Interview Game inventor and blogger Kim Vandenbroucke

After staring at a drawing of a barn at the University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign and deciding architecture wasn’t for her, Kim Vandenbroucke figured she was more of an idea person, switched majors, and landed a job with now-defunct toy- and game-design firm Meyer/Glass Design. After four years of thinking up game ideas, the company went belly up, volleying her into self-employment. Two years after starting her game-review blog, The Game Aisle, Vandenbroucke was awarded the Wonder Women In Toys Social Media/Digital Marketer Of The Year award this February and was asked to speak at the Smithsonian in March. The A.V. Club talked to the Logan Square resident about ideas, games, and dead inventors.

The A.V. Club: What was it like working for Meyer/Glass Design?

Kim Vandenbroucke: They used to be part of Marvin Glass, who were responsible for products like the game Operation and Lite Brite. When I started, my boss told me that Mattel was coming the following week. If Mattel or Hasbro are coming by, you drop everything. No one wanted to train a new employee right then, so they showed me my desk, a closet full of sales books from Toy Fairs past, and said, “Be quiet.”

The Meyer/Glass building used to be a bank, so the closet was actually a vault, and the books dated to the 1930s. When I got to the late ’70s and early ’80s, the books started showcasing all the toys I had as a kid, as well as many I had forgotten about. Through these books, I was able to learn what companies evolved into other companies, who had which licenses, and so on. The first idea I pitched was to Fisher Price, but it crashed and burned. My second-ever idea, which ended up being called Cover To Cover, was bought by Hasbro on the spot, which is unheard of, because usually they’ll want to mull the game over before making any decisions.

At Meyer/Glass, there was anywhere between six and 13 inventors at one time. When I started, there was a lot of competition between inventors. I was right out of college and working with people that had been inventing for 20 years, some of which worked for Marvin Glass, which was very cutthroat.

AVC: How did you become a self-employed inventor?

KV: Meyer/Glass had a bit of bad luck. We had a number of products that were supposed to be released for Toy Fair and all got canceled or pushed back. I also started to get burned out working at such a fast rate. I came up with a few hundred ideas in my time there, some of which ended up being picked up. When Meyer/Glass closed, and because new ideas take some time to get to market, I busied myself as a brainstorm facilitator for innovation firms in Chicago. These are companies that need help with ideas for consumer goods. If I told you exactly what, I’d have to kill you. At the same time, I pitched new ideas to places like Hasbro that I’d worked with before.

AVC: Why did you start The Game Aisle?

KV: It started as an exercise to keep up with what’s on the market. It’s difficult to focus on what’s new when you’re self-employed and doing everything. Even though I just did a Scattergories game (Scattergories Categories), I want people to buy outside of the brands they’re familiar with. I know a lot of inventors from being in the business, so I also focus on how the creator of the game got into the business and their inspiration. I wanted to explain that companies don’t invent games, people do.

AVC: Why did you get asked to speak at the Smithsonian?

KV: They also found my website and asked me. I’m speaking at the Lemelson Center, which is part of the National Museum Of American History, for a series called “Innovative Lives.” The Smithsonian people were looking for someone low-tech—and I make cardboard games—that would be good for kids. The purpose of the series is because most people—adults and children—think of Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin when they think of inventors, people that are very dead. The purpose of the series is to inform people that inventors live amongst us in all capacities.