As Blue Orange turns 25, Thierry Denoul discusses the company’s origins – and bright future

This year sees Blue Orange celebrate its 25th anniversary, Thierry. What led you to launch the company?
It came a little out of the blue! I was living in San Francisco and had another company that was nothing to do with games… We were importing French door hardware to the US – I was designing doorknobs.

A natural path to game design!
Ha! Well, in 1999 I went to a US toy store to buy something for my young son. All I saw was the same stuff that I played with when I was a boy… Candyland, Risk, Monopoly. It seemed there hadn’t been a lot of progress in game design. So I didn’t pick anything up for my kid! I started thinking what the simplest game is, and how I could improve it. The game that came to mind was tic-tac-toe – but it has a major flaw… There’s a big chance nobody wins. I asked myself how I could make it more fun and ensure there’s always a winner.

A sound starting point…
Right! And while I was thinking about this, one of the first Starbucks opened near where I was living in California. Back then, they wanted to look European; they had little tables with checkerboard print on them. I was thinking about the game and drinking a coffee as I looked at their different-sized cups…

Big, medium and small? Like now?
Big, medium and small, yes… Then I looked at the pattern on the table and it hit me! I could do tic-tac-toe but with different-sized cups that could go on top of each other! I went to the barista, he gave me some empty cups. I drew some crosses and noughts on top of them and started to play the game that became Gobblet.

Amazing. And for the first few years, you were designing all of Blue Orange’s games?
Yes, after Gobblet I designed a few more that we released – and they were pretty bad. But I learned more about game design from these failures than I did from Gobblet. I soon got on a roll, and designed all our games from 2000 to 2009… I must’ve designed and published around 50. But these days I spend most of my time scouting for new ideas. We see close to 2,000 games ideas a year from inventors.

Wow. What was the first game you took from an external inventor or company?
I remember, I went to a fair in France and I saw this new game that was just released by a small French company… I really liked the game and took the rights for the US, before Asmodee took the rights for the rest of the world. The game was Dobble. It was the first external game that Blue Orange took on. We transformed it into Spot It, as it’s now known in the US. We had a great run with Spot It in the US before we sold it to Asmodee.

And what defines a Blue Orange game?
Broadly speaking, it’s something you can explain very quickly – people should be able to understand it quickly. Fun and simple. Look at Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza – since we took that on, we’ve sold more than 1.5 million units a year. But we have a very good spectrum of games, from titles for very young gamers like Pengoloo, right up to games to like Kingdomino, Photosynthesis and New York 1901.

What is the key to cultivating successful relationships with the inventor community?
We try to be as transparent as possible during a game’s development. Also, we try to include them in the process – or at least keep them informed as to what’s going on. And it’s funny, most established game designers don’t really care about being involved to a great degree.

They leave you to it?
Yes, they trust us; they don’t ask so many questions and are happy with the final product. The newer generation of inventors want to be more involved and have more information, and we’re happy to oblige. Actually, for the past 10 years, when a game is signed, we assign it to a project manager. One of the project manager’s job is to keep the inventor informed throughout the different stages of development.

But we love seeing new inventors, too… Over the past 20 years, some of the world’s best game ideas were an inventor’s first game. Classics can come out of nowhere, so we’re very open to all inventors.

Great answer, thank you. To wrap up, which 2025 launches excite you most?
All of the new launches are fantastic! There’s Magicaboo – a really cool game for kids. It’s very simple gameplay around the magical gimmick of making something disappear… And you have to remember what’s disappeared! And then we have Linkx, which is a little like Tetris meets Connect 4. You want to link up your shapes from one side of the grid to the other, without getting blocked off by your opponent.

Another is a party game called Blindjack. It’s like blackjack in that you want to get to 21 without going over. You do that by answering questions. Each card has a question on one side and an answer on the other. Each answer is a number from zero to 10. So you might think one answer is nine and ask for another card. If you think the next answer is 10, you might choose to stop because you think you’re at 19 – but you don’t know the answers, so there’s a risk you’ll go over or play it too safe. The player who stops closest to 21 wins!

–

To stay in the loop with the latest news, interviews and features from the world of toy and game design, sign up to our weekly newsletter here

More Recent Interview

EXG Pro’s Alan Fenwick on the rise and rise of Cable Guys

Alan Fenwick, CEO and Co-Founder at EXG Pro, on the origins of the company, the success of Cable Guys – and knowing when to kill an idea.

Dyce’s Jason Exum discusses brand collaborations with Care Bears, Miraculous and more

Jason Exum, VP of Brands and Partnerships at Dyce Games, on exciting new collaborations with Care Bears, Miraculous and Wiz Khalifa.

Hachette’s Rob Trounce talks us through the company’s exciting 2025 slate

Rob Trounce, Marketing Manager at Hachette Boardgames UK, reveals what he feels will be one of the biggest tabletop hits of 2025.

Thames & Kosmos’ Steve O’Connor on new launches, collabs – and the future of Gecko Run

Steve O’Connor, MD of Thames & Kosmos UK – talks new launches, brand collabs – and the future of Gecko Run.

Emily Charles reveals what Gibsons wants to see from inventors

Emily Charles, Head of Brand at Gibsons, on the company’s latest slate of games – and what she wants from inventors.

Barry McLaughlin and Jason Lautenschleger on bringing a blast of positivity to the games aisle with Feelin’ Cute

Barry & Jason Games and Entertainment’s Barry McLaughlin and Jason Lautenschleger talk us through the origins of Feelin’ Cute – and why Hootenanny proved a perfect home for it.