Play for the Millenials

In the mid-1980s, there was a category of extremely popular games that enjoyed brisk annual sales. Those games were recognized in the industry by several different names; party games, social interaction games, conversation in a box, or most fittingly, adult games. This boxed entertainment targeted baby boomers over the age of fifteen with game play intended for social gatherings of adult friends. Contents, theme, and play structure were aimed at adult interests. One of the most popular games of that era was Scruples.

No other inventor capitalized on the popularity of this category more than Brian Hersch. His LA based studio seemed to originate hit after hit after hit including Outburst, Taboo, Oodles, SongBurst, ScrutinEyes, Mad Chatter, Malarky, and others. Hersch and Company was the creative drive behind Platinum editions of Taboo, Outburst, and Scattergories in the 90s.

Says Hersch, "Our adult party creations were lubrication for rusty social skills. Some games were filled with edgy, often naughty fun for baby boomers. I got several reports where trade buyers asked the marketers to make some tweaks in content before placing big orders. Any new game had to get through a buyer before it could reach end consumers so on occasion the final edit was done by a very unlikely source!"

Whether because of buying choice saturation or the re-emergence of rust to baby boomers' social skills, the adult category seemed to plateau. But enter the millennial players today whose game interests have changed dramatically as evidenced by the recent popularity of Cards Against Humanity. Brian Hersch, always the "marketing-meister",  has observed the emergence of this new demand for liberal game content. He is launching a very adult content based variant of Outburst on Kickstarter, called Midnight Outburst. Game geeks may see some of the same physical game components as original Outburst, but the content is giving the millennials the type of edgy play they want in social adult games.

Hersch concludes, "This generation is discovering just how well a game can facilitate social interaction. Millennials do not have the past sensitivities to language and content, and they certainly want content free of the meddling edits by conservative trade game buyers!"

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2066439224/midnight-outburst-not-your-dads-party-game?ref=nav_search