Dutch inventor of hit game 'Kapla' dead at 80: family

Tom Van der Bruggen, a former antiques dealer and piano salesman, invented the game of small pine-wood planks that can be used to form buildings or other objects after using them to help design himself a castle in the south of France. Boxes of the game, manufactured and beloved in France where Van der Bruggen lived most of his adult life, have been sold tens of millions of times worldwide in dozens of countries. "He died on February 14 and had been suffering for a year: he had heart problems and was diabetic," his wife told AFP.