Helvetiq’s Hadi Barkat on Odin, Chit Chat and the upcoming Easy Go range

Hadi, it’s always great to catch up. Let’s start with Odin – a big success story and award-winner. For anyone new to the game, how would you pitch it?
I’ve played 500 games of Odin – that should say it all! It’s a ladder climbing game with a very clever twist. Every time you play, you must take one card back in your hand – so you have to make the right decisions to keep improving your hand. It’s very simple but has so much depth and variety. Plus, it’s portable!

Some families playing it because it’s ‘secret math’, while others have called it a much better UNO. It just keeps getting tenser and tenser… It’s proof that brilliant design doesn’t have to be complicated.

The game was designed by Gary Kim, Hope S. Hwang and Yohan Goh. Were you a fan as soon as it was pitched?
Oh, it was love at first sight. As soon as we played the first round, I started feeling the magic. And one thing I like about it is that you’re always convinced you’re playing well… And then you end up losing! It’s one of the very few games that convinces you you’re making the right decisions throughout.

Ha! There’s always hope!
Yes! With Odin, you never lose hope, even when you have a really bad hand.

What steered the theme here? Was it always Valhalla?
The game was pitched to us with a Viking theme by the designers – and these guys are three of the best South Korean designers around. They meet every Monday to work on games, and they each have very specific roles. One is always starting projects, another is refining them, and Johan adds something to the mix and helps with pitching.

The theme was Valhalla because it’s a ladder climbing game and some of the cards get ditched – or sent to Valhalla. And Odin is a great name – it’s short and pretty much everyone knows Odin. It’s also easy to pronounce in all countries.

How important do you see the theme in relation to the success of a game?
It’s always a really important step in editing a pocket game. This is a line of games with reduced aesthetics, so it’s not like we can create something super rich. Bandido could have been anything… Actually, that prototype was called Gator Gutter – it was themed around alligators and gutters! But yes, the theme really helps… It’s equally as important as the mechanics.

Odin won the prestigious Jeu de l’Annee award at the As d’Or awards this year. What kind of impact has that had on the game’s prospects?
We were very happy with this award and so happy for the designers. And that award is super impactful. In terms of sales in France, it’s like a factor of 10.

Wow! A real sales boost.
And then add to that interest from parties that were not carrying the game yet in other countries. It helps there too. So yes, the win has had a massive impact for us. And it’s nice to be working on a game with this kind of wind in our sails because we’ve been able to do some marketing initiatives that we usually can’t do. That’s been fun for our teams.

Has the success of Odin shaped what you’re looking for next from inventors?
Even though we’re Swiss, we have a bit of a Norwegian mentality at Helvetiq. When the Norwegians found oil, they were chopping wood. They looked at the oil and said: ‘Let’s go back and chop some more wood.’ Helvetiq is the same. We won a big award, we were super happy and we went back to chopping wood. If we keep doing what we’re doing, good things will happen.

Moving over to your new party games line, what sparked your interest in that sector?
As a brand and a publishing house, we are most known for our pocket games that start for gamers aged six plus. We started to recognise that a generation of gamers that grew up with our games are now in their teens or are young adults. And what are they playing? Party games! So we wanted to follow our audience. It was very organic. And our take on this space is ‘family party’.

One of the games in this line is Chit Chat, where players have to arrange the answers to quirky questions in the correct order – from smallest to largest. What made this appeal?
Well, Chit Chat was also love at first sight. I remember it was pitched to us as a quiz game, but after the call ended, I said: “You know what? This is not just a quiz game… It’s so much more.”

In what way?
There were two big things… One is that you can play with a super big group. I like that very much. And two is that you don’t have to explain the rules. You can sit down, put a number on the table, read out a question and start talking. Hence the name Chit Chat. It’s all about the fun discussions the group has – ‘I’m sure that would go there’ or ‘I know this one, it goes here’… You can be surprised by enormous misses, or by knowing things that you didn’t know you knew!

I brought the prototype to a meeting with book publishers. There were 12 of us around the table and they are not gamers. I know because I’ve tried in years past to bring games for them to try. With Chit Chat, I just put it on the table and started playing – but they didn’t really think of it as playing. They thought they were just chatting. We had so much fun discovering what we did wrong and right. It’s the co-op aspect and the party aspect that makes it special.

I know the game has landed in Target in the US through a partnership with Asmodee. So has the experience of doing Chit Chat shaped where you go next with this party range?
Well, there’s been an immediate a ripple effect in France, where we are going to work with Gigamic to distribute the game. Just as with Asmodee in the US, that will be another very ambitious distribution plan. This is the first time we’re working with Gigamic and Chit Chat made that possible, which is cool. We’re now looking for additional party games and we already have two others in the line coming soon.

What sort of party games are you interested in seeing?
Well, the line is very young, so we’re still super open. Maybe a quirky drawing game… We’re looking for diversity across that range so the only thing to avoid is doing another Chit Chat.

And looking ahead, what’s on the way from Helvetiq?
The pocket line continues to be strong and we’re happy to have signed a game by Kaya Miyano, the designer of Trio, called Cosmo. That’s going to come into the line next year and we’re constantly looking for new pocket games. We’re also launching a new line of super tiny games, smaller than pocket. That line launches in 2026 with Top Drop and Cat Tricks.

They look terrific.
I hope lots of designers will want their games presented in this very cute box. The range is meant to appeal to casual gamers – and people who don’t buy games all the time. The card size is smaller for these games too. Do you know the small cards that you have in Ticket to Ride?

Yes!
That’s the same size as the cards in Top Drop and Cat Tricks.

Lovely. And what are you calling this range?
Easy Go. And the games will always have two-word titles like Top Drop and Cat Trick.

Hadi; always a pleasure. Congrats on Odin, Chit Chat and the soon-to-launch Easy Go line. Let’s tie-in again soon.

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