Resident develops new game to help people make friends
Times News Service
MUSCAT: A resident of Oman, Adnan Nalwala, has invented a game that gives people a chance to get to know each other better by understanding what makes them tick.
Nalwala, who was born and raised in the Sultanate, is the inventor of Spill It, a new card game that features 50 questions, all aimed at understanding the other person better.
“I used my brother Ibrahim and my wife as a sounding board, so they should get the credit for this as well,” said Adnan, speaking to Times of Oman. “I used to go to parties and ask all these questions, so my wife asked me why I didn’t turn this into a game. It took 10 hours of my time over 15 months. It was during this time that I needed the support of my family because this is creative work. Some might ask me why it’s taken me so long to create it, but that’s how much time such things take.”
“As a child, I used to always ask a lot of curious questions, to such an extent that I actually used to create scenes for certain situations in my mind, and my interactions with people have led me to realise that I wanted to do something that would allow people to interact with and understand one another,” he added. “Human beings want to get to know each other, most people don’t know what to ask, and sometimes they might ask the wrong questions or not ask questions properly. It has been scientifically proven that people hesitate when they talk to strangers. This is a tool that will help people ask questions in the most fun, friendly, non-intrusive way and you also get to discover different minds.”
Having worked in the family business for some 15 years and moonlighting as a comedian for another 10, Adnan’s interactions in the real world made him realise that although people had worked with one another, they didn’t really understand each other.
“There are people you work with, people you see on a daily basis but don’t know that well,” he explained. “There are a lot of people you’ve known for a while but don’t understand. It’s about strengthening your relationships and getting better acquainted with the people you know. This will help you understand how they think. I don’t think you will be judging people in terms of their intelligence because there is no right or wrong answer, but you can definitely categorise them on the basis of their answers.”
“It’s not about sizing up the personality of the other person, it’s more about defining it,” added Adnan. “It definitely tickles your brain. It’s more about engagement rather than assessment. There are 50 questions in this game, and we had to cut some 30, because there were 80 questions initially, and we needed to know what to get rid of. We also had some creative inputs on how the game should look.”
The game is now available on Amazon’s India platform, and he is currently working on bringing it to Oman, where he hopes to get into partnerships with retail stores, as well as sell the game online.
“It has been launched in India and we have moved quite a few pieces there. We are looking at launching it in Oman and the UAE by next month, and it is going to be priced at around OMR4 to 5,” he said. “Basically, Spill It means let it out. It’s a tribute to letting conversations flow. It can definitely be used in the corporate space, but that is not what I am looking for. This is about building better relationships.”