Dominic Crapuchettes
Dominic Crapuchettes was raised in a family where it was not uncommon to play board games several times a week. Family staples included Charades, Chess, Hearts, Monopoly, Scrabble, Acquire, and occasionally Risk. The first significant game design of Dominic Crapuchettes was banned from school in eighth grade when too many students started playing it during class. It was a two player war game called "Kabloogi". During most of college, Dominic played on a professional circuit of a collectable card game which culminated in a second place finish for $15,000. Since then, he has become more interested in social games as opposed to competitive play.
In 1998, Dominic decided to design a game that his non-gaming friends would also enjoy. He modeled this design, Cluzzle, after a game that had won the prestigious Game of the Year award in Germany for 1988. Cluzzle went through many transformations over the next five years as Dominic continued to simplify it for the mainstream audience. "The most difficult part", he says, "was simplifying Cluzzle enough to be taught in several minutes without losing the initial charm of the game."