Up Close: Khet inventor Luke Hooper
By Karyn M. Peterson -- Playthings, 3/9/2007 3:12:00 PM
What do you get when you combine Egyptian mythology, lasers and 
mirrors and some serious strategy? The answer is Khet: The Laser Game from New Orleans-based Innovention Toys, which has been taking the specialty market by storm recently, garnering adult and kid fans and a Game of the Year (T.O.T.Y.) nomination from the Toy Industry Association.
The game literally began as a sketch on a napkin, as mechanical engineering grad student Luke Hooper conceived of the idea one day during lunch. Michael Larson, Hooper’s engineering professor, and grad students Del Segura and Yi Liang also signed on to the project, readying the game for launch just as Hurricane Katrina struck.
To help create buzz for the game, the fledgling company created Khet championships in their home city, and have donated cases of games, shirts, and expansion packs to U.S. troops overseas.
In Khet, players alternate moving Egyptian-themed pieces (pharaoh, obelisk, column and pyramid)—which have 0-2 mirrored surfaces—one square in any direction, then fire one of the lasers built onto the board. As the beam bounces from mirror to mirror, if it strikes a non-mirrored surface on any piece, that piece is immediately removed from play.
Innovention, the company Hooper founded, also just released an expansion pack to the game that lets players split a laser beam into two, making strategic play even more complex, and will debut a 3-D version of the game with an added playing field above the standard game board. Additional releases, such as a higher-end version of the game with more sophisticated Egyptian styling, are also in the works.
Just ahead of this year’s American International Toy Fair in February, Playthings caught up with Luke Hooper to get his thoughts on the development and success of Khet so far, his reaction to its T.O.T.Y. nomination by the Toy Industry Association, and his company’s plans for the future. Here is our exclusive interview with Hooper in its entirety.
Q: Can you tell us more about Khet and the circumstances of its debut?
Hooper: I came up with the idea in a mechanical engineering elective product design class my senior year, where the goal was to develop a toy that integrated a new technology and could be enjoyed by players of all ages. I always enjoyed playing with lasers as a kid, so inspiration struck one day at lunch with the literal sketch on a napkin. Although I didn't come close to getting a working game in the class, the professor, Dr. Michael Larson, liked the idea so much he urged me to keep working on it with him after the class ended, along with a fellow grad student who was actually a retired engineer getting his Ph.D. for fun, Del Segura. I ended up coming back to Tulane for a Master's degree and kept working on the game with Dr. Larson and Del on the side for a year, entering business plan competitions and eventually winning additional development funding from the NCIIA (National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance).
With the aid of another fellow Mechanical Engineering grad student from China, Yi Liang, we worked through a lot of tough production issues for the better part of the year, preparing to launch the game under its original name Deflexion. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina then caused quite the headache, blowing all four of us to different parts of the country just as we were about to receive our first shipment. However, we regrouped and launched the game in November of 2004. But there were several manufacturing problems still and Del ended up hand checking and adjusting the first 5000 games that we shipped out nearly single handedly in his garage to ensure quality. Some long tedious nights! Luckily, we worked it all out so Del doesn't have to do that anymore. Due to a trademark dispute, the game was slightly redesigned and renamed Khet in August of 2006, and the beam splitter was then launched in October of 2006.
Q: How is Khet played? What does the expansion pack add to the game?
Hooper: The beauty of Khet is that it is a very simple game that can be learned in minutes, although the strategy has an enormous amount of possibility. The ultimate goal is to illuminate your opponent's pharaoh, while shielding yours from harm. And yes you can kill your own pieces and your own pharoah if you aren't careful! The expansion pack adds another layer of strategy to the game with the Eye of Horus beam splitters, which literally split the laser into two beams when they are hit. Half of the light passes through the piece while the other half reflects off, like a normal mirror. With both game pieces in play, the beam can be split twice, blasting three lasers around the field with one push of your button.
Q: How has the game design evolved? Will it change in the future?
Hooper: The gold version was the original color scheme picked due to its natural link with silver and to give it that sandy Egyptian color.When we renamed the game, we decided to revamp the whole image and take a hard look at several changes that were tossed around during the original development but never happened due to time and financial constraints.The hieroglyphics were added to the board, the whole image of the game was redone and we played around a lot with the color scheme.We actually tested four different colors but red came out as the overwhelming favorite due to its appealing tone and the ease of differentiation from the silver pieces, which was a problem with the silver and gold scheme in low light.
Although we don't have any special editions currently on the table, we tentatively have planned a limited release of a high-end version of the game that will retail for considerably more, but truly capture all of the styling and features we wanted to put in but couldn't due to cost. So the color scheme will more than likely be modified since we won't make it all out of plastic. The design goal is to create a work of art that looks beautifully modern that can truly capture anybody's attention when sitting out on the coffee table. Also, we can build in all of the expansions up to the point we launch it with a few new tricks up our sleeves.
Q: What are Khet's best features? Why is it so popular?
Hooper: The lasers are extremely cool and fun but what ultimately makes this game so appealing is that it truly spans the generation gap and attracts both traditional gamers and non-gamers alike with its simplistic rules and innovative game play.The video game generation can get into it because its a whole high tech spin on the traditional board game, while the game maintains enough strategy to appeal to their grandparents, who grew up with the traditional chess and checkers.We've had multiple people come up and tell us that this game has been one of the only ways they have gotten their kids to sit down and spend some time with them instead of on the computer, video game system, or phone.
Q: Where is Khet’s ideal market? Who is the target player?
Hooper: Of course 9-to 14-year-old boys fall in love with the laser, instantly but girls really get into it as well. As I stated, this game does a great job of interesting players of all types by drawing them in with the laser and then not intimidating them with a four-page rulebook and a huge time investment to start playing. Since we started this on a shoestring budget it was originally only launched our own Web site, but we got a lot of great PR from the likes of Wired, Popular Science, and various tech blogging sites that helped push it online. However, the specialty market has been very good to us and we are just starting to get into catalogs. As of this point, the game has not been put in a mass chain.
Q: How did the Khet championships come about?
Hooper: After the hurricane, Dr. Larson and I spent the semester up at MIT, which was a perfect place to hold the first Khet championships. We wanted to lay the groundwork to provide a system for fans of the game to compete against other experienced players.Even though the game had only been out for a month at that point, we had a great turnout and a great time. Due to the hurricane this past year and all of the trouble in our home city of New Orleans, we decided to host it here in 2006 but we are tentatively planning a return to Boston in 2007 since we have built up a good following in the city.
Q: Who is Innovention Toys, and what's next for the company?
Hooper: Innovention Toys is dedicated to creating toys and games that integrate the latest technology into play changing the way people view traditional toys. [We] create products that aim to both entertain and educate with science and renewed social interaction. Our goal is to change the way people see the world through innovative play and to inspire creativity in children of all ages. Innovention Toys is comprised of four people who all do this on the side although at times its more work than a full time job! I am a research scientist at the University of Colorado, I do product design and research for Nike Golf and Marksman, and I continue to work on inventing my own products.Dr. Larson is a professor at the University of Colorado, and although Del is officially retired from his job as chief engineer at Mitsubishi, he races his own dragster on the NHRA circuit that he has built from scratch.
We have a couple of games in the works that we hope to debut later in the year that promise to keep with our theme of integrating new technology in board games to challenge the way people view the term “board game.”
We are literally taking the game to the next level although we haven't officially named it yet. Essentially its a modular board add-on that takes the board 3-D with a 6x6-inch playing field above the surface and four entrances where the laser can be reflected up to the next level. Pieces still move one square in any direction, but now when they are under the additional level they can move one square up as well. This really makes the game wild and even more exciting and fun to play or just watch.
Q: What was your reaction to your T.O.T.Y. nomination? 
Hooper: If you look at the lineup across all of the categories we were one of the only, if not the only, real small company to make the finals. In order to apply you are only allowed to submit a 100 word description of your product and pray they read it and take notice. Honestly, we didn't think we had a shot since (although we have sold almost 50,000 copies in our first 14 months) we are still very much under the radar in the toy industry. Dr. Larson first got the news and then called us with congratulations, which was a great moment to help validate all of the long hours we have put in on the side of all of our regular commitments from conception to where we are now over approximately four years since the original idea was put down on that napkin.
Q: Do you have a message for all the independent inventors out there?
Hooper: Stick it out through all of the challenges and hurdles that are bound to come up when trying to take your idea from paper to market. We encountered a year's worth of production hang-ups, then a hurricane, a trademark lawsuit, and a knockoff from a major toy company all in our first year of business but have still managed to come through.
Q: Do you have any special retail, charity or promotional partners?
Hooper: We have donated several cases of games, shirts, and expansion packs to the troops overseas and received great feedback from it. We are also putting on a free independent toy inventor workshop series in May that is open to the community, and we plan on expanding into more charity partnerships as we continue to grow.
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