Asmodee’s Birgitte Bülow on Brick Like This, revamping Hint and crafting ‘clever games’

Birgitte, it’s great to catch up. Your next LEGO board game – Brick Like This! – is landing later this year. For anyone that didn’t see it at the toy fairs, how would you pitch it?
Brick Like This is a fun and casual family party game. It’s a communication and building game and it takes two minutes to learn.

Players get into teams of two – you need to have one Instructor and one Builder. Each team draw a Shape card, and the Instructor’s job is to explain to your teammate how to build the shape, while the Builder then must build the shape using LEGO bricks. All teams play at the same time, and the aim is to build the correct shape faster than the other teams.

The Shape cards come in four different levels. We recommend everyone start at the easiest level – these Shape cards have lines to help steer you to certain LEGO bricks – but there are different scales of difficulty to try and lots of shapes to keep playing. And if you want to ramp things up – adding more difficulty and fun – you can add the Challenge cards. These might say things like ‘Builder must build with their fingers crossed’ or ‘Instructor can only say yes or no’.

Great – and I imagine things get ‘lost in translation’ when the Instructor is describing these shapes.
Yes, and that’s part of the fun. You learn quite quickly that it doesn’t make sense to describe what the shape looks like – especially as the shapes don’t really look like anything! Players usually have more success by saying: “You need a curved piece” or “Put the arch at the base”.

Of course. And this follows LEGO Monkey Palace, which is more of a strategy game. Was this an intentional move to cover more bases – so now you have a party game, a strategy game…
Exactly. With this first wave of LEGO games, we want to reach as broad an audience as possible within the family segment by offering different play experiences. Monkey Palace is more a traditional tabletop experience. You need to have the patience to learn some rules and it’s more of a ‘thinking’ game. Whereas Brick Like This! is very easy to set up and very easy to learn. It’s fast paced fun – and can get loud and rowdy. It’s a completely different play experience, and a different price point too.

And Brick Like This! has been released before under a different name?
The designer – Luca Bellini – did a game called Brick Party that was released in a few countries around 10 years ago from a different publisher. And it was not with LEGO bricks… It was released, got good reviews but didn’t have a huge push behind it. We saw that with some changes we could make it a better game. Now, the concept has been tweaked, there’s real LEGO bricks involved and we’re in a position to really push the game, which the game really deserves. It’s great fun.

For any designers reading that would love to have a game with Dotted Games, what sort of concepts are you looking for?
I will answer that in two ways! In the short term, you will see that we are building out the range within this family area. So that’s one part… But we have a large, long-term vision for this studio and we’re quite open. Great games are great games. But what I will say is that the core of the game needs to be centred around LEGO elements. LEGO shouldn’t just be a token or a pawn – it really has to feel authentic to LEGO and that building experience, utilising the versatility of the LEGO bricks.

LEGO has a rich history with brands and licensed sets. Could you see Dotted Games doing licensed LEGO games?
Maybe. You will have to wait and see…

Ha! Nicely teased! Moving away from Dotted Games, you also look after Bezzerwizzer Studio, home of Hint. How did you come to launch the studio?
Bezzerwizzer Studio was started by my husband and I, back in 2005, before it became part of Asmodee. We started with Bezzerwizzer – the game. It’s a classic trivia game with a twist.

We love trivia and playing with knowledge in all kinds of ways, but we know some people don’t like pure trivia games as they can maybe make you feel stupid…So, we also wanted to create a game featuring all kinds of knowledge in a fun, playful and more casual game play. That’s how Hint was developed – it was about inviting a broad range of people into the game in a way that classic trivia games don’t.

Yes, with Hint, you’re guessing words by receiving hints through drawing, humming, mimes, or talking. But the topics are interesting. You might have to talk your way through ‘Historic Trades’, draw clues about ‘Japan’ or mime things connected to the ‘London Underground!
You get a real feeling of accomplishment by getting through some of these cards! And you can give clues about certain words. So, if you need the group to guess Red Hot Chilli Peppers as part of the ‘Bands with Colours in Their Name’ card, you could give clues for the food, not the band. That’s really the heart of why Hint works so well – it inspires people to play with knowledge using creativity and shared references.

Yes, it’s very accessible – and a lot of fun. Going back a bit, what caught Asmodee’s eye about your studio before you were acquired?
Well, Asmodee Nordics was our Nordic distributor back then. When Hint hit the market in Scandinavia, it really took off. It was a massive hit in those first years, and I think that’s what caught the eye of Asmodee.

And you’ve recently revamped Hint. Talk me through some of the changes?
Hint has been on the market in Scandinavia for around 10 years and the design of the box is very clean – and some would say boring! It has got style, but it doesn’t tell you what it is.

Yes, it’s quite understated in a way.
It’s a good example of Danish understatement and sarcasm. It’s a very dry box for a very fun game.

Yes, and this image above is that original Hint box design. I suppose taking that approach helped the game stand out in a sea of busier, ‘louder’ boxes?
Yes, when we decided on this back then, it was very deliberate. Games were competing on screaming the loudest on shelf, so we did the opposite. It worked really well in some countries, but in some markets where Bezzerwizzer is not well-known as a game or as a studio, it has struggled to get attention due to the understated communication.

So, we decided we need a new box design – and also new content because games based on knowledge need to be refreshed. The new box design needed to be attractive to both existing and new markets – and to convey the gameplay. The other thing that was key was to make it less plastic-heavy. It’s not plastic free because that doesn’t make sense for this game, but this new version is heavily reduced when it comes to the use of plastic.

And there is the new version – it looks great! How did you make it more sustainable?
In the old version, we had a plastic wheel sitting on a plastic insert. In the new one, we replaced the wheel with cardboard – and the insert is also cardboard. Further changes to decrease our footprint is making the box a bit smaller, using FSC paper and cardboard and removing shrink wrap.

The drawing board has plastic coating, the felt pen is plastic and there’s the sand timer. We’ve kept those elements because they are key functionalities in the game. With a big box game, consumers expect to have a complete experience. A paper option instead of the board would be a one-time use, while our drawing board and felt pen can be used over and over again. So, it was better for us to keep these elements, even though they’re plastic.

Makes sense. And you’ve also developed a travel-sized version of the game?
Yes, Hint Pocket. It’s the same gameplay, but for €8. And this version doesn’t come with a sand timer, you use the timer on your phone. The lifespan of this version of the game is shorter, so including a sand timer would’ve been a waste of materials.

And you can use a drinks can to pop the central wheel up in this version?
Yes! It’s portable, has less cards – and you only need a can to put the wheel onto and you have a small Hint game.

Nice! How did you arrive at the can idea?
It was my husband’s idea and our game designer, Jonas. We were discussing how we could promote Hint, and the can came about as a marketing idea. But it worked so nicely that we felt we should push it for the game generally. Cans are universal so it felt like a nice idea.

Before we wrap up, for anyone interested in pitching concepts to Bezzerwizzer, what do you look for?
For a while, we focused on refreshing our existing games – BrainBox, Hint, Bezzerwizzer and SetUp – and now we’re working on a lot of interesting new stuff. But for us, we’re interested in social games… It’s about the experience, being together and having a great time.

And we specifically look for different ways to play with knowledge – and it doesn’t have to be trivia… SetUp is about pattern recognition. Our DNA is ‘Clever games for everyone’. So how can we expand the limits of ‘clever gaming’? Sometimes without people knowing they’re even playing a clever game, but hiding the vegetables. We don’t want ‘educational’ – fun and a shared experience is the priority.

Last question! What fuels your creativity?
Ah, I’m not the creative. And I’m not saying that to be polite or Danish.

Ha!
My husband is the creative one. He had the idea for Bezzerwizzer and Hint. Now, our creative lead is Jonas. Jonas has been with us for 15 years and is excellent at spotting great concepts on the idea stage and taking these ideas to a publishable game. But of course, the creative process is a joint effort with a lot of different input and perspectives from our team.

I’m sure you’re creative too! What did you do before launching a games company?
I was a finance manager.

Ah!
Ha! But of course I can be creative in some ways. Curiosity is the key word here.

Absolutely! And was it a big leap going from finance to board games?
It wasn’t as big of a leap as it sounds. We’ve always loved making quizzes and games for friends and family. My husband got the idea for the Bezzerwizzer game and we were hooked. He quit his job first and I kept mine for a while. We launched Bezzerwizzer and it caught on in Denmark quite fast. We were actually the first board game that the then biggest book chain in Denmark took in. It helped them go from only selling books to books and games. So suddenly we had a business and what a thrilling adventure that continues to be!

Amazing. Birgitte, this has been a pleasure. Congrats on the revamped Hint range, and good luck with Brick Like This! when it launches later this year.

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