NZ Game Aims To Topple Monopoly

Media Release
For Immediate Release

7 October 2010

NZ Game Aims To Topple Monopoly

Toppletree, a New Zealand designed game is aiming to be the world’s most popular board game, toppling Monopoly from the number one position.

Invented by Auckland based designer Matthew Lazenby, Toppletree is a smart construction game with a strategic twist for 2-4 players. Players aim to grow their coloured branch of the tree before it topples over.

Over 20,000 copies of the exciting, easy to play family game have already been sold into the US, Thailand, UK, the Netherlands and Australia. The UK’s largest mail order toy company The Happy Puzzle Company has chosen Toppletree to feature on the front cover of 750,000 copies of its Christmas mail order catalogue.

Award-winning New Zealand board game company IQideas have teamed up with Matthew to produce the game and are asking Kiwis and board game enthusiasts all over the world to get behind Toppletree and make it the most popular board game on the globe, toppling Monopoly from its number one spot. IQideas has set up online voting at www.toppletree.com and are aiming to get a million votes within six months.

“Don’t get us wrong, we love Monopoly (and so do our kids!), we just think it's time to recognise some of the new creative game designs out there. It’s time for a new game to take the top spot and what could be better than the Kiwi designed Toppletree! We hope the public will help Kiwi designers take on the world - and our little New Zealand company take on the big boys!” says Andrew Baker, Managing Director IQideas.

Toppletree inventor, Matthew Lazenby came up with the idea for the game three years ago and spent two years developing a prototype.

“I started by moulding a couple of the blocks. All of the blocks started as a single colour and I developed the concept from there to the four colours it is now. It was always going to be a tree. During the development I also played it on paper in a two dimensional format,” explains Matthew.

Currently working as a product designer for New Zealand product development company Adept, Matthew decided to team up with award-winning New Zealand game company IQideas, (manufacturer of popular New Zealand geography game The Amazing Moa Hunt) to manufacture and distribute Toppletree.

“We were very excited when Matthew approached us late last year, with his prototype for Toppletree. With our experience in the industry we were confident that it was a winning concept. We quickly produced a few copies to take with us to the Nuremburg Toy Fair in Germany in February, where it was enthusiastically received by international game distributors.

“New Zealand has a wealth of talent in product development. This is an area in which we really punch above our weight. As New Zealand’s largest independent board game company we’re privileged to regularly receive approaches from New Zealand inventors with exciting ideas. We’re looking forward to working with Matthew to ensure the success of Toppletree locally and internationally,” says Andrew Baker, Managing Director IQideas Limited.

Thirty three year old Matthew spent his early years in Dunedin before relocating with his family to the Lake District in England. He completed an honours degree in product design at Bournemouth University before heading back to New Zealand in 2004 with his English wife Lisa.

“I’m really excited about the future for Toppletree. I hope Kiwis everywhere get behind our campaign to make a New Zealand designed board game number one! I plan to keep inventing, I have a number of undeveloped ideas which I hope to continue working on,” says Matthew.
ENDS

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