Posted on by tanster

Clue: The Office game

How Clue: The Office Edition was developed

Because I am such a geek about all things Office, I had to ask a few questions about how Clue: The Office Edition was developed.

How did the idea for an Office Clue game come about?
In 2008, Hasbro “re-invented” the classic game of CLUE. It still is centers around the familiar “Who,” “What,” and “Where,” but some contemporary wrinkles and twists have been added. The usual suspects (Scarlet, Green, Mustard, Peacock, White and Plum) have been updated to exemplify particular personality archetypes. Upon exploring those, the characters from The Office mirrored those archetypes in a startling way. That was really the spark that set the project in motion.

How long did it take to design it?
Game development for a CLUE game is approximately 3 to 4 months.

Did you work closely with The Office staff and/or NBC?
NBC was instrumental in providing insight, fantastic assets and reference material to make this game possible.

How many people were on the development/design team?
There is a lead creative and a lead project manager responsible for the majority of the visual and internal content, with support coming from other members of the creative and product development departments as well as from hardcore fans of The Office.

Are the members of your team diehard Office fans?
Absolutely! We experienced what is probably a familiar pattern: Huge fans of the UK series, followed by nervous anticipation upon hearing about a U.S. series, followed by not being sure if this is going to work after the first episode, followed by watching the U.S. show find its legs and carving out its own identity to become one of the best and funniest shows of all time.

From the photos, it looks like the game has great attention to detail (weapons, photos, etc). Can you talk more about that?
The goal for CLUE: The Office Edition is to not only be a fun board game, but to celebrate the characters and humor from the show. We explore all of the components and look for subtle and sometimes less subtle ways to deliver. There is a lot to discover on the game board, Angela’s “babies playing saxophone,” a union jack on Michael’s desk and Pam’s painting of the building in reception are some of the obvious ones. Look closely on the carpet in Michael’s office for something less obvious. There are a lot more to find as well.

How did you decide on the different weapons? Were there any that ended up being axed?
We could have just used all the weapons that Dwight has had confiscated but where is the fun in that? The thinking behind the weapons was to have a mix of episode specific items (bicycle chain, grill, “Mr. A Knife”) and items that you would find on any given day at the Dunder Mifflin, Scranton office (Dundee Trophy, Michael’s World’s Best Boss Mug, a ream of paper).

As far as getting axed, most were from the above mentioned Dwight Schrute hidden arsenal, such as the blow gun in the toilet, sais and his samurai sword.

Why Toby?
As the game centers around Michael Scott forcing the employees to play a real life version of CLUE, there seemed to be no other choice of victim than HR rep., Toby Flenderson. One of our favorite Michael quotes on the subject of Toby, “I hate … so much about the things that you choose to be.”

Anything else you would like Office fans to know about the game?
We hope fans get a sense of the respect and adoration we at USAopoly have for The Office when playing this edition of CLUE.

Thanks again to USAOPOLY for all the information about the game!

I’ve never played Clue, but this looks like fun. Hey Tallyheads, if you get this game, please comment with your feedback!

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71 comments

  2. I’m so freakin excited for this!! Clue is my favorite board game ever, and now to see that there is an OFFICE verison makes it that much better! I’ll be making this purchase the day it’s out, for sure!!

  3. Awesome! It’s great that the creators are big fans of the show.

    I don’t get how the bicycle chain is related to The Office? Was is from the donated bike from Benihana Christmas?

  6. This definitely just made my morning!! I used to LOVE Clue and I absolutely LOVE The Office! What a beautiful combination! =)

  7. I think the bicycle chain was from Andy and Dwight’s “Duel” in the parking lot. Dwight kept hitting Andy’s Prius with a bike chain.

  8. Using the original colors as their “levels” is brilliant. I’m also happy they included the sales team’s desks in the centerpiece. They did a very good job of Clueifying the open plan layout; it looks very Clue and very Dunder Mifflin at the same time.

    “Look closely on the carpet in Michael’s office for something less obvious.” You mean the thing?

    All in all, this is a definite must-buy, even better in my opinion than the trivia games. Bring on Monopoly!

  9. Oops, forgot: are there two covers to the game? Amazon has the Dwight cover while EE shows the Michael tack-board version.

  12. Poor Toby. I’ve never been a Clue fan so I’m still not sure about this purchase. Maybe someone will buy it first and I can play it before I buy it.

  13. Wow, I totally thought those game pieces were gonna be for Office Monopoly, actually I’m kinda sad it didn’t turn out to be that.

  14. And wouldn’t it make the most sense that MICHAEL killed Toby? He’s really the only one who hates him.

  15. This is awesome!! I can’t wait until it comes out! For once, I’m not gonna have a hard time coming up with a Christmas list this year!

  16. Woot! I’ve just bought mine on Amazon.

    So glad it wasn’t Officeopoly- I can’t stand the Monopoly games (of course my son has four different versions he’s always trying to get me to play.)

  17. That is awesome! I wished i never told my wife that i think they were making an Office bracelet. Oops. Ah well, this beats that, because i can enjoy this, sweet!!

  18. I just sent my sister a text message with the picture of the box and told her this is what I want now 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 now! This is too cool and awesome! I know what I’ll be getting for Christmas!

  19. O.M.G.!! I thought Monopoly, but Clue is awesome! I was obsessed with the original years ago. Love it! Who killed Toby? Hilarious!

  21. Who killed Toby? That’s hilarious. I’m totally stoked for an Office-related game that people might actually want to play with me! None of my friends ever want to compete with my obsessiveness in the trivia-based ones. ;)

  24. Tyler, the way the Classic version of clue works, you pick a killer/ weapon /location from decks of cards at the start of each new game, and hide those cards until the end of the game.

    Every time you play it can be different.

  25. I don’t even know how to play Clue, and I want it!
    The board looks great, and even sounds better than my Monopoly guess.

  27. Does Michael not have a game piece? I didn’t see one in the picture. Come on – what fan playing this game wouldn’t want to be Michael?

  28. Yee-ha! Can’t wait for this. I love, love, love Clue. I love, love, love The Office. A perfect game.

  29. THIS GAME LOOKS AWESOME!!! except… Michael isn’t one of the suspects? The one guy who actually threatened to kill Toby is not a suspect?

  30. My birthday is a week from tomorrow…you can be sure this will be on my wish list, along with my new iPod Touch!

  31. I’ve always enjoyed Clue except for the fact that you need three people to play. Guess we need to teach the 8-month-old to play!

  32. P.S. And thanks, Tanster, for getting the scoop on how this came about. I’m so glad the creators are Office fans. Now that they know you, they’ll be Tallyheads too!

    [from tanster: awwww, thanks! :) ]

  34. “Come on – what fan playing this game wouldn’t want to be Michael?”

    “Michael isn’t one of the suspects? The one guy who actually threatened to kill Toby is not a suspect?”

    The interview on page six states the game is based around Michael forcing his employees to play a murder mystery game based around the death of Toby. Hence, Michael is not a player since he would be the one who knows the who, what, and where. Though I’m a little surprised Stanley made the cut over Ryan.

  36. omg this is so awesome!!!!!!!
    I literally screamed when I saw this, lol.
    Dwight is perfect for Mustard. Haha. And Angela would definitely be Peacock. I also love the idea of it being who killed Toby. But, why isn’t there a Michael suspect? There totally should be…
    :D

  37. Ok, what episode is the bicycle chain from? I’m drawing a blank on that one.

  39. Hey All… while Michael is not a suspect, he is still very much involved with the game. New to the game of clue are a deck of cards that contain game changing directives. In this edition, it is Michael sticking his nose into the game (because he would never be able to just sit back and not get involved).

    [from tanster: thanks, USAOPOLY! :) ]

  41. USAOPOLY, I <3 you. Thank you for loving The Office. Thank you for this game. Thank you for posting here.

    :-)

  42. WOW, this was my branch’s winning submission for the final DMI task the season before last. Back when there was a Hialeah branch, the regional manager and I, who were the only active members, made the entire “going away party” for toby based on the idea of a “clue” murder-mystery party where toby was murdered and the office were the characters in the game. I made the graphics for the clue board based on the office set layout and we made the cards, weapons, and everything. Wonder if they saw our winning submission and ripped it off or if great minds just think alike…

  43. An Office version of Clue? And it’s coming out a few days before my birthday (the 28th)? Sweet everlasting mercy!

    And I’m sorry, but it has to be said — Steve is lookin’ good on that box!

  44. yes! i was hoping it would be clue (my favorite boardgame growing up) and not monopoly (my least favorite boardgame growing up). i haven’t bought the trivia games because i don’t know enough people obsessed enough to play with me but this i will definitely buy. it is awesome that it was made by true fans of the show- the attention to detail and thoughtfulness (like the fact that michael wouldn’t be able to butt out and let people play) make it that much more awesome. hooray!!

  46. OMG! Kiki, I thought the same thing! I was the RM of the branch. We had Dwight as Col. Mustard and Pam as Miss Scarlett. (Well, named slightly different so as to avoid copyright infringement.) Too bad they did not have the murderous Baler as a weapon like we did.

  47. Does anyone know what happened to the game? I went to pre-order it just now, and it’s gone. It says that the item is unavailable and they don’t know when or if it will come back in stock.

    But I have to have this game!!!

  48. @46 hahaha, YES! “the murderous baler”. that was my favorite weapon! :) good times. well, at least all the office fans will now have a real version of our game to play…and, as if there was ever a doubt, we know we had a REALLY good idea!

  49. My Clue game arrived this afternoon. I had pre-ordered from Amazon with a ship date of August 23.

    It’s very clever and detailed. I can’t wait until family game night this evening!

    [from tanster: would love to hear about it after your family plays!]

  50. ahh!! i was SOO hoping it was CLUE instead of Monopoly (although that would have been fine too). I’m so stoked to get this!!!

  51. Clue the Office Clue
    Other products by Clue
    No customer reviews yet. Be the first.

    ——————————————————————————–

    Currently unavailable.
    We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock.

  52. You can pre-order at the NBC store, it ships out on August 27th. :)

    [from tanster: thanks! added nbc store to “where to buy” links]

  53. I love The Office and I am a huge CLUE fan so when I saw this in April I sent it to my mom to buy me for my birthday, which she did. So I’m now just waiting like everyone else.

  54. do you want

    @OfficeTally Enter to win THE OFFICE Clue Game! Follow @officetally and RT by 11pm PT Friday 8/28. Game info: http://bit.ly/11GP5f

    or

    Enter to win THE OFFICE Clue Game! Follow @officetally and RT by 11pm PT Friday 8/28. Game info: http://bit.ly/11GP5f

    i am horrible at tweeting

  55. I RT … But I don’t know if I did it right. I’m still fairly new to Twitter and don’t understand it fully yet.

  58. I have also seen that the game is available at JC Penney, but it is more expensive. They are charging $50.

  59. $50 at JC Penney? Yikes.

    While I didn’t see it at Target they did have a Harry Potter version for $15 and the price label was a non-specific “Clue Special Edition” or something like that which leads me to believe they might eventually carry the Office version.

  61. Just arrived from the NBC store! I played w/ my sisters and it’s so much fun. I won – yay! :)

    #61 – Jack : the box says for 3-6 players.

  62. Borders stores are now carrying them for $39.99 but with the various coupons you can get here it’s prolly the cheapest around.

  63. Thanks, phyllis*farm, for posting the link to that coupon! I saw it at Borders but the $40 price was a little much for me.

    Thank you, Tanster, for letting us have a forum to help out fellow Office fans! :)

  64. To get 40% off at Borders use code: BRE1129H

    $24 is pretty cheap or add a dollar book for free shipping.

  66. JCPenny has the game for $29.99 on sale from $50. Also if you use a JCP charge card you can get an additional 10-30% off on the game. I got it in store Wednesday for about $25 with my mom’s charge card. not bad!

  67. Played it today. It was really fun, confusing at first, but that’s normal. Got it for 24.99. I wanted Clue anyway, so why not Office Clue.

    Good Game!

  68. I ordered it from Borders.com on Friday, I am now waiting for it to ship and then arrive. I can’t wait!

  69. I was soooooo excited to get The Office Clue for Christmas!! The gameboard and parts are so true to the show, and it’s fantastic. I especially like the “World’s Best Boss” mug as a weapon and the fact that there is a “This man is a pervert” poster just barely visible on the fridge in the breakroom. haha!

  71. I was so excited to get The Office Clue for Christmas!! Just played it tonight and loved it. I was the only Office fan playing so I got to tell them about the characters, places and weapons!! I won, of course!! :)

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