About Haumea Games

Haumea Games is a young Belgian board game publisher founded by Thomas Carlier and Julien Schoucken, two board game enthusiasts with a passion for these products. Haumea Games is based in Ressaix in the province of Hainaut. Thomas and Julien create their own games, but also adapt existing games for release.

I spoke to Thomas Carlier from Haumea Games at Spellenspektakel Utrecht 2025. I had heard that they had started a new Gamefound campaign for extentions to the game Eternitium, a game they created themselves.

Esmeralda: How did Eternitium actually come about? Could you briefly outline this?

Thomas: Yes. For Eternitium, we wanted to create a small, accessible deck-building game with an interesting twist during the acquisition phase. In most deckbuilders, you can always upgrade your deck, and we thought: why not introduce a different kind of tension? Eventually, we came up with the idea of two card decks: the deck you build and the Era cards you try to destroy. So the game actually originated from the mechanism rather than the theme.

Esmeralda: Okay. And the theme, how did you come up with it and what does it mean to you?

Thomas: To be honest, my first idea was that you would search for a gem in a temple while fighting creatures. You would have to collect weapons to defeat the right enemies. But that felt too predictable and not very interesting. Then I discussed it with Julien, my co-publisher. We thought: why not combine the fighting mechanism with time travel? That fit perfectly, because you travel through time, destroy Era Cards and activate portals to advance. That immediately felt much more fun.

Esmeralda: Does that mean you travel through space and try to find portals?

Thomas: Exactly. Your goal is to find the gemstone. So you race to be the first to reach the right era, but you don’t know in which era the gemstone is hidden. You have to go through ten eras, each represented by a symbol (circle, triangle, square or diamond). You have to play a portal card with the same symbol to destroy the era. You use technology cards to gain new abilities and improve your deck.

Esmeralda: Did you create the game on your own, or together with Julien?

Thomas: I am the designer of this game, but we are both publishers. That means that we work together to find an illustrator, have the artwork created, organise events to promote the game, communicate via social media, arrange production with the manufacturer, and so on. We also have games that we design together, and games that are designed exclusively by me. We also work with external designers. We try to do as much as possible ourselves.

Esmeralda: The game Eternitium has been out since 2024, but I’ve heard that a new extention is coming out soon?

Thomas: That’s right. This year we released a new extention that introduces new technologies, new ways to destroy Era cards. On Gamefound, we also launched a completely new mechanism: one-time technologies. You use them once, then they are destroyed, but they are extremely powerful.

Esmeralda: So if you have the base game, the extention is quite interesting, I suppose?

Thomas: Definitely. Both expansions add a lot. At Gamefound, we mainly want to reach the international community. In the US, some players are still waiting for the game, so the platform makes it easier for us to reach them.

Esmeralda: What strikes me is that you are both still very young. How long have you been in this industry?

Thomas: We’ve been doing this for five years now. In the beginning, we developed ideas, made prototypes and presented them at trade fairs to test whether the games were coherent. Then we started publishing and producing games, in collaboration with artists and manufacturers. Our first release was last year, but the process started five years ago.

Esmeralda: What other games have you made? What was your first game?

Thomas: The first game we published was Valroc, a large adventure game with an expansion that allows for cooperative play. Next, we localised VIP RIP. This is a game by Spanish publishers Eugeni Castaño and Eloi Pujadas. The game had to be adapted to the Belgian market, as it revolves around celebrities. We did the adaptation and the complete translation, but it is only available in French. Next came Forest Leader, one of my own creations: a card game for three to six players with challenging dynamics. Then Bee Garden, a localisation of Horrible Guild, an Italian publisher. This is available in Dutch and French. It is a game in which you try to build the most beautiful garden for your bees.
And finally, Snorkeling, a small card and trading game, available in French, Dutch and English, in which you have to attack your opponents. It’s a mechanism I like, but we’ve incorporated it in a very different way than usual. It’s as easy to play as Uno, so it’s quick to explain, but above all, it’s great fun to play.

Esmeralda: Looking at the boxes, The Bee Garden seems to be ecologically inspired. Is that the case?

Thomas: Not really. It’s mainly thematic. You try to make the garden attractive to your bees by collecting different types of flowers, but the game itself is not meant to be ecological, it’s just the theme.

Esmeralda: Are there any other themes or projects that you intend to release in the future?

Thomas: Definitely. We’ve signed two projects with external designers that will be released next year, possibly through crowdfunding. We’re also working on our own prototypes, which we still need to develop further. So there’s definitely more to come.

Esmeralda: Okay. I’m already excited about seeing your future projects. Thank you very much.

Thomas: (laughs) You’re welcome!

More information: review of Eternitium you can find here. Or on this site under the reviews section.

Text: Esmeralda Wolf