When I went into the Industrial Design program at the University of Illinois, I NEVER thought I would end up in the toy and game industry.  But man, did I get lucky!  I was hired right out of school to work at Meyer/Glass Design, a now defunct toy and game invention group in Chicago.  Turned out I was pretty good at it.  I sold my first item to Hasbro within a couple months – which for those of you outside the industry that’s pretty darn amazing since they buy maybe 2-10 inventions a year and they see thousands just from professional inventors.  Since that first sale I’ve worked with some of the biggest, best and oldest toy and game manufacturers in the world.  I not only invent, but I also do development work, trivia writing, game play development, pretty much everything but the manufacturing itself.

Like I said, I feel lucky to be in a position to work with – and now review games.  I came from a game playing family.  My mother was a math teacher and she taught me probability so I could play a stronger game of Yahtzee early in life.  My father stomped me enough in Hearts and Spades to teach me the value of counting cards.  My grandfather still sometimes beats me in Shanghai – but I’m convinced he’s tuning out the conversation that I always get sucked into instead of focusing on the game.  And then my two sisters with whom I spent countless childhood hours playing games like Pizza Party, Life, Don’t Break the Ice and Pay Day.   Even now it’s Tripoly and Apples to Apples at Christmas, Yahtzee and Uno all summer, and Rummikub and Can’t Stop with my husband.

-Kim Vandenbroucke