Zero to Hero’
One day @ the Chicago International Toy and
Game Fair in 2006 somebody from Hasbro came to Arne and said
they liked Project X. In fact they liked it so much they started
playing it amongst themselves during the convention.
And
each time a person from the Hasbro booth came to the Lauwers
Booth they swapped a Project X for a Hasbro Game. At the end of
the fair Arne had a lot of Hasbro games! Early 2007 Arne &
Hasbro came to an agreement and a few months later Hasbro
launched, in its Parker Brother range, Project X under the name
Pictureka!
‘Innovation, innovation, innovation’
Lauwers Games, the company behind Arne
Lauwers is continuing to add games to its line. The goal is each
time to make something completely different.
After Pictureka that was kind of a
challenge. So Arne moved from a “I spy with my eye” kind of game
to a game with racing gnomes. ‘Gnome Race’ is Lauwers Games
biggest project so far involving a whole design studio that even
provided a multi media module on dvd! As an appreciation for the
outstanding
work
of Mary Couzin, Arne decided to do the presentation of his new
game @ Chitag 2007 on the DiscoverGames.com booth.
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 More Inventor Stories please email us at info@discovergames.com. Thank you! 2002 Discover Games, All Rights Reserved |