Ciao Davide, saluti dall’India! Sono Venkat Iyer, residente nella città di Mumbai in India, e sono un ingegnere per educazione, imprenditore per mestiere, educatore per passione e un giocatore nel cuore. Il fatto di poter portare tutti questi talenti a Luma World è il motivo per cui amo così tanto il mio lavoro.
Un paio di anni fa mi sono riunito con i miei amici Sameer, Sajid e Tejasvi per avviare Luma World. Eravamo appassionati di istruzione e abbiamo avuto il privilegio di studiare in prestigiose istituzioni educative in India e all’estero. Tuttavia, abbiamo scoperto che il sistema educativo in India era incentrato sulla memorizzazione meccanica, mentre in altri paesi era sull’applicazione pratica. 

Facendo ulteriori ricerche e parlando con molti educatori, genitori e bambini, abbiamo scoperto che l’apprendimento era più teorico e monotono nelle scuole e non si concentrava sul miglioramento dell’esperienza degli studenti. Quindi, molti studenti si annoiano o perdono interesse per molti argomenti. È stato allora che abbiamo avuto un’idea straordinaria. Abbiamo detto: “Perché non combinare l’apprendimento con il gioco?” e Luma World è nato. Prendiamo concetti accademici, abilità di vita e valori morali e li combiniamo in giochi e altre attività in modo che i bambini non si rendano conto che stanno “studiando”, ma piuttosto acquisiscono tutte le abilità essenziali divertendosi.

 

Puoi dirci di più sulla compagnia Luma World?
Luma World è un’impresa di edutainment che si concentra sullo sviluppo delle abilità basate sul gioco. Sebbene il divertimento sia l’aspetto centrale di tutto ciò che creiamo, miriamo anche a sviluppare una pletora di competenze rilevanti per i giovani studenti. Tutto l’apprendimento è subliminale e il divertimento massimo.
Forniamo ai bambini la libertà di imparare al proprio ritmo, attraverso molteplici tentativi senza aver paura del fallimento e, soprattutto, in un ambiente sociale e diversificato. Ciò è reso possibile solo attraverso il gioco.
 

Penso che il nostro più grande punto di forza nel modo in cui, in un mondo pieno di apprendimento digitale, ci concentriamo sulla creazione di esperienze di apprendimento fisico. In un certo senso, per quanto strano possa sembrare, siamo qualche anno avanti rispetto al mercato.
Per un bambino, un gioco è un gioco. 

In ambito famigliare la domanda per i genitori è: perché non far parte del loro viaggio di apprendimento e sviluppare abilità olistiche nel tuo bambino. Quando le famiglie giocano ai nostri giochi, il motivo principale per cui lo adorano è perché lì dentro c’è qualcosa per tutti! A volte porta anche a qualche sana battaglia in famiglia!
In ambito scolastico siamo riusciti a fondere concetti accademici di base come Numerazione, Decimali, Percentuali, Misurazioni, Geometria insieme a capacità di vita come creatività, lavoro di squadra, comunicazione, problem solving, alfabetizzazione finanziaria e “gamification” tutti gli obiettivi di apprendimento basati sul curriculum. I bambini non si rendono nemmeno conto che stanno imparando argomenti da manuale attraverso i nostri giochi e la cosa migliore è che giocando costantemente a questi giochi stanno solo migliorando. È così bello vedere i bambini che hanno l’opportunità di imparare come vogliono in un’atmosfera in cui il fallimento non è rimproverato ma piuttosto accettato. Hai perso un round di questa partita? Nessun problema. Facciamone un altro. Il bambino continua ad imparare solo in quel modo. Gli educatori adorano questo aspetto dei nostri giochi. Vedono che i bambini sono coinvolti e, cosa più importante, imparano in modo cooperativo. Diamo agli studenti la libertà di esplorare, sperimentare e imparare nei modi che vogliono senza alcuna coercizione. Come disse Einstein, “Tutti possono essere geniali, ma se giudichi un pesce dalla sua capacità di arrampicarsi su un albero, penserai per tutta la vita che sia uno stupido“.

 

I nostri giochi non riguardano solo il gioco e la vittoria. L’aspetto più eccitante di un gioco è la curva di apprendimento, la consapevolezza che posso impiegare strategie o tattiche diverse per ottenere risultati diversi. Sentiamo che i bambini quando raggiungono i 7 anni circa migliorano la capacità di attenzione ed iniziano anche a pensare a molteplici possibilità. Questa comparsa di percorsi cognitivi che consentono il processo decisionale è un momento cruciale nello sviluppo di un bambino. 

 

Fa sempre paura quando si legge “educativo” nella descrizione di un gioco, perché di solito significa “non divertente”. Come si possono progettare gioco che sian sia educativi sia divertenti?

Questa è un’ottima domanda. Lo sentiamo così tanto. Genitori e insegnanti ci dicono: “Oh, è un gioco, i miei figli non impareranno”. I bambini ci dicono “Oh! C’è matematica, non sarà divertente. ” Ma, dopo aver giocato ai nostri giochi, lo sguardo sorpreso sul loro viso è perfetto! Nessun gioco funziona se non si capisce il pubblico di destinazione e si mappano le loro esigenze. Lo facciamo prima di iniziare a ideare un gioco e lo facciamo dopo aver progettato il gioco durante la fase di test. Questo è l’aspetto chiave. Ascolta, capisci, modifica e ripeti. Quando iniziamo a lavorare su un gioco, iniziamo sempre con gli obiettivi di apprendimento. Prendiamo un argomento educativo al livello più ampio, ad esempio i numeri, e lo suddividiamo in obiettivi molto più piccoli a seconda della fascia di età. La parte difficile è rimuovere ciò che non è necessario!
A chiunque desideri progettare giochi educativi, consiglierei innanzitutto di creare l’obiettivo educativo come nucleo. Quindi stratificalo con meccaniche di gioco che implicano anche molte abilità pratiche. Infine il contorno è davvero il “colpo di scena” o gli aspetti della fortuna che assicurano che i risultati non siano gli stessi ogni volta che si gioca. Il Ménage à trois è davvero la chiave per costruire un gioco educativo di successo.

 

Il potenziale è enorme, il mercato stesso in India è così enorme e così inutilizzato che riteniamo possa avere una crescita esponenziale nei prossimi anni. Inoltre, abbiamo iniziato a ricevere così tante richieste dai genitori di tutto il mondo sul nostro sito Web e sui social media per i nostri giochi negli Stati Uniti, in Europa, nel Medio Oriente e nel Sud-est asiatico. Mostra chiaramente che esiste un mercato enorme per questo. Educare i genitori al potenziale dei giochi è stata la sfida più grande, ma grazie ai social media, in particolare ai video e alle recensioni, è stato fantastico per le persone vedere il potenziale di tali giochi e come possono trasformare la vita dei loro figli.
A differenza della maggior parte degli altri settori, il blocco ha funzionato alla grande per noi. È triste dirlo durante una pandemia, ma avere famiglie bloccate a casa e non essere in grado di avventurarsi è stata una benedizione sotto mentite spoglie. Dal momento che vendiamo i nostri giochi online e attraverso i mercati di e-commerce, spedirli a persone in tutta l’India è stato un gioco da ragazzi. 

 

Qual è il vostro bestseller e quale, forse inaspettatamente, sta faticando di più?
Il nostro bestseller è Galaxy Raiders [NdR presto una recension]. È un gioco di posizionamento basato sulla strategia che richiede operazioni matematiche per catturare lune e pianeti come territorio. È un grande gioco perché l’età non è un limite finché puoi fare i conti! Le famiglie lo adorano ei genitori continuano a dirci che i loro figli non vogliono tornare ai fogli di lavoro, ma insistono a giocare a questo gioco prima degli esami per esercitarsi in matematica!
Fortunatamente, nessuno dei nostri giochi ha avuto difficoltà nel mercato perché è unico e diverso da qualsiasi cosa si trovi in ​​India.

Oltre a questi giochi, che novità avete per il futuro, vicino o lontano? Come vi vedete sul mercato tra 3-4 anni?
Abbiamo appena lanciato 2 nuovi giochi, quindi ora abbiamo 6 giochi sul mercato. Abbiamo un totale di 15 prototipi pronti e testati con bambini, famiglie, genitori ed educatori. Abbiamo in programma di lanciare altri 9 giochi nei prossimi 6-12 mesi. Siamo orgogliosi di poter progettare giochi educativi attraverso un processo agile.

Il governo indiano ha appena lanciato una nuova politica educativa nazionale che pone molta enfasi sul gioco e sulla scoperta. Questo è una grossa fortuna per noi. Siamo più avanti rispetto alla maggior parte delle aziende per essere in grado di soddisfare le scuole e le famiglie con giochi fisici che aiutano i bambini ad apprendere e padroneggiare una varietà di abilità accademiche e di vita. Vogliamo essere leader di mercato e i nostri giochi fanno parte del programma di studi in India. 

Altri piani sono ovviamente quelli di diventare globali e fare in modo che le persone di tutto il mondo apprezzino i nostri giochi. Ciò include le traduzioni dei nostri giochi nelle lingue e nelle culture locali. Il nostro sogno è avere giochi fisici abilitati AI e ML che consentano ai bambini di giocare a giochi che si evolvono costantemente insieme alle loro capacità intellettuali. Quanto sarebbe bello giusto? Immagina un gioco che impara a conoscere i giocatori e personalizza automaticamente difficoltà e temi in base ai loro gusti o di conseguenza li mette alla prova. Sarebbe meraviglioso! 

 

Fase di progettazione: come trovi i designer? Hai illustratori nella tua azienda? Tempo necessario dal prototipo allo scaffale?

Abbiamo trascorso ben 6 mesi nel 2018 creando un team interno molto forte. Facciamo di tutto, dall’ideazione alla progettazione del gioco, all’illustrazione e ai contenuti. Non scendiamo mai a compromessi sul gioco perché sappiamo che i bambini ci giocano! Il nostro principale progettista di giochi è Sourav Paul ed è il cervello dietro tutti i titoli sul mercato finora. Il nostro co-fondatore Sajid dirige tutta la direzione creativa e li rende attraenti sia per i bambini che per gli adulti.
Generalmente ci vogliono 2 mesi per completare l’ideazione, la prototipazione e il test con i bambini. Di solito testiamo ogni gioco con almeno 50 bambini, 10 famiglie e 10 educatori per assicurarci che tutto il nostro pubblico sia contento dell’acquisto. La produzione richiede altri 20-30 giorni. Quindi 3 mesi dall’ideazione allo scaffale.

Hai qualche curiosità da raccontarci?
Oh parecchi! È incredibile quello che i bambini ci hanno insegnato in questo fantastico viaggio. Uno spicca e te ne parlerò un po ‘.
Quando stavamo testando uno dei nostri giochi, un bambino è venuto da noi e ha detto: “Perché non posso a vedere le sue carte? Voglio fare anche quella matematica”. I giocatori (i bambini) fanno i conti per aiutare se stessi a vincere e anche per impedire agli altri giocatori di vincere. Un bambino ci ha insegnato che a volte pensare fuori dagli schemi rende un gioco migliore anche se significa lasciare le nostre zone di comfort.

 

Ecco la tua ultima occasione per dire ai nostri lettori quello che vuoi: vai!
Per capire la profondità di un gioco educativo non c’è via d’uscita, devi giocare e sperimentarlo di persona! Spero davvero che la percezione di ciò che un gioco può insegnare ai bambini cambi dopo aver provato i giochi di Luma World con la propria famiglia. Abbiamo messo molta riflessione, impegno e innumerevoli ore di test e modifiche in modo che i bambini abbiano dai 30 ai 45 minuti di esperienza divertente come mai prima d’ora, a volte questo può cambiare totalmente il modo in cui pensano per sempre. 

Speriamo che, ovunque tu stia leggendo questo articolo, tu possa giocare molto presto a un gioco di Luma World!
Inoltre, stiamo partecipando a SpielWarenMesse Digital quest’anno dal 22 al 25 ottobre. Quindi vieni a trovarci virtuale sul sito web e gioca ad alcuni dei nostri giochi su TableTopia e magari ordina anche la tua copia esclusiva!

 

 

 

Hello Venkat, can you briefly introduce yourself? Who you are, what job you hold, how you got there, …
Hi Davide, greetings from India! I’m Venkat Iyer, a resident of Mumbai city in India, and I’m an engineer by education, entrepreneur by trade, educator by passion and a gamer at heart. The fact that I can bring all those talents to Luma World is the reason why I love my job so much.
A couple years back got together with my friends Sameer, Sajid and Tejasvi to start Luma World. We were passionate about education and have had the privilege of studying in prestigious educational institutions in India and abroad. However we found the system of education in India was focused on rote memorization while in other countries it was on practical application. Doing further research and speaking to a lot of educators, parents and kids we found that learning was more theoretical and monotonous in schools and not focused on enhancing the experience of learners. So, many students get bored or lose interest in a lot of topics. That’s when we had an amazing idea. We said, “Why not combine learning with play?” and Luma World was born. We take academic concepts, life skills and moral values and combine them into games and other activities so that kids never realize they’re “studying” but rather gain all essential skills while having fun.

Can you tell us more about the Luma World company?
Luma World is an edutainment enterprise that focuses on game-based skill development. We aim to coax people to get off their screens by replicating the gratification and adrenaline rush of digital games. While fun is the core aspect of everything we create, we also aim to develop a plethora of relevant skills for young learners. All the learning is subliminal and enjoyment at a maximum.
Our focus is on creating inclusive learning experiences for kids at home or in the classroom. We believe the learning process must not be in silos or dependent on selective outcomes (as with screens or written tests) but rather be based on curiosity, discovery and exploration. We provide children with the freedom to learn at their own pace, through multiple attempts without being afraid of failure and most importantly in a social and diverse environment. This is made possible only through play.

What do you think is its strength, in other words what makes it stand out on the market?
I think our biggest strength in how, in a world full of digital learning, we are focused on creating physical learning experiences. In a way, as odd as it may sound, we are a few years ahead of the market. Here there are two different scenarios, learning at home and learning at school. Let’s look at the former first. In 2020, parents are slowly realizing the perils of screen time for young kids especially those under the age of 12. Screens isolate kids and, though technology has some great powers, it almost divides families within the house. Gone are the days where the entire family could sit together at dinner and talk or sit around a table and play a game. Everyone is just glued to his or her phones or computers or TV. This is the real zombie apocalypse: P
We are in the process of changing that. We want to provide the awesome experience for families to come together, have as much fun as they would on their gadgets and make some amazing memories together. This is even more important for families with young kids because there is a lot of learning in our games too! For a child, a game is a game. If it replicates the dopamine kick it could be on a screen or on the table – THEY WILL PLAY IT! The question to parents is: why not be part of their learning journey and develop holistic skills in your child. When families play our games, the main reason they love it is because there’s something for everyone in there! Sometimes it even leads to some healthy family banter! XD
The second scenario is the classroom. When we spoke to educators in India the two biggest problems were engaging children in academics and dealing with different kinds of learners with different abilities and ensuring everyone is learning. In India, this gets tougher when classrooms have upwards of 35 kids and only one teacher to instruct them. This is where the magic of game-based learning comes in. Kids run away at the sight of textbooks and homework but keep a game on the table with colourful and cute creative, kids become very curious. This is where we really stand out of the crowd. We have managed to blend core academic concepts like Numeracy, Decimals, Percentages, Measurements, Geometry along with life skills like creativity, teamwork, communication, problem solving, financial literacy and “gamify” all the learning objectives based on the curriculum. Kids do not even realize they’re learning textbook topics through our games and what’s better is that by constantly playing these games they are only getting better at it.
Games allow kids of different abilities to learn together too. One lovely case study we saw in a classroom was a student with a learning disability use to struggle in math as per the teacher. When we set the game out, this kid was playing with other kids who were amongst the top 1% of his learning peers. It was such a joy to see this student win the game. It provided the kid with a huge confidence boost that he told us “You know what maybe I’m not bad in math maybe tests are bad.” It is so cool to see kids now have the opportunity to learn the way they want in an atmosphere where failure is not reprimanded but rather accepted. You lost a round of this game? No problem. Let’s play another one. The child only keeps learning that way. Educators love this aspect of our games. They see children are engaged and most importantly they learning in a cooperative and supportive manner. We give learners the freedom to explore, experiment and learn in the ways they want without any coercion.
Like Einstein famously said “Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid.”

You have boxes in the range of 7+ 11+ years old, right? What makes your games particularly suitable to these targets?
I feel that games are not just about playing and winning. The most exciting aspect about a game is the learning curve, the realization that I can employ different strategies or tactics to achieve different outcomes. We feel kids once they reach around 7 years of age they having slightly longer attention spans and also start thinking of multiple possibilities. “Should I do this and get that or should I do that and get this.” This emergence of cognitive pathways that enable decision-making is a crucial time in the development of a child. We wish to allow educators and parents to help kids acquire and develop this intelligence by providing them with the right learning resources. This knowledge once learned and reinforced is almost like a natural reflex. It may have been learned through a game but can be applied universally. In the future, kids might grow up to doctors, engineers, artists, designers or managers but problem solving, critical thinking and decision making are essential skills in every domain.
We also grade our games and gently introduce more complexity including core academic concepts and hence have a range of games between 7+ and 11+. We do not want a 7 year old to be unable to play a game simply because he has not yet learned decimals because the curriculum has not introduced it yet. Hence, we follow a very balanced structure of age, conceptual knowledge and skill development.

I’m always scared when I read “educational” in a game description, because it usually means “not fun”. How can you design a game that is both educational and fun?
This is a great question. We hear this so much. Parents and teachers tell us “Oh it’s a game, my kids will not learn.” Kids tell us “Oh! It’s got math, it won’t be fun.” But, after they play our games the look of surprise on their face is picture perfect! Designing an educational game is like designing any other with a few caveats. No game works if you don’t understand your target audience and map their requirements. We do that before we begin to ideate on a game and we do that after we design the game during the testing phase. That is the key aspect. Listen, understand, tweak and repeat.
When we begin to work on a game we always start with the learning objectives. We take an educational topic at the broadest level, for example numbers, and break it down into much smaller objectives depending on the age group. What digit numbers does our audience know till? A 7 year old cannot work with 9 digit numbers; they can work with only maximum 5 digit numbers. But there’s another catch, can they even do 5 digit numbers while playing the game without a pen and paper? No. So the focus has to be on getting them to do practical work and improve on concepts while keeping in mind the end goal – they must have fun. Hence we only add learning objectives in a game that blend well with the theme and yet are important for kids to learn. The tough part is removing what is not required!
To anyone looking to design educational games, I would first recommend creating the educational objective as the core. Then layer it with game mechanics that also involve a lot of practical skills. Finally the garnish is really the “twist” or aspects of luck that ensure that outcomes are not the same every time the game is played. The Ménage à trois is really what is the key to building a succesful educational game.
As a rule of thumb, we maintain a consistency in all our games – only a maximum of 40% the gameplay involves academic learning or concepts, another 50% are a mix of life skills like strategy, decision making, etc. and finally 10% is luck. This mixture of strategy and luck is really what makes a game fun and introduces newer outcomes every time it is played. This is essential. Kids often do not realize they are learning difficult topics like Percentages or Profit and Loss because the strategy and luck overshadow it. The learning is subliminal entirely.
Like another famous saying goes: “Tell Me and I Forget; Teach Me and I May Remember; Involve Me and I Learn.” That is the goal. Education and learning occur automatically when kids are engaged and involved. We really do not have to do much at all!

What are your thoughts on the Indian and international situation of children’s board games? What challenges have you faced so far and how are things going at the moment?
We’re not quite certain of the international competition for board games, as we so far have been entirely India focused. But, we see the potential is tremendous. The market in India itself is so huge and so untapped that we believe it could have exponential growth in the next few years. Also, we have started getting so many requests from parents around the world on our website and social media to have our games in USA, Europe, Middle East and South East Asia. It clearly shows that there is a huge market for this.
With India, the biggest challenge for us has been perception of a game. Most parents still see games as play time and not learning tools. They don’t think games can teach their kids valuable skills they can use at school or in their lives. Hence, they are reluctant. Educating parents about the potential of games has been the biggest challenge but thanks to social media, especially videos and reviews has been great for people to see the potential of such games and how it can transform their child’s life.
Unlike most other industries the lockdown has worked out great for us. It’s sad to say this during a pandemic but having families stuck at home and being unable to venture out has been a blessing in disguise. Since we sell our games online and through e-commerce marketplaces, shipping them to people across India has been a breeze. We have had orders from almost every corner of the country, even though schools have been shut! Parents have now actively started to be involved in their kid’s education and realized how ineffective digital solutions are for young learners. Screen time has been the buzzword during this lockdown and games serve as the ideal way to control it. Also, we’ve seen our games being used as social connects. Recently a customer sent us a lovely picture of 3 generations in her family sitting and playing our card game – Fracto. It was such a beautiful picture and so heartwarming that we could bring joy to people’s faces even in these tough times.

What is your bestseller and which, perhaps unexpectedly, is struggling the most? How much is their print run?
Our bestseller is Galaxy Raiders. It is a strategy based placement game that requires mathematical operations to capture moons and planets as your territory. It is a great game because age is no bar as long as you can do the math! Families love it and parents keep telling us that their kids don’t want to go back to worksheets but insist on playing this game before exams to practice math!
Luckily, none of our games have struggled in the market because they are unique and unlike anything people find in India. During the first few months of Covid 19, however, we had a lull in sales simply because our boxes could not ship out to customers. That was a scary period because we were quite worried about the stocks we had. Luckily things picked up within a month or two and now we’re in fact seeing a surge in orders. We even launched two new SKUs during the pandemic! Never imagined it would be possible in March but here we are!
Our print run is usually 1000 per SKU. But our demand has been high so the last two SKUs we launched have had print runs of 2000.

In addition to these games, what news do you have for the future, near or far? How do you see yourselves on the market in 3-4 years?
Like I said, we just launched 2 new games so now we have 6 games in the market. We have a total of 15 game concepts ready and tested with kids, families, parents and educators. We plan to launch another 9 games in the next 6 to 12 months. We pride ourselves in being able to design educational games through an agile process. It’s almost we have a production line of game ideas and concepts.
We want to create a mainstream adoption of games in learning and education for kids under the age of 12. The government in India has just launched a new National Education Policy that lays a lot of emphasis on play and discovery. This is a big shot in the arm for us. We are further ahead other than most companies to be able to cater schools and families with physical games that help kids learn and master a variety of academic and life skills. We want to be the market leader and have our games as part of the education curriculum in India. Other plans are of course to go global and have people across the world enjoy our games. This includes translations of our games in local languages and cultures.
One long-term plan is to include “purposeful technology” into our products. We want technology to be an aid to the physical game and not the focus. Our dream is to have AI & ML enabled physical games that allow kids to play games that also constantly evolve along with their intellectual ability. How cool would that be right? Imagine a game that learns about the players and automatically customizes difficulties and themes to suit their liking or test them more. That would be wonderful!

What is the game of others publisher that you wished to have in Luma World catalogue? And why?
We love playing games and thinking about how they can be thematic to be more educational or topic focused. We love Seven Wonders and would love to have Indian History taught though that, same with Everdell and have young kids learn about ecological conservation in that manner. Wingspan, Splendor and Azul are our other favourites too. Recently while playing Terraforming Mars we thought how a simpler version of this would help kids understand topics like science, geography and resource management better. One area that we feel games are a great tool for teaching kids is in the domains of sustainability, conservation and climate change.

Design phase: how do you find the designers? Do you have illustrators within your company? Time needed from prototype to shelf?
We spent a good 6 months in 2018 creating a very strong team in-house. We do everything from ideation to game design to illustration and content. The only time the game leavesus is when we send it for manufacturing. Even there we only work with trusted vendors maintaining the highest standards of safety and quality. We never compromise on the game because we know kids play them!
Our principal game designer is Sourav Paul and he’s the brain behind all of the titles in the market so far. Our co-founder Sajid heads all the creative direction and makes them attractive for kids and adults alike.
Generally it takes us 2 months to finish ideation, prototyping and testing with kids. We usually test each game with at least 50 kids, 10 families and 10 educators to ensure all our audiences are happy. Manufacturing takes another 20-30 days. So 3 months from ideation to shelf.

Production phase: where and how? Any unforeseen hiccups?
I think production has been the biggest challenge for us. India has very complex import laws and not so good relationship with China so unlike most of the world we can’ produce in China and import it here because it would be too expensive for the Indian market. Finding quality vendors at the right prices that match international standards has been a huge challenge for us. We spent almost 6 months dealing with over 50 vendors and helping them get the requisite standards before we put our products into a manufacturing process. The wait was long but worth it given how we can create the look and feel of a global game but focused towards the Indian market at affordable prices.

Distribution: do you have active agreements? I can find your games on several online stores…
Yes. Pre-covid we just signed agreements with 8 distributors in 5 Indian cities to place our products in various retail outlets. However the pandemic has hit local stores very hard and most of them are struggling to get back to normalcy. We support them tremendously by increasing credit lines and also facilitating sales support to the end customer using our game play videos or online tutorials. That helped them increase sales tremendously. For others we assisted in become sellers on Amazon so that they can still sell the games to customers across India. This really helped a lot of them stay afloat.
We sell online on our website, www.lumaworld.in, and various e-commerce platforms in India like Amazon, Flipkart, Firstcry, etc. We also have tied up with some niche online marketplaces like the Bored Game Company (which sells board games exclusively) or Nestery (for Parental resources) or GiftWaley (focusing on affordable gifting). We are selective in our partnerships because we want them to leverage our strengths and match our target audience instead of purely looking at sales.

Are you (and your staff, obviously) a player? Which of your titles are you attached to the most? Why? And outside of your catalogue?
We are board game nerds! 😀 My personal favourite is Guess the Fence. It is such a simple game but with so many possibilities and permutations and combinations that it make for an incredible learning journey. Even adults who have played have this moment of emancipation where they go like ‘Oh wow! Now I get that. Ok I will try this.” It is a beautiful moment when that happens whether young or old! The most popular game amongst the team is a tie between Alpha Steel and Mystic Arts. Alpha Steel because it is full of tactics, strategies and robots while Mystic Arts because it has lovely artwork, a great magical theme but has such a turn right at the end that you can never predict what is going to happen. It’s a great party game and spreads a lot of joy. Mystic Arts is also India’s first and only (as far as we are aware) tabletop game to learn measurements and conversion of units!

Do you have any fun facts to tell us?
Oh quite a few! It’s amazing what kids have taught us through this amazing journey. One stands out and I’ll tell you a little about it. When we were testing one of our games, like most of the games we play we kept them as closed card games (where kids can’t see other players’ cards). However one kid came up to us and said, “ Why can’t I see his cards? I want to do that math also.” That was such an amazing moment. From not wanting to do math the game had made them want to do more math. Also, we realized having cars open on the table doesn’t prevent anyone from winning or doing better, in fact for kids it means they do the math for all players simply because they start calculating all possibilities. They do the math to help themselves win and also to stop other players from winning. It was an absolute win-win and an eye opener for us. A kid taught us that sometimes thinking out of the box makes a game better even if it means leaving our comfort zones.

Here’s your last chance to tell our readers whatever you want: go!
To understand the depth of an educational game there is no way out you must play and experience it for yourself! I really hope that your perception of what a game can teach kids changes after you try out Luma World games with your family. We put a lot of thought, effort and countless hours of testing and tweaks so that kids have 30 to 45 minutes of joyful experience like never before, sometimes that may totally change the way they think forever. The joy on people’s faces when they play our games and then ask for more and more makes this totally worthwhile. We hope, wherever you’re reading this, you get to play a Luma World game very soon!
Also, we are participating in SpielWarenMesse Digital this year in October 22-25. So come pay us a virtual visit on the website and play some of our games on TableTopia and maybe even order your exclusive copy!