Saturday, February 9, 2008

Why I'm a Puzzle Designer

Many people wonder what leads someone to become a game and puzzle designer. I mean, really, I could just as easily be designing web sites, motorcycles, or lamps. There are a couple of reasons.

Jigsaw puzzles and games are a bit unique in that you can take a concept from inception to production almost by yourself. There doesn't need to be a team of artists, engineers, marketers, and production designers just to make something happen. I can say, "here's the idea, here are the drawings, here's the package, how about it?" and have a fair chance of selling the concept. Good luck making a new kind of motorcycle all by yourself.

Mostly though, I take inspiration from my father. He designed toys for all of my boyhood. This meant that most of the toys that I played with were a bit different from those of my friends. First, many of them were missing parts. These parts had been robbed from the original toy for use in some prototype. It's amazing how poorly a mechanized battlebot does battle when it's missing its gears and motor...how unfun headless GI Joe is...how difficult it is to steer a remote control truck when its front wheels are sticking out of some contraption on your Dad's desk. I quickly learned that prototypes were the real toys. After all, they worked!

It's not that my father cannibalized my toys, it's that he bought toys to cannibalize and I was allowed to play with their discarded husks after his prototype had eaten their still beating hearts. Occasionally, I'll run across one of these prototypes. Some of them even have names in my family - the Battle Weebles or the Wabbit Gun. The Wabbit Gun is great. The idea was to use a miniature phonograph record to make a gun that produced amazing sounds of futuristic gunfire. The prototype is pretty neat. It's styled like a hand phazer from Star Trek. There's a cool lever on the side which you pull back to 'cock' the thing. I guess this is so you can pretend you're ratcheting a bolt of energy into the chamber for the next salvo. Anyway, pull the trigger and...

Bang? Nope. Not Bang. Not Zap! Not even Wheeeeeeeeeeee-pkyew!! You see, they didn't have mini records of phaser blasts. However, they did have this neat stuffed Bugs Bunny doll who said cute things when you pulled a string. So, after telling your friend that he's about to be vaporized, you pull the trigger and old Bugs says "You're a cute Bunny!" or "I love carrots!" or even, you guessed it "What's up Doc?"

It's like lobbing a grenade that blasts into gum drop shrapnel. It was about that time when cheap voice chips became economical enough to compete with their mechanical counterparts. Had they not, I'll bet lots of kids would have had a Wabbit Gun. Curse you, technology!

Most of my Dad's prototypes were much cooler than what actually made it to market. Case in point: Energized Spiderman. What Don Scott, Sr. designed was a fully articulated web slinging marvel. He could climb his web onto your kitchen table, power a mess of accessories and even if his web shooter broke, he was still fun to pose and play with. Stan Lee would have been proud.

Of course what eventually was produced was very different from the prototype. Through the magic of Youtube, I'm able to bring video proof of this in the form of the 1978 television commercial for Energized Spiderman. The red and blue mummified remains of one heck of a neat toy feature prominently in this video gem. After the development team at Remco finished tearing the fun out of Spidey, my dad became my ultimate hero. Everyone else had to be a complete idiot, right? I mean, to eviscerate a super hero is one thing. To slash a production budget is another. But then to brag about it on national television...it still leaves me wondering what to say. What a craptastic piece of web-winching plastic.



So, for me being an inventor was really inevitable. Surrounded by the artifacts of a toy designer, fighting imaginary battles with a gun that shot goofy cartoon one-liners, how could I do anything else?
Posted by at 10:41 AM

4 comments:

Frank said...

Hello,

want an interesting job. I would love that. I once participated in a question on LinkedIn: "What Jigsaw Puzzle Strategy Do You Deploy?". One of the most enjoyable questions on LinkedIn. You may want to read it to get at look at how puzzle solvers think.

February 12, 2008 1:23 AM
Jose Lozano said...

Hi Don,

It is amazing to know someone like you. Most, when part of my childhood tried to invent something with no success. Now, my son wants to be inventor and I am encouraged to help him with what...it is my second round!

Having this blog is some of the wonders of Internet. While we see and buy toys at stores, you guys,the inventors, remain behind that scene without even being noticed.

It was a pleasure of virtualy meeting you.

Jose

February 12, 2008 9:00 AM
supersourcer said...

Don! So glad to see you on the "blogosphere". You have such an interesting background---I wish I had that creativity! I can't even sit down long enough to put 3 or 4 puzzle pieces together--my kids, on the other hand, love puzzles!

I will have to show my 2 older sons the energized spiderman commercial when they get home. They LOVE spiderman---so it will be interesting to see their reactions. Take Care!

February 12, 2008 1:59 PM
limeq said...

Don,
Never knew anyone in the world of invention of games or jigsaw puzzles. I come from the other inventions involving power tools and equipment. So it is kind of neat since these are the dreams that kept me going as a kid and still entertain me with my grand children and children. But I must admit I'd rather do the World of Concrete Show or the American Rental Show in Vegas in Jan or Feb than a Toy Show in NYC in Feb. :) :) Too cold for me.
Roger Brofft - LinkedIn

February 13, 2008 12:43 AM

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