It’s available in more than 20 languages in 30 countries. In some sense, the failure of the first game I launched, a board game, motivated me to try again – and that’s when I decided to create Phase 10.”Īs the game celebrates 40 years of enthralling play this year, its creator is grateful for the way its been embraced in homes over the years all over the world. “I wanted to create a version of Rummy that was easy to learn, challenging, yet simple.

“What sparked the creation of Phase 10 was years of playing card games like Rummy,” Johnson tells ESSENCE. What would come out of his work was Phase 10, an easy-to-learn and addictive game that forces you to make due with the cards you’re dealt while trying to complete all 10 phases and be the player with the lowest score by the end. After a concept for a board game failed to fully materialize, he decided to create his own take on the popular two-player card game Gin Rummy. While many of us are just trying to find the ground underneath our feet at 22, for Ken Johnson, he was already working on his second idea for a game to bring to the entertainment industry.