It all started with pen and paper. As a kid, I rebuilt board games we couldn't afford – Sagaland, Hotel, and whatever else sat in the shop shelf. At some point I stopped copying and started inventing my own.

My parents thought this was a semi-useful way to spend my time. So the games gradually disappeared into a box in the basement, and I, along with them, slipped into “normal” life.

They stayed there for over twenty years—until, during the pandemic, my daughter was rummaging around in the basement, found that box, and asked me a question I didn’t have a good answer for: “Why don’t you do that anymore, anyway?” A few days later, we were back at the kitchen table, crafting prototypes.

In 2022, I founded Moou Games to take the whole thing a bit more seriously. Today there are three of us: my daughter, my girlfriend, and me — a little patchwork family running a game publishing company.

My daughter and I are passionate gamers; we prefer strategic games that are either cooperative or “all-out brawls.” There’s nothing in between for us. My girlfriend, on the other hand, isn’t a gamer at all—which makes her our strictest quality control. When even she says, “Come on, one more round,” at the end, we know we’ve done something right.

We do everything ourselves, putting 100 percent of our heart and soul into it. And at SPIEL Essen 2026, the moment has finally arrived: We’re releasing our first game — NOAH — from the box in the basement to the trade show table. If only someone had told me that back then...