Leslie Scott (game designer) facts for kids

Leslie Scott (born 18 December 1955) is a British game designer and businesswoman. She is famous for inventing the popular game Jenga. Leslie Scott took a simple family game with wooden blocks and turned it into a worldwide success. This happened after she allowed a company called Hasbro to sell it in 1986. She has received awards for her amazing work, like the Wonder Women of Toys Inventor/Designer Award in 2010.

Early Life and the Start of Jenga

Leslie Scott was born in Tanzania in 1955. She grew up in different countries in Africa, like Ghana. Her family loved playing games. Her father, Robert Scott, even designed many games and toys for Leslie and her three siblings.

One special game came from wooden scraps her younger brother found at a sawmill in Ghana. They used these scraps to create a game they called Takoradi Bricks. This name came from a nearby port. When Leslie moved to Oxford, England in 1974, she showed the game to her friends. It became very popular with them. This interest gave her the idea to share this fun game with everyone. This game later became known as Jenga.

Leslie Scott's Career Journey

Working at Intel

After finishing high school, Leslie Scott started working at Intel UK. She became the Marketing Communications Manager there. She also designed fun puzzle games for Intel's international sales meetings. These games were a big hit! This creative work helped her realize she wanted to start her own business.

Creating the Game Jenga

Leslie Scott decided to turn her wooden block game into a product to sell. She started her own company, Leslie Scott Associates. She didn't have much experience in the toy industry. But she was determined.

She chose the name "Jenga" from the Swahili language word "kujenga". This word means "to build". She wanted people to think of her game whenever they heard the name. Even though some distributors didn't like the name at first, she stuck with it. Now, everyone knows Jenga!

Leslie also wanted the game to feel special. Each of the 64 wooden blocks needed to be slightly different, almost like they were handmade. A carpenter helped her achieve this by using a special way to sand the wood. She showed her game, then called Jenga The Perpetual Challenge, at toy fairs in London in 1982 and 1983. But she didn't sell any games at these shows.

A few years later, an entrepreneur named Robert Grebler discovered the game. He bought the rights to it. In 1985, these rights went to Pokonobe Associates. They then allowed Irwin Toy to sell the game in 1986. Irwin Toy also didn't like the long name, Jenga The Perpetual Challenge. Leslie Scott insisted on keeping "Jenga". So, the name was shortened to just Jenga.

Irwin Toy launched Jenga at the Toronto Toy Fair. They even advertised it on TV as "the great game with the strange name". Later in 1986, Irwin Toy allowed Hasbro, Inc to sell Jenga. This made the game incredibly successful around the world!

In 1991, Leslie Scott also changed her company name to Oxford Games Ltd. She partnered with her friend, Sara Finch. Together, their company has published over forty different games.

Focusing on Play at Oxford

Leslie Scott is now a Senior Associate at Pembroke College, Oxford. Here, she focuses on the idea of play. She also helped start The Smithsonian UK Charitable Trust.

Awards and Recognition

Leslie Scott has received several important awards for her work:

• In 2010, she won the Wonder Women of Toys Inventor/Designer Award.
• In 2012, she received the Tagie Award for Excellence in Game Design.

In 2020, the game Jenga was added to the National Toy Hall of Fame. This is at The Strong National Museum of Play.

Leslie Scott's Family Life

Leslie Scott is married to Professor Fritz Vollrath. He is a zoologist at the University of Oxford. He is well-known for studying spiders. Leslie and Fritz have two children named Frederica and Digby.

Games and Books by Leslie Scott

Games She Created

• Jenga
• Ex Libris, a game about first lines and last words from books
• The Hieroglyphs Game, made for the Ashmolean Museum
• The Great Western Railway Game
• Anagrams, a game where you juggle words
• Tabula, an old Roman game
• Bookworm, a game about reading and remembering

Books She Wrote