In Bordeaux, the Miraludo company publishes the board game L’Enclume, “the Trivial Pursuit of heaviness”

Twill randomly choose a card: “No! We will not dissociate ourselves! » Casually, it's hard to say. Phrases like this turn players into pronunciation tightropes. There are 94 in the game Une chauchette chachant chacher, whose name results from the fusion of two famous expressions, “Are the Archduchess's socks dry or archi-dry? » and “A hunter who knows how to hunt without his dog”. These oratory acrobatics are officially called “tongue twisters”. As soon as a participant stumbles on a word, the card that made them stutter comes back to them. After five, he is eliminated.

To make matters worse, you can make your table neighbor's task even more “phonetically tedious” by showing a special card. There are 16. For example: “Read the sentence as if you were angry.” If the other participants judge that the tone is not there, that too is lost. “Guaranteed spits” is one of the selling points of the Bordeaux company which produces this unique gift idea. Founded in March 2024, Miraludo has its offices in Luzine, a coworking space overlooking Place Nansouty in Bordeaux. The authors of this “atmosphere game” are the three founders of the company, Olivier Thomazo, Flavien Doré and Marc Santenac.

Riddles and word games

A graduate of a business school, ESDES Business School in Lyon, Olivier Thomazo is “the creative one of the group”. In 2022, with two friends, Grégoire Desvaux and Alexis Pascal, who all had jobs on the side, they gave birth to the concept of L'Enclume, a shelving heavyweight, originally distributed by Gigamic, a major French company. board games. “As soon as it was released, it was a success, which overwhelmed us a little,” says this 42-year-old from Landes who has been living in Bordeaux for around ten years. In eighteen months, we sold almost 25,000 copies. » It all started from there.

“As soon as it came out, it was a success, which overwhelmed us a little. In eighteen months, we sold almost 25,000 copies”

To their great surprise, clubs for fans of this type of riddles flourished. The most fervent even send them suggestions for puns. The box contains 400 cards. “There are no swear words or any vulgarity,” says Olivier Thomazo. The recommended minimum age is 12 years. “Children love the mechanics of the game, but before the age of 16, we rarely have the references to answer all the questions,” explains this marketing professional from the world of new technologies. Each card corresponds to a weight, between 250 kg and a ton, depending on the assumed and even claimed heaviness of the verbal trick. The first to reach the ton wins. “It’s the Mille Bornes or the Trivial Pursuit of heaviness,” smiles its designer. For 750 kg, an easy example: “He who hides the forest loves enormously”. The answer is written upside down at the bottom. This is a breed of dog. More difficult, for a ton, the equivalent of a match ball therefore: “Not very wide”. It is a literary work of more than 2000 pages. Okay, come on, we don’t make the suspense last: “War and Peace”. The rules of the game allow you to vary the pleasures.

A new version of L'Enclume was released in September. The spirit is the same, except that the vocabulary puzzles are transcribed for 95 of them into images that are fun to decode, the other 202 remaining in the form of words. There are quite a few celebrities from the world of music and cinema to be found. To the delight of fans, a “participatory” version is being studied, with their own contributions. We imagine that this game can be adapted endlessly.

Ptibac revisited

At Miraludo, everyone has their own specialty. Flavien Doré, a former Cdiscount employee who also lives in Bordeaux, takes care of logistics in particular, knowing that the boxes and their contents are manufactured in a Polish factory supplying a good part of the market. Based in Paris, Marc Santenac is responsible for distribution. The prices of the games range from 15 to 25 euros.

Since the start of the school year, their range of games, which can be found in large cultural stores, specialized boutiques, bookstores, certain bar-restaurants and even a surf shop in Hossegor, also includes puzzles bearing the image of Jules Verne, Marie Curie, Victor Hugo and Charles Darwin, which, when arranged, merge on library shelves with the bindings of beautiful books. The latest novelty is called Ptibac. It's the traditional baccalaureate game, but revisited, which lends itself to family evenings. “The categories of words to find are a little offbeat,” explains Olivier Thomazo. We would have suspected it.