> Hello Andrew, can you present you?

I'm 43, and live in Boston with my wife (an artist) and 2 kids (4&6). Outside of inventing games, I work in publishing. Currently I am making smartphone apps and interactive learning products for the Harvard Business Review. I've also been a musician/composer for many, many years. I play saxophones, musical saw, guitar, dobro, piano and some other instruments.

> What kind of games do you like?
I love games that keep everyone involved all the time and give people a chance to gain insight into their fellow players personalities.

> Anomia (which is called Blitz in France) is really an innovative party-game, how did you come to this idea?
I had the idea for a very, very long time.  Maybe since I was 12. It was based on a game I played as a child with a standard deck of cards.  For many years I had fun thinking about ways to improve this game and it went through many iterations, though they were all in my head.

> How long did it take from the original idea to the finished product?  Once I made the very first prototype, to when I actually had the game manufactured took about 5 years.  I was working on it in my spare time in addition to working full-time, performing a lot of music, getting married, having kids, etc!

> What are, according to you, the strengths of BLITZ? 
I love that everyone has to pay attention all the time, and that you can be very surprised at what come out of your own mouth!

> Today, in which countries the game is sold and are there some differences between your initial version and the ones which are arriving on the market?
Anomia is currently sold in the US, Canada, and Australia. It will become available in German, UK and Northern European markets in 2014.  The French edition (Blitz) has a few different features, for instance the wild cards are now a die.

> When was the game launched and how many copies of the game have been sold so far?
I first launched Anomia in the USA at the very end of 2009, since then we have sold over 100k copies!

> Are you currently working on some new game concepts and if yes can you tell us more?
I have another game called "Duple" which is similar to Blitz/Anomia in its mechanic, but is more of a word creation game.  I released Duple this year in the US.  We also just released a big expansion for Anomia, with over 400 new cards!  I have two or three other ideas that I am just starting to make prototypes for but cannot discuss these at the moment, TOP SECRET! : )

> What are your 3 favourite games?
This is a very difficult question!  Lately we have been enjoying the following at home: Blokus, SET and Forbidden Island. They are very different games but we find, even with young kids, that we can have fun playing these with everyone.

Anomia Prototype. This is one of the final prototypes which I created using Quark Express and then printed at my local copy shop. It consisted of 2 decks of cards printed on card stock in a plastic box.

12/03/2013