Robert Angel
| Robert Angel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Robert Angel Vancouver, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian, American |
| Occupation | Board game designer, Non profit board member |
| Known for | Pictionary |
Robert Angel is a game inventor. He invented the popular word guessing game Pictionary, which was self published in his tiny apartment in 1985. Since selling Pictionary, he has gone on to invent other successful board games and products. Angel currently lives in Seattle and is involved in multiple non profit companies.
Angel was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1958. He moved to the US at the age of 5 with his family, they lived in Spokane, WA. Angel attended Joel E Ferris High School, graduating in 1976. He then went on to Western Washington University and graduated in 1981.
In 1982, he spent 5 months backpacking/hitchhiking throughout Europe. Upon his return to Spokane he moved in with 3 high school friends, which is when Pictionary was first conceived.
In 1982, following his graduation from Western Washington University with a degree in Business Administration and while working as a waiter, Angel invented Pictionary. After work, Angel would gather with friends to play a version of the game that required each player to randomly locate a word in the dictionary, then sketch it for his teammates.
Two years later in 1984, Angel moved to Seattle and found his old notes on the game. After a few positive play tests with family he decided to go for it. Knowing the words for the game were critical, he went into his back yard and read the entire dictionary to compile the original word list. Two others then joined the company and they produced the first 1,000 games in Angel's apartment.
Angel and his business partners Terry Langston and Gary Everson first published Pictionary in 1985 through Angel Games, they managed to sell 6,000 copies in one year at $35 each.
They licensed the game in 1986 in a joint venture between The Games Gang and Western Publishing. Then in 1994, Hasbro took over publishing after acquiring the games business of Western Publishing.
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