I've noticed a fun trend is emerging with game inventors - they all seem to be teaming up with a bestie to create a dynamic duo of innovation.  It's like watching Dr. Dre drop the beat and Eminem spit mad rhymes. These collaboration stories are a behind-the-scenes peek at the magic that happens when inventors join forces—whether through accidental run-ins or emails that start with “Hey, this might be weird but…” From idea-swapping over pizza to tag-teaming prototypes across time zones, it’s proof that the best games are built with a buddy.

Together these inventor teams have dozens of games launching in the market over the next year with publishers like MindWare, Fat Brain, Gray Matters Games, Hootenanny Games, Mattel, Pandasaurus Games and more!

Laurie Peterson & Alvaro Gonzalez – Rebel Play Studios

Why did you decide to team up with another inventor?
Alvaro and I first worked together at FS Studio, an R&D firm that developed tech toys for companies like Spin Master and Hasbro. After our time there, Alvaro would occasionally call to bounce around ideas, knowing I had launched my own toy startup, Build & Imagine. Every conversation ended with, “I loved working with you. I hope we get to do it again.”

Eventually, Alvaro suggested we team up more formally. I remember him saying, “Let’s start small and just have fun.” At the time, I was dealing with chronic migraines and didn’t have the capacity to dive in. But once I found a treatment that worked, my first call was to Alvaro: “I’m ready.” We’ve been going strong for two years now. Every invention project we take on now, we take on together. 

What superpowers do each of you bring to the table?

I bring the grounding: an MBA from Berkeley, startup experience, and years as a product lead inside toy companies. My pragmatic POV is heartily challenged by Alvaro, who brings untethered creativity to each project. He keeps us dreaming bigger. This combo results in commercially viable concepts that rebel against the expected (hence, our studio name, Rebel Play). We've also been told we have the best pitches, likely because we don’t just show a product or a feature, we tell a story about its place in the market.

How did the concept improve because of the collab?

Working with Alvaro has been the best creative partnership of my career. We respect each other, complement each other’s strengths, and bounce ideas back and forth with ease.

Before Rebel Play even existed, I came to Alvaro with just a single word—an idea for a toy name. No product, no pitch—just a name. I fully expected a polite dismissal. Instead, he lit up: “Oh I love that. It could be…” and we spent the next hour riffing and shaping it into a collectible toy line that is currently in final licensing consideration. That moment sealed it for me. I have always been someone who goes into a corner and develops ideas solo, and then once they are thought out, I raise them for discussion. But with Alvaro, ideas are the conversation.

What new releases do you have this year or next year that you're excited about?

We’re teaming up with another awesome duo, Alex and Whitney from Hootenanny, on a new game slated for next year. It’s been a blast so far, and we’re excited to share more soon.

Brady Peterson & Bob Kamp

Why did you decide to team up with another inventor?

I was in a rut working alone, when I recalled something Scott Brown, formerly with Marbles the Brain Store, mentioned to me years ago…. the people he tended to see really break through in the industry and come out with hits were people that teamed up w/ other creatives, oftentimes much later in their careers.  The person he referenced during the conversation was Don Ullman, the creator of Soggy Doggy and Don’t Step In It!   I didn’t act on it immediately after that conversation, but then connected up w/ a local fellow inventor a few years ago, Bob Kamp (of Blank Slate fame), and we noodled several ideas to pitch at an 2023 POP event in Chicago.  We came up with four solid concepts, with one of them being optioned by Spin Master, but in the end none of them ended up with licenses.   Although we were disappointed, we continued to refine a few of the ideas and were fortunate enough to license one of them last year, Rhymes with Duck, a simple fast-paced rhyming game brought to life by the amazing team at Gray Matters Games (GMG).  

What superpowers do each of you bring to the table?

Well, I give most of the credit on this one to the master of words, Bob Kamp.  Bob has an unnatural ability to sift through and catalog the entirety of the English language and surgically identify the best possible words to use in his games, as evidenced by the enormous success of Blank Slate.  What I bring to the table is a bit of process organization, some creative energy and the ability to take the concepts and bundle them up into a pretty package suitable for presenting to potential licensors, including pitch decks and playable prototypes.  I also have a good set of local contacts that can be ready at a moment's notice to playtest new game concepts (Ok, maybe they’re in it for the pizza and the beer, but in the end we’re all happy).  

How did the concept improve because of the collab?

Rhymes with Duck was initially titled Rhymes with Bucket, which while being a chuckle out loud title, may have been a little too in-your-face to land on the shelves of the likes of Target and Walmart.  The game with that title also lacked a catchy theme. These two issues were addressed when Bob and I teamed up with Joe Barron (of GMG) and worked on the game play and the title over several months.  In the end it was Joe that swapped the ‘Bucket’ out with a ‘Duck’. This both lessened the intensity of the title and gave the game a more fun theme, which resulted in the game’s featured character being a rubber duck, ‘Chuck’. This name change also allowed Bob to come up with a key scoring mechanic based on the game of H-O-R-S-E, but using the word Q-U-A-C-K.  In the end the back and forth between all of us resulted in a much more compelling game.

What new releases do you have this year or next year that you're excited about?

We’re excited about Rhymes with Duck, which recently launched and is slated to go into Target this fall.  I’m also very excited about another party game collaboration with Gray Matters Games, along with the fantastic David Yakos and his team at Salient Technologies, titled Cross the Line.  I can’t really share any more details as it’s a work in progress, but if things go as we hope it will land on shelves next fall.  I’m also excited about some other concepts that are at various stages of development / pitching with other uber talented inventors including Peggy Brown, Barry & Jason and our friends from up north, Wiggles 3D, helmed by Don Reid and his son, Connor. 

Chrissy Fagerholt & Jillian Lakritz

Why did you decide to team up with another inventor?

Working solo, I began to create a myriad of voices in my head who are really just different versions of myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I have had some killer playtests with me, myself and I.  But ultimately, the ego stops seeing what isn’t working.  So naturally you start to ask others, and while friends and family not in the biz do have great insight, there is nothing better than being able to bounce ideas off someone who understands what makes a game work.  Jillian Lakritz and I started as colleagues, then friends, and ultimately found our different voices, visions, and strengths work well together on certain projects. 

What superpowers do each of you bring to the table?

My brain focuses on fun first and how can we make a game that is easy and funny.  Jillian is data driven and uses her intelligence when designing.  That combo works great when figuring out when something may or may not be working. 

How did the concept improve because of the collab?

We will have our first licensed game together released in spring of 2026.  The initial idea came from Jillian who had been playing around with a simple but fun idea, and I started asking how we could make it, for lack of a better term, addictive.  That got both of our minds running and eventually through playtesting on our own, then coming back with results and tweaking each other’s findings - ultimately landing on a playable, pitchable idea we were confident in.

What new releases do you have this year or next year that you're excited about?

I can’t say much at this point, but we are excited to have a game coming out that will not only be a hit with kids but satisfy the adults too…maybe more so?!  We hope it isn’t the only one - we have some coals in the fire.

Grant Lyon & Adam Bain

Why did you decide to team up with another inventor?

I decided to team up with another inventor because I think ideas are always stronger when you have someone to bounce them off. The collaborative process makes the final product better because people come at ideas from different angles and see them with a different lens. 

What superpowers do each of you bring to the table?

I'm good at getting to the core of what's fun about an idea, and how we can focus the game around that fun. Adam’s good at making sure mechanics of the game work – making it replayable, optimizing scoring and adding in that needed tension between players. 

How did the concept improve because of the collab?

The concept always improves because of the collab. One area that it really helps in is play testing. When you're play testing a game, you often identify problems with it, but you don't often identify solutions. It takes creative thinking and problem solving to find a new way to do something - a new mechanic to add or subtract, to fix the game.  Having two minds tackling the problems in the game is infinitely better than one.

What new releases do you have this year or next year that you're excited about?

We have several games signed but we can’t share them until they’re publicly announced.

Danielle Reynolds with Scott Brady & Steven Ungaro

Why did you decide to team up with another inventor?

I have found co-design to be a great way to motivate myself to hit deadlines and fill my design gaps. The process goes much faster when I have someone to do initial playtests with and bounce ideas off. I don't have a go-to team currently. I typically ask other designers if they want to partner with me on a project-by-project basis. Scott Brady is probably my most frequent team up. He and I designed a party game called Caution Signs which I will use as an example for the rest of the questions.

What superpowers do each of you bring to the table?

My superpowers have always been my speed and networking. By speed I mean how quickly I generate ideas and prototypes. I play a lot of games so my toolbox is very large when trying to think of solutions to design problems. Scott is similar, he and I can verbally talk out an idea, saving hours to days worth of playtesting. Since my background is graphic design and psychology, I use them to make prototypes quickly. Once Scott and I land on a gameplay to test I go off and make the initial graphics which he then pretties up for pitching. He also has a print background and understands how to pitch a game as a product. It's probably one of his greatest strengths and why he continues to be so successful signing new games. Both of us have a large network so in the partnership we are pretty equal there compared to my other co-designers where I do all the reach out and pitching. I’m an extrovert so I tend to take the lead but Scott has more free time at conventions to schedule pitches so we balance out. I am also less of a math brain so Scott is an excellent partner to check me on that.

How did the concept improve because of the collab?

When working with Scott on Caution Signs the game became better through his idea of splitting up the cards and creating unique triangle shapes to form a caution sign. This choice carried into the final product. That combined with my concept for the game, 20-second time limit and quick playtesting to massage the word list to feature descriptors on top and animals/people on the bottom made the game what it is today. It came together so quickly and continues to grow in its success! Hopefully any other future projects with Scott will do as well.

What new releases do you have this year or next year that you're excited about?

My co-design with first time designer Steven Ungaro called Tricky Kids is expected to come out this year at GenCon through Pandasaurus Games. In that partnership Steven was a huge trick-taking game fan where I am very much not, but I had the idea to make one where you wrote in your own numbers on dry-erase cards and pitched him the idea. I used his massive toolbox of knowledge on the mechanic to bounce ideas off. The game received an offer before Steven even got the chance to playtest it! It is one of the most unique things I've thought of and I'm very excited to see how people respond to it!

David Yakos & …. Basically everyone  😊

Why did you decide to team up with another inventor?

Who wouldn't want to be part of the A-Team? It's fun when you can put together a dream team. Plus, two brains are better than one... especially when one forgets where the prototype is, and the other remembers where the snacks are.

What superpowers do each of you bring to the table?

I’ve teamed up with several talented people who had a seed of an idea but weren’t sure what to fully do with it. I love when someone brings an angle or perspective I’ve never considered. My superpower is making even the most complex ideas into simple parts that physically work, while keeping it playful. After all, play isn’t rocket surgery.

How did the concept improve because of the collab?

Some products simply wouldn’t exist without collaboration. The best ideas come from blending technical know-how, artistic flair, a sense of play, and big-picture strategy.

What new releases do you have this year or next year that you're excited about?

Some of our new titles include Ringer, Why? Because!, Going Nuts, Kanoodle Shape Escape, plus a dozen other surprises... Stay tuned for more!

April Mitchell & Ed Gartin

Why did you decide to team up with another inventor?

From April - Ed and I had known each other for a while- first I pitched to him, then was mentored by him, and then taught a class together. We worked well together, so we thought why not give it a try as an invention team. And it’s been incredible working together, we really feed off of each other’s energy and have a great time. Ed is great at giving feedback and sharing his thoughts on how to make things even better, taking ideas to the next level. I had some ideas that needed some help, whether they were the start of ideas that could benefit from a co-design or whether I felt stuck and needed a fresh take on things. Some ideas just really benefit from a co-design and those are the ones I think it’s great to team up on. And with that, it’s important to pick the right partner for a game because we all bring different talents and expertise to the table. But also, it’s just plain fun to work with someone because otherwise this can be a lonely business and Ed is a great person to hangout with and make games together!

From Ed – I find that everything benefits from collaboration, and when I first met April I could just see her drive and passion to create games, and she seemed to have a natural ability to identify new and unique experiences that could be converted into games. She brought a fresh perspective that I really enjoyed chatting with her about. In the beginning it was a bit of a suggestion her and there from me, then it became Hmmm… I’d really like to work on that with you it sounds extremely intriguing as a game experience. Out of those initial conversations it just seemed to flow naturally when we were working together, and that’s something really important if you’re going to collab on a project. It shouldn’t feel uncomfortable or make you anxious, it should be fun, and something that you look forward to every week. That’s how it is for me working with April, it has been an absolute joy working with her and she’s also a heck of a game designer which pushes me to be better, something else I truly appreciate.

What superpowers do each of you bring to the table?

From April - I’m an idea machine. I am constantly coming up with names for games and themes, then concentrating on game mechanics to support the name or theme. I like to be creative and do things I haven’t seen before! I also have a powerhouse of playtesters behind me and lots of years and experience working with kids and families, being a mom myself and a teacher back in the day! I have also gotten good at creating sizzle videos and pitching! I really enjoy building relationships and finding the right game to fit with various companies. Ed is a creative who is always 2-3 steps ahead! He knows game mechanics inside-and-out, combining just the right ones to make it not only a great game but the experience we were really trying to create. He’s also a numbers guy and can math out the correct cards, spaces, outcomes, etc. to balance a game. So, I might have a great idea, and we work together on the mechanics, but Ed is the one to help make sure things are balanced and will always work out. Ed is also a designer by trade and makes amazing looking prototypes! He has years of experience working on all kinds of games from trading card games to family games like Monopoly and everything in between, which is a wonderful benefit of working with him.

From Ed – What she said. ;) all true.

How did the concept improve because of the collab?

From April - A recent game we co-designed just came out with MindWare called Pizza Pie. This game really benefited from Ed’s math and balancing skills, as well as his genius design work. It was a game in which the number of cards and sides of cards had to be “mathed out” before even playtesting. We came up with the main mechanics of the game knowing it could be played out a few different ways, all which relied on just the right number of cards for probability’s sake-and this is one of the great areas where Ed shines so of course we nailed it! Also, the prototype that Ed made for publisher pitches looked fantastic and inspired the final product - the game was in a box that looked just like a pizza box and opened up in the front. We really wanted to create an experience to remember, from the pieces to the presentation and small details like this go a long way. We were so happy to partner with MindWare on this game!

From Ed – One of the things that is great about working with April is her confidence in saying something and not worrying about if it’s a great idea or not, just “hey, here’s an idea…” and let’s see what happens. A lot of our better game concepts have come out of that spontaneous sharing moment during a chat. Pizza Pie was like that - April had a name she really liked, and a concept for having a pizza slice on one side and a piece of pie on the other side really capitalizing on the shared shape and the contrasting tastes. Starting with that name and that two-sided piece concept, we started slicing and dicing it, looking for a unique way to combine the ingredients, using what we had to make something really tasty and enjoyable we could deliver to a publisher. That process of pushing and pulling to see where the game breaks and where it rises is great when working with someone like April. At one point, we had a competitive game, then it became a collaborative game, it even had a few moments as a solo / two player game, and that’s truly one of the fun parts about inventing games with another person. That juxtaposition between what you want, what they want, and what the game wants, when there really are so many ways that you can take things. But once April and I ran it through some playtests that’s when we found the game that we delivered to Mindware. Which brings me to another benefit of our collaboration, playtesting is so important in game inventing and I have benefitted from April’s ability to call together her kids and have an instant playtest group, a playtest group that gives great (unfiltered) feedback, and when you have that and you incorporate what you’ve learned, the concepts always improve.

What new releases do you have this year or next year that you’re excited about?

From April - We just had Disco Island Escape with Hootenanny Games released this year as well as Pizza Pie with Mindware. We are thrilled at how both games turned out and how well the companies are doing with their marketing efforts! This resulted in a Funtastic surprise for us… Pizza Pie will grace the shelves of Barnes & Noble this fall of 2025. Something else we are excited about is the light strategy game we will start pitching this year at GenCon. We have other light strategy games out already, but this new game takes the weight up a notch with a very compelling theme and some highly engaging game play! We are looking forward to finding just the right home for it!

From Ed - It’s always the next game that I am most excited about, I love the challenge of game design, puzzling it out, playtesting, revising and seeing the prototypes come to life and pitching them. I mean, I do have a deep fondness for the games we’ve done, and what we learn along the way doing them, but I am most excited about what we are doing now.

Barry McLaughlin & Jason Lautenschleger – Barry & Jason Games and Entertainment

Why did you decide to team up with another inventor?

Jason and I have had built-in collaborators from the start because there are two of us, and we work together so well...bouncing back and forth between work and play. We’ve also had an internal mantra of "best idea wins," so we are good about keeping ego at bay. 

We decided to finally open to outside collaborations because we want to keep evolving, learning, and playing with friends.  We are currently developing a light strategy party game with April Mitchell, we developed a game show concept with Jeremy Posner, and we’re in the early stages of a collaboration with Brady Peterson.  

-What superpowers do each of you bring to the table?

April has a great mind for all aspects of game mechanics and the player experience and has the most positive attitude in the biz.

Jeremy is a funny dude who works super fast and really figures things out. 

We haven’t officially started the project with Brady yet, but when we do, I will report back on his superpowers. I bet they’re fantastic.

How did the concept improve because of the collab?

They’re happening in real time, so it’s all an improvement! It’s just awesome to bounce ideas around with such talented inventors. For our game show Jeremy ran a bunch of numbers in a simulator that Jason and I didn’t even know was possible, so that was super cool and helped a ton. He also really stays on top of moving things forward. So does April! She also asks a lot of questions that always lead to better outcomes.

What new releases do you have this year or next year that you're excited about?

Feelin’ Cute with Hootenanny is out on the streets, and I love this game so much. What’s better than ranking animals based on their cuteness?

We are making games with the incomparable Rich Mazel and magical Vat 19, and we’ll see what else starts cookin’.