Flatlined Games
Company presentation
Flatlined Games is a boardgames publisher based in Brussels, Belgium.
Founded in 2008 by Eric Hanuise, Flatlined Games publishes and develops board games with strong themes and multiple game mechanics, for demanding players as well as simple games for the wider family audience.
Flatlined Games also publishes limited print run of specific games targeting a smaller audience, which are sold directly from our website as well as during fairs and events.
We try to keep our games in print for as long as economically feasible, reprinting titles as they go out of print.
Flatlined Games is a small, indie, one-man-shop run by Eric during evenings and weekends, along his daytime job as consultant.
Niche
Many boardgames companies compete on the mainstream market, and produce 'standard' games with simple to moderately complex rules, a 90 minutes game time and a 2 to 4 players format. This is good for gamers as lots of new games flood the market, but it also makes it a very competitive and risky market to target. Flatlined Game's editorial line offers a very wide range of game designs, and focus on market niches that are not flooded with competing products. You sometimes hear gamers complain about the disappearance of some game genres : "No-one makes these anymore". Well, now we do.
Global
We cater to a niche market, but we reckon that that niche is global. Our games are available in many languages, worldwide.
Crowdfunding
We use crowdfunding whenever we feel it is required to allow a game to be printed, as this guarantees both interest from the gamers and money to print the game.
About the founder
Eric Hanuise was born in 1969 in Belgium. He has been active in the gaming market for 20 years, organising tournaments and events, playing in various clubs and actively participating in various gaming-related organisations. He decided to turn this hobby in a business in 2007, and took a sabbatical from his consulting business to make a market study leading to his creation of Flatlined Games. After many months spent fighting the 2008 economic crisis, he finally started producing great games.
He likes older and complex games, as well as newer and lighter titles.
Eric plays or has played just about any kind of games, be it roleplaying, LARP, miniatures, wargames, CCG's or boardgames.
He also contributed for a while as writer for Plato magazine, a french speaking magazine dedicted to boardgames and the boardgames industry.
Last but not least, he co-authored "Batt'l Kha'os" wich fellow Belgian author Frederic Moyersoen. Batt'l Kha'os was released in 2007 by Z-Man games.
You may also find Eric on the french site trictrac.net or on BGG under the nickname 'ehanuise'.
About the name
Flatlined Games is a reference to the brain wave patterns on a EEG display. A dead brain's EEG is said to be 'flat lined', or totally inactive. Our games are highly interactive and tax the player's brains so we named the company just the other way around : Flatlined games.