“It’s special… It doesn’t feel like anyone else’s game!”: Asmodee’s Julien Sharp on ambitions for Take Time

Julien, it’s always great to catch up. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!

You’ve just celebrated your third anniversary with Asmodee. Has the role matched your expectations?
Well, the job of steering a ship – quite a big ship – has been pretty much as I thought it would be, but industry curveballs have of course happened… One thing I’m very grateful for is my incredible leadership team. I’ve just finished the final restructure around those three leaders – our VP of Commercial (Sales & Marketing), our VP of Product and our VP of Operations. Those three, along with our Distribution Head of Finance, have been with me this entire journey.

And what are your north stars when it comes to being an effective leader?
It’s a lot of people skills and at the end of the day, you need to have the trust that no matter what function you’re doing in a company, you’re doing it with the intention of winning for the company, right? If the company’s doing well, you’re going to do well.

It’s also a balancing act between knowing the right amount of product to put out, knowing the channels to put them in, being very careful but knowing when to take risks… But when it comes to leadership, it’s all based on trust. Do you know the book ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’ by Patrick Lencioni?

I don’t!
In the book, they talk about the five dysfunctions in a pyramid, and the biggest of the five, the base, is the absence of trust. You have to trust that everybody has the overall goal and success at heart. If you have that trust, then you can feel free to make a criticism. You can feel free to challenge because everybody knows you’re doing it from a position of: ‘Let’s get the best outcome we can’.

On trust, did you do anything in your early days at Asmodee that helped earn you the trust of your colleagues?
There were some early wins that helped. Actually, there’s another book that was helpful during that time – and during each new role I’ve taken in this industry.

Two business book recommendations and we’ve only been chatting a few minutes! I’m afraid I can only recommend you comics!
Ha! And I’m not really a big business book person! But ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’ and this one, ‘The First 90 Days’ are two I really believe in.

‘The First 90 Days’.
A colleague from Relatable gave it to me when I was going on to Spin Master. They said: ‘Best of luck, here’s a book you should read.’ because I was going into my very first job at a public company in the games industry. That book helped me so much to get the early wins at Spin Master and I used it again here. And I’ll show you this – it’s my very first notebook from when I started here at Asmodee. And look at what I’ve put top of the very first page…

‘First 90 days.’
In this notebook I built my 90-day plan and it helped me get early wins on – and that garnered trust. I’m now on notebook 17 by the way!

It’s been a busy three years! What have been some key launches for you so far?
The biggest has been Star Wars Unlimited, our first major internally-published trading card game. That has been an incredible experience because, with that, a lot rides on the US team. To build that closely as the sales arm with the design arm – the Fantasy Flight Studio team, who are also based right here in Minnesota – was a collaboration that started long before the game ever launched.

Three of us from the distribution side went to the Galactic Championships this past July. The game was less than two years old and we had thousands of people there in Las Vegas. I didn’t know there were that many chairs available in Las Vegas! I’ve never seen such a big event. So that game has been amazing to be involved with.

Continuing to be involved with our pillars, like Ticket to Ride, Spot It! and CATAN has been great – as has watching the growth of Azul and the resurgence of Pandemic this year. I also have to mention the launch of Harmonies, which is such a delightful, ‘cozy’ game. I think that will be one of our pillar games someday. Everybody knows Ticket to Ride and CATAN, but I think Harmonies could be a household name in the next three to five years.

Why do you think that is?
There’re three things. There’s the cozy game trend. It started with cottagecore in the pandemic, but now that’s a full-on trend in the games industry and that’s helped Harmonies. Then there’s the price point. It’s not a $70 hobby game – it’s more affordable around the $35 mark. And then there’s the fact it’s easy to learn, but still has some strategy… It’s not super crunchy, but it’s got some meat to it. So it’s a gateway game; it’s approachable. But someone who might like Twilight Imperium could play Harmonies and still find it engaging.

I’m sold! I also want to ask you about one of Asmodee’s latest titles, Take Time. I’m a huge fan of this and I know you are too – what makes this an exciting prospect?
Well, first of all, it reminds me a little bit of The Mind. Now, when I first played The Mind, before I joined Asmodee, I thought: ‘How is it possible that this game is something that people would buy?’ Because people, especially Americans, seem not to want to do ‘woo-woo’ things, you know what I mean?

Ha! I think I do! Because The Mind is sort of about getting in the ‘zone’ with your other players. It’s a game centred around creating a ‘vibe’… I’m sounding ‘woo-woo’ now!
Ha! But you know what I mean – and Take Time is a little bit like that. It’s a co-operative game where the group has to strategically play 12 cards facedown around a clock, following specific rules for each test – and the game comes with 40 tests.

Yes. So as a group, you’ll see the rules for that test and then talk about how you’ll tackle it. So you might say: “Right, make sure we put low numbers there”. But after everyone has discussed a plan, that’s when you turn your cards over and play your cards down in silence. So plans can unravel spectacularly based on the cards you’re dealt.
Exactly! And it’s from Libellud, the game design studio behind Dixit, so the art is beyond beautiful. But to your point, all that planning can crumble if your cards don’t fit neatly into what you discussed. Every year at Spiel in Essen, Germany, Asmodee hosts an internal game night where teams from all over the world play the games that will be coming out in the next year. Take Time launched at Essen this year, but we played a prototype version of it last year. It was so much fun!

Take Time is special – it doesn’t feel like anyone else’s game. I really want the American buyers and American consumers to get on board with this and give it a chance. There are 40 different challenges, it’s hefty box and for the price it’s incredible value. So yes, as a commercial team, we need to take the feeling seen in that photo and convey that to buyers and consumers. That’s the challenge we have.

Yes, it’s an incredibly social, funny game – but very unique. Do you enjoy the challenge of taking these ‘unclassifiable’ games and making them connect with buyers and consumers?
It’s my favourite thing. It’s also the most challenging thing and the most strategic thing I do in my role here. We need to say: ‘This is not like other people’s games.’ That’s the message, and to get that message out in the US is expensive, right? We have 20 people out there on the floor calling hobby stores, but we also have to try to sell this into mass. And Take Time isn’t like other games, so how do we convey the magic of it? How do we translate that photo into something that resonates with US consumers? It’s an art, not a science, and I take it very seriously.

My biggest creative and strategic success will be to make sure the American public understands Take Time and why they should be playing it. We need to convey how incredibly social it is and why consumers shouldn’t be intimidated by heftiness of it, because it’s not a big strategy game – it’s one of the most social fun games you can play. It’s an amazing experience.

Well, if there’s anyone up to the challenge on making America fall in love with Take Time, it’s you! I also wanted to ask you about Moodbox Games, a brand-new party games studio from Asmodee based in the US. What string does this studio add to your bow?
Sometimes we get party games from different Asmodee studios that we love, but that are too difficult for the American public and – I’m sorry – but a party game being very easy to grasp quickly is really important… Back in July I was in London for work and I stopped in at a nice pub that happened to be hosting a pub quiz. I tagged onto a team, and they start the pub quiz and – let me tell you – this was not the sort of pub quiz we have here in the States. It was actually freaking hard!

Ha!
It was a test. A proper test! Not many in America would understand how hard that pub quiz was; it was very different to our standard bar trivia nights here!

We don’t mess about when it comes to a pub quiz Julien.
You absolutely don’t! And the same cultural differences are there with party games. Party games in Europe and party games in the US are different. So Moodbox is the first party games studio for Asmodee that’s based in the US – and that’s actually embedded in our US distribution office to be able to show early prototypes to our sales teams in real time! They’re going to feed us some amazing party games. You’ll see some incredible games land next year.

Fantastic. And to wrap up, what do you hope the next three years has in store for you at Asmodee?
We have a great new structure for the US that’s going to take us through the next five years, across our three centres of excellence: commercial, product and operations. I’m really excited to continue to work on Star Wars Unlimited and build that community. That’s really important. I’m excited to continue to look for opportunities to build North America, but also to work closely with my Canadian counterpart on how we can get more synergies there. That’s a really interesting prospect. Then there’s what we’re doing with Moodbox and our partnership with Exploding Kittens… And of course, how do we get the American consumer to buy a copy of Take Time!

Julien, I could talk to you for days! Thanks again for taking time out to chat!

–

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

Evan Brooks, Senior Product Designer for Transformers at Hasbro, on recent highlights – and 40 years of The Transformers: The Movie

“A figure getting their first converting toy in 40 years is probably the biggest thing I can say right now…”: Evan Brooks, Senior Product Designer for Transformers at Hasbro, on what’s to come this year.

Meet Pamela and Jonny Klamer – the children of Game of Life inventor Reuben Klamer

The Game of Life at 65: To celebrate the iconic board game’s anniversary, we discuss the inventor’s life.

“It was love at first sight!”: Captain Games’ Cédrick Caumont and designer Ian Sebastian Bach talk Map Masters

Captain Games’ Cédrick Caumont and designer Ian Sebastian Bach tell us about the development of their exciting new title, Map Masters.

Ken Scheel talks KEVA Planks, Foros and his journey from veterinarian to toy inventor

“Having blocks with this specific plank shape gives a lot more opportunity than if you’re using cubes”: Ken Scheel talks us through the origins of KEVA Planks.

David Albert of schleich North America on design, US growth and the company’s 90th anniversary

“Research shows that more than 90% of schleich’s figurines are never thrown away”: In conversation with David Albert, President of schleich North America.

Jigsaws of distinction: Rewa Walters and Sophie Morrison on Piece House’s stunning puzzles

“We make a premium product that puzzlers love…” Piece House Co-Founders Rewa Walters and Sophie Morrison on Piece House’s stunning puzzles.