'Ring of Fire' is a card based drinking game that has become legendary among college students, travellers and party goers the world over. It has assumed many different names, and has had just as many versions played in just as many countries. Adam himself was first introduced to it when he was 18. Nearly 10 years later, an inspiring idea would drift through his mind. It all started on the 9th of January 2006. I was working the bar in Oslo, when the idea for creating the game stormed into my head. I asked a friend of mine, John, if he had ever played the drinking game known as 'Ring of Fire'. He said he hadn't, but remembered playing something similar. I began to write down the rules, trying to think what each card meant.

My friend John, is from England and I'm from Australia. I was very impressed that a 'made up' drinking game had travelled to the other side of the world. It changed a little bit along the way, but it was pretty much the same. I have no idea where the game came from originally, nor, after a year of researching am I any wiser as to when it was first played. All I know is that on that particular night in January, I decided to do something about it. All good ideas that come from a bar are written down on a napkin, or the back of a beer coaster. I did exactly the same thing and still have that napkin today. From that moment on, I declared to myself that I would re-create this drinking game. If I always had trouble remembering the rules and my friends had trouble remembering the rules, then maybe there were many more people out there struggling too.

I went home that evening fired up to create a drinking game. I stayed up all night, and by the morning, I went back to work with the very first prototype of the game. John was impressed. Not so much by the prototype, but by the fact that I actually did what I said I would do. That next step from making one game to making thousands would be a year long process and a journey I'm extremely glad I took. I got in touch with a High School buddy of mine, James Gleeson, who I had heard was doing designs and illustrations for Australia's top Surf Brand, Rip Curl. He gladly accepted the challenge.

On the 27th February, I walked into the legal offices of Christoffer Nicolasien. A young, ethical and very professional lawyer in Oslo. We began the paper work for my first company, the Norwegian equivalent of an LLC, called Working Mixer AS. Chris spent many hours researching the legal implications of using the name 'Ring of Fire'. Early in April, he gave me the good news that legally the game was good to go. I felt like all it would take now was to secure a manufacturer and off we go. Finding a manufacturer and waiting for quotes became a very daunting task. Hours and hours were channelled into writing emails, to all parts of the globe, working out the logistics.

In September 2006, the card designs were almost completed. I then set about making 15 prototypes, all made out of thin cardboard with the contents and rules in place. I cut the boxes out, glued them together, and turned my living room into a sweat shop. I gave the games to people specifically in the target market and all I asked for was honest feedback on the designs, the colours and the rule book. I needed to know that the rules made sense and were easy to follow. The games returned. A couple went MIA! But the feedback was phenomenal. Based on these tests, we have the final product that you can now play with your friends. Norway is used as a test market for companies like Coca Cola, Nike, and Gillette, so I figured, whilst I'm living here, I may as well take advantage of that. Doing this initial testing, albeit on a small scale (about 325 people) gave me huge confidence that the game would sell.

In November, the designs were given the seal of approval. I then took one of the prototypes down to the guys at the men's magazine, FHM. They love getting their hands on new products and I was lucky enough to convince them to play the game. That was a very good day in the life of my small start up company. They loved it! They promised they would write all about it in their January edition. When the January edition came out, there it was, a full page with colour photos of the boys and myself playing the game. There were a few hundred words describing the hilarity that was brought about by the game and most importantly they gave it the number one spot for the games they tested. I was over the moon! They even listed the website where you could pre-order the game. For the first time, I went from saying "I think this is going to happen" to "it had better damn well happen now!!"

My cousin, Brett Parker, made himself available to whip up a construction page at YourDrinkingGame.com and on the 15th December the game went live to the world wide web. I still had no actual product to sell, but the website offered a sneak peak, it offered a little bit of information, and it allowed the people who had read the FHM article to pre-order the game. I remember staring at the computer, just shaking my head in amazement as the first pre-order came in from someone I didn't know. Of course my friends were placing orders, they had to!! But as I saw this name, a name I didn't know, from a town I had no contacts in, it registered to me that it was actually working. The road I had set up for people to purchase my game was actually being travelled down, and it was one of the greatest adrenaline rushes ever.