The Chamber of Commerce doesn’t really have a suitable category for Games-XL. And although Thijs Eerens is now registered as a games designer, ‘inventor’ might actually be the best fit. Inventor of really fun, creative and challenging games, that is.

If you’ve been to Lowlands in the last 14 years, you’ve no doubt seen or played them. Pinball with an old 2CV (the ‘duck’), playing live Pac-Man, and even life-size Duck Hunt (don’t worry, it’s without real ducks). It all sprang from Thijs’s mind and has since been tried and tested by tens of thousands of players.

From student days to Space Invaders

Ever since secondary school, Thijs had been hooked on technology. Electrical engineering, to be precise. And when, after technical college, he started an internship in the Industrial Automation Engineering programme, he was given all the tools he needed to develop robots and more. But his ambition went further. Thijs didn’t want to spend the rest of his life optimising production processes. He wanted to do cool things with technology. And so it came to pass.

Fate brought Thijs to Mediatech in Leiden, the place to be for artists and engineers. “I see myself as a creative techie. It wasn’t about complicated calculations and models here; if it works, it works,” says Thijs. It was here in Leiden that the first creative game came to life: Park to Play. This game made it possible to control a pinball machine using the doors of an old Citroën 2CV. And thanks to the barmaid at the squash club, this unique game ended up at a festival. That’s when Thijs’s real adventure began.

 

Park to Play

For the first concept, Park to Play, they needed to find a cheap car with four doors. The ‘Duck’ (ed.: Citroën 2CV) emerged as the winner. They have now purchased a third one, although only two are still in working order: one from ’76 and one from ’86. The newer of the two even drives to the events itself, whilst the other is transported on a trailer. And there’s more to it than just pinball. Think of playing Tetris with the indicators.

And whereas he used to do everything himself – from painting to programming and from designing to building – there is now more help available. Think of programming the games or the construction company that takes care of the construction drawings and metal structures based on an initial concept.

Browsing in the tool shop

“What I come up with isn’t available off the shelf, so I have to make it myself using existing parts. And that’s why I like to be able to browse through a warehouse, because I find things there that I didn’t even know I was looking for,” Thijs continues. That need probably stems from his first job. “I worked at a restaurant/café, where I also acted as the handyman. There was an attic upstairs which I was allowed to turn into a workspace. There, for example, I found old party lights that I could use, or an old Slush Puppy machine whose motor I could reuse.”

“When I moved from Utrecht to Limburg, it took a bit of getting used to. For me, and for the specialist tool shops in the area. Nowadays, I’m allowed to just walk up to the counter at many shops to have a browse and look for what I need. But not everywhere. I just don’t go there anymore,” says Thijs.

Claiming mileage

“For my work, I used to clock up quite a few kilometres in my own van. I’d then claim those kilometres back from my company. I used to keep track of them in a notepad.” After claiming kilometres this way for a long time, there came a turning point. “I was giving the tax office a huge gift. And I was short-changing myself.”

Since TrackJack has been installed in the van, mileage tracking has become very easy and Thijs no longer has to do anything. All the van’s journeys are neatly recorded and can be exported to Excel, PDF or a tax authority file at the touch of a button.

“As well as the van, I now also have a box van. This is used solely for business mileage, which is neatly recorded. At the end of the year, I produce a tax report and that’s it,” concludes Thijs.

There are now fourteen different games available. Kendie Krush, Space Invaders and Physical Pong are three well-known examples. All the games are fun, intuitive and require physical movement. But the inventor has even more plans. He is already working on plans for a new game at Lowlands 2023. Parks and event agencies can now also purchase the games. So even if you’re not going to Lowlands, the chances are growing that you’ll suddenly find yourself right in the middle of a Games-XL.