Game Changer changes games and communication

The offices of KitGuru are regularly assailed with all manner of emails, brochures, presentations, videos and an assortment of other attention-grabbing ways to tell us that one company or other is doing well and launching something popular. While we can't say with 100% certainty that it is always the best way to back up that kind of message, there's nothing like a full-blown recruitment campaign to confirm that a company has ‘it' right and is actually expanding. KitGuru puts the magnetic draughts to one side and considers alternative gaming options.

A quick look at CreativeChild.com will tell you that it comes from a very traditional place – where teddies, fancy dress and coloured bricks are hailed as the greatest inventions to surround your off spring with. But, for 2012, they awarded ‘Game of the Year' to an iPad accessory from Game Changer. Curiouser and curiouser.

You can see the product in action here.

Rather than keeping the iPad as a supremely personal, highly individual experience, the Game Changer board actually turns your iPad into the hub of a multi-person, hands-on, gaming experience – in an unusual blend of old-meets-new. Backed by Apple itself, as well as Amazon and Toys ‘R' us, strong sales were never likely to be far behind.

So what about software?

Emile Kalis is a child at heart – which is probably why he founded Identity Games. Now, after several years as a multi-award winning game/toy developer in Holland, his company has a very international flavour and is doing well from the USA to Europe. It's also looking to evolve into the hybrid market – and has targeted the board Game Changer for 2012/13.

But what makes Emile's company different is that his game company targets businesses. That's right, businesses. The little child inside each of us that really loves having fun. Going forward, armed with new development team, Emile's business-specific gifts will include games for the board Game Changer. Now THAT's what we call unusual. And Emile is just one person running one company.

It's also cool that such a new combination of ideas and technologies is creating jobs that could not have existed 3 years ago. David Cameron and Barak Obama take note.

KitGuru says: We love the evolution here. Corporate gifts have been around for years. Then they evolve, through work by people like Emile, into something a lot more personal. Then the iPad comes into existence and kicks off even more evolutions – one of which places the iPad at the centre of a 21st century version of the traditional board game – which then becomes a corporate gift. Threads from threads from threads – to weave a tapestry for tomorrow that we can hardly imagine today. If we received a corporate message, in the form of a Game Changer specifically designed for us, how could we ignore it?

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