In the 1980s, Peggy Brown studied industrial design. In the Midwest, that pretty much looked like cars, motorcycles, ATVs, and boats, she says. But the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, artist couldn’t help turning her know-how into something a little more fun.
“I’m sort of steeped in play and all things whimsical,” Brown says.
The Fun Queen
For the last 30-plus years, Brown has worked on games like Q-Bitz and Pretty Pretty Princess (’90s kids will know). She’s written game rules and trivia cards; she’s designed toy parts and engineered gameplay. Her brain never stops coming up with ideas.
“I’ll just invent anything that comes into my head,” Brown says. “I just get an idea. I see something . . . I hear something, and then I try to bounce it around and see if I can make it into something.”
That she has. The inventor-designer-writer-creative director-consultant (we just like to call her The Fun Queen) has partnered with hundreds of companies, including Hasbro, Milton Bradley, Fisher-Price, Parker Brothers, RoseArt, and so many more.
Her checklist for successful games: Are they fun?
That’s it. But she knows there’s another part of games, too.
“Like how people interact with each other and how children learn and play together and become good people in society, good citizens. All the things that you learn trying to get along in a game are the same things we all need to get along in life,” Brown says.
Despite technology’s reign, Brown says board games will stay relevant. They are tools for parents to engage with their kids, to create memories, or for friends to come together for a night of connection. We’ll always need that, she says.
“(Board games) make everybody sit at the table and look each other in the face,” Brown says.
Play, People!
Brown creates first for joy and whimsy, she says. But the challenges are real.
There aren’t as many local game and toy stores now. And her games have to be sellable products.
“I mean, you can make really good stuff that is really difficult to market,” Brown says. “You find things that you think are interesting because (artists are) continually curious. And those are the seeds that you then try to nurture into something marketable.”
Kids will grow up and often forget about their favorite toys or games, Brown says. But she also sees how quickly games can bring adults back to the present, back to fun.
“You present somebody with a toy who you know has been sitting behind a desk or in a boardroom or whatever for, you know, forever, and to see them respond to this little toy is so wonderful because they forget how much the fun toys are or games are,” Brown says.
“I think people just need to play.”