Chapter 1 – Getting Started
Rush Hour came to us to evaluate in 1995. The famous Japanese puzzle inventor Nob Yoshigahara paid a visit to our offices at Binary Arts Corporation, which was ThinkFun’s name back then, and he brought with him his Tokyo Parking puzzle. It wasn’t obvious back then, seeing it for the first time, that this would become the amazing Rush Hour… although right from the start we did know it was special. We licensed the puzzle from Nob and started our development work.
We started our work by framing out a set of concepts for what we wanted the puzzle to become. We had a general idea about the overall design, we knew we needed to develop a grid for the cars and trucks to slide in, and that we needed to package it in a sturdy box. We decided to put the challenges into a separate card deck and organize them from Beginner to Expert to give everyone a chance to play. We also had an idea for how the cars and trucks should look, sort of goofy-friendly and as easy as possible for little fingers to hold and move them.
All this flowed pretty naturally for us… our company was more than 10 years old by that point, and we were already recognized as the world’s best creators of logic puzzles and mind challenging games. Framing out the Rush Hour design and general appearance was the easy part. It was when we looked to develop the puzzle theme and create the packaging artwork and message that we ran into some difficult issues.
Follow along to chapter 2 of the Rush Hour Story to hear how we nearly lost Rush Hour before it even began!
