March 19, 2024

Cranium, the game where everyone can win

How did you get this idea ?
I was working at Microsoft, and a colleague (Richard Tait) offered to put a box with him. It was the big Internet madness, and everyone was launching his site ... Original, my friend wanted to create a Thu of society ! His initial idea was to exploit both the right and left sides of the brain. But I had read that there were eight types of intelligences, so we thought about creating exercises for each. But of course it was still playful. For example, for musical intelligence, it is more fun to guess "Like a Hurricane" by humming than to read a score. Or, to experience spatial intelligence, we ask to spell back "Bibliobus" or "Coquillette". Not easy, is it?

What is the profile of the Cranium player (and the winner)?
Initially, we targeted "yuppies" (or "young dynamic executives") ... but, finally, there is no typical player, since all the talents are put to profit. As for the winning team, it is precisely the one with the most different members. However, I noticed that when a game is made against men, it is often the latter who win, that's why I always play with my wife! Perhaps because they have more varied qualities, while men tend to specialize. But hey, I say that without being a scholar in psychology!

Do you plan to launch a new game, outside the Cranium universe?
No: we prefer instead to decline this concept to the maximum. We are already eight different versions (Cadoo, for children, Conga, delirious version, a Deluxe Edition, Zigity, a Thu cards, etc.) and we are going to launch Hullaballo this summer, for toddlers. The concept, this time, is to break up the game into short sequences, so that at the end, each of the participants has the feeling of having won. It's very educational.



How to Play: Cranium (March 2024)