A couple months ago my inventor pal Gina Manola asked if I would take a look at her new game when it came out.  While I don’t really fit into the target age demographic (kids 3-6), I am a sucker for cute and funny.  Her new game is called Feed the Woozle manufactured by Peaceable Kingdom Press and yep, you guessed it — it’s about feeding a Woozle!  The game is pretty simple and it all revolves around using a spoon to feed the charming monster a series of disgusting yet funny foods, like worm pie and moldy macaroni.  It’s a cooperative game and there are three different levels of play so a variety of ages can enjoy this game.  The key thing to remember is that the Woozle doesn’t abide by the “5 second rule” and won’t eat any foods that drop off the spoon, so dexterity is key to the players being successful.  In more advanced levels you have to do funny actions are even blindfolded and you still have to feed the Woozle — with a little help from the other players.  It’s hilarious for humans of all ages!

And now, a couple questions for the inventor!  (Thanks Gina!)

1. How did you get started inventing board games?

In my business, CALICO, I design games and packaging for toy companies and I have a background in product development. It was a natural transition for me to get into inventing. 

2. Can you tell me how you came up with the idea behind Feed the Woozle?

The name for the game came first. Then I built a narrative around the character from which the components and game play evolved. I wanted to create a game where the character made silly demands while wanting to be entertained by the players. This is where the twist comes in—we think of games as entertainment for us, which they are, but in Feed the Woozle, the imaginary character driving the game also wants to be entertained by YOU. 

3. Did you know right away that it was a cooperative game, or did you change it to make it a cooperative game?

From the beginning it was meant to be a cooperative game. Typically, when I invent games, the theme, content or targeted age range of the game will dictate whether it is competitive or cooperative. If appropriate, I will write rules that offer both ways to play. 

4. Did you come up with all of the funny foods in Feed the Woozle? 

Yes. The silly snacks are a key ingredient of the game play!

5. Can you share your inventing and prototyping process?

It depends on the game. Some games are built from the title and a narrative as described above. Other games grow out of an objective or challenge that I, or a client may set. Some games are developed around a philosophy of play that I think is important. In all cases, I do a lot of sketches—first on paper. Scribbly and fast to get my thinking down as quickly as possible. The game really begins to take shape for me when I can see it. Then I build a prototype, play with it and push myself to remain open to the game going in a direction that I hadn’t planned for. Play-testing and refining of game play comes next. From the beginning, I look at the game from a marketing perspective and ask myself what the distinguishable features are. I try to see it the way a customer might see it on the store shelf. Ultimately I try to create an experience that’s fun and meaningful. (actual prototype pic at right — thanks Gina!)

6. You do a lot of work with the Young Inventor Challenge, which is judged at ChiTAG.  What kind of advice do you give the young inventors you work with? 

I encourage them to keep their antennas up because ideas can come from anywhere. I also encourage them to cast a wide net and never discount any idea when they begin the brainstorming process. Eventually, their ideas will coalesce into a few strong concepts to take to the next stage. Once they have a strong concept, I’ll ask them to pitch their idea to me. This helps them focus their thinking and really define the essence of their idea. Based on that, they can make sure that the best or most unique aspects of their toy or game come through.  

Website for Young Inventor Challenge: www.chitag.com/yic

More about Gina: 

Gina Manola is an inventor and the  owner of CALICO, www.calico-kids.com, an award-winning, design studio offering product development, design, branding,  and marketing to companies in the toy, game, gift and educational markets. Gina has developed successful toy, game and gift products for the specialty and mass markets and her work has been honored by “100 Best Children’s Products” and “10 Best Socially Responsible Products.”

Feed the Woozle stats:
$20 Amazon soon but now some mom & pop stores
2-5 players
~10-15 minutes
Ages 3-6

A while ago I asked on Twitter what everyone’s favorite speed games were and I got a variety of answers but one stuck out to me, “Jungle Speed.”  I was curious about this game as it was suggested by a couple tweeps who share my taste in games. Shortly after I got an email from the manufacturers of Jungle Speed and I figured the cosmos was trying to tell me that I’d enjoy this game.  And I do.  And apparently I’m not the only one since more than 2 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide.  That’s a lot of games!

In a way Jungle Speed is similar to Halli Galli as all players are flipping cards and looking at the cards to see if they find the right combination.  (see review of Halli Galli HERE) If they do, in Halli Galli they ring the bell but in Jungle Speed you grab the “totem” in the middle of the table.  In Halli Galli you’re trying to collect all of the cards, whereas in Jungle Speed you’re trying to get rid of your cards and they go to whoever wasn’t quick enough to grab the totem.  There are some small differences between the games but the big point of difference is that Jungle Speed includes cards that change up the play.  For example, you go from looking for the same symbol to the same color or it’s whoever is the quickest to grab the totem.  It keeps things fresh and players on their toes.  You can watch how to play here:

There’s one other thing I feel I must mention in this review.  In the past you’ve all heard me rant about boxes and how flimsy boxes don’t play nice on my game shelf.  Well, Jungle Speed has a flimsy box BUT they also include a nice fabric bag to contain the totem, cards and instructions, which is awesome, especially for travel.  So ditch the box and store everything in the nice bag!

Jungle Speed Stats: 

~$20 at Amazon, Target, ToysRUs, Barnes & Noble, mom & pop retailers
2 to 10 players
~10-15 minutes
Ages 8 and up

As my regular readers know, here at The Game Aisle I tend to review mass-market, mass-appeal games and steer clear of games that appeal to more serious gamers.  Mostly because I, like a lot of casual gamers out there, don’t like reading long instruction books and I don’t like to spend more than 30 minutes on one game.  So when Gryphon Games asked if I’d like to try their game Incan Gold I was pretty sure it was going to be outside the scope of games I review – but oh my gosh it’s not!

Incan Gold looks a little like a German-style board game and for those in the know, it says on the box that it was invented by Alan Moon and Bruno Faidutti.  Over his career Alan Moon has worked for Avalon Hill (maker of war & strategy board games) and invents for Ravensburger and Days of Wonder (publisher which specializes in German-style board games maybe most famous for Ticket to Ride invented by Alan Moon).  To me, this was not a great sign – but I agreed to try it out.

As it turns out, Incan Gold is a great press-your-luck game.  The story goes that everyone is an adventurer and you’re looking for jewels in an ancient Incan temple and on each turn you must decide if you want to keep hunting for treasure or return to camp with your haul.  That’s it…that’s the WHOLE game.

The game is played in 5 rounds so you have 5 opportunities to score.  On a turn a card is flipped and if it’s a Treasure card, the number of jewels it shows are split amongst the players who are still in the temple (which is everyone at the start of the game).  The jewels are actually little plastic jewels with the turquoise jewels being worth 1 point, the black or “obsidian” ones worth 5 and the gold are worth 20.  Like I said, the jewels are split equally amongst the players and then each player has to decide if they’re going to stay or go.  Players use one of two cards to blindly vote on whether they’re going to stay and keep “looking” for treasure or go.  When everyone reveals what they’ve decided, those who have decided to leave get to put the jewels they’ve collected under this cute paper tent and they’re yours to keep for the rest of the game, but you’re out for the rest of the round.  The players that stay in flip the next card and continue to split any treasure that comes their way.  There are also artifact cards that give out extra points but those can only be collected if you are the ONLY person to leave the temple on a turn (which takes a keen guess) but artifacts can get you a bunch of extra points.

There are also hazard cards in the deck like Giant Spiders, but they don’t matter until a hazard that matches one that’s already been played is pulled.  So when the first Giant Spider card is flipped over, it doesn’t matter.  It’s when the SECOND Giant Spider card is pulled that the round is over.  Anyone who is still in the temple loses all of the jewels they’ve collected and the round is over.  The round also ends when there are no adventurers still in the temple – but that’s pretty obvious.  Once a round is over the deck is shuffled and the round restarts with everyone back in the temple.  At the end of the 5^th round, players lift their paper tents and total up their jewels to see who can claim victory!

The game is easy to grasp once you’ve played it.  I’ve done a pretty good job of explaining the basics here, but the directions are a little long so I’d advise you check out an online explanation of the instruction, like The Dice Tower’s:

I also would agree with Tom from The Dice Tower that Incan Gold plays better with more players.  The box says 3-8 (and the directions say 3-5) but I’d say at least 4-5 players to make it interesting.  So good luck and happy treasure hunting!

Incan Gold Stats:

• ~$15-20 Amazon.com, FunAgainGames.com, some mom & pop retailers
• 3-8 players — but I’d say 4/5-8
• ~15-20 minutes maybe a bit longer if people are very lucky!
• Ages 8 and up

Two weeks in a row we’re going to discuss games I came across for the first time at ChiTag (the Chicago Toy and Game Fair) – it’s unintentional, but pretty interesting. When I first saw FlipOut it was called Patchwork and the inventor/self-manufacturer, Daniel Weaver, had a booth with just this one game, but when you saw it you just kind of got it.  I love games that you “get” when you see them – I gives you that “well duh, why didn’t I think of that, okay let’s play” feeling.

As you can see from the photo, FlipOut is all about patterns.  Each card has a pattern on both sides – not necessarily the same pattern – and each player has 6 cards in their holder.  Now only you can see one side of your cards, and the other players can see the other side.  The goal of the game is to collect as many cards as possible.  You collect cards by getting 4, 5, or 6 cards of the same pattern in a row either in your cards facing you or on the visible-to-you side of your opponent’s cards.

On your turn you get to make any two of the following moves (and they can be made to the cards in your holder or in any opponent’s):

1. Flip: Turn any card around in its holder
2. Switch: Switch the positions of any two cards
3. Swap: Trade one of your cards for one from an opponent (keep the same side facing you)
4. Swap 2: Trade two adjacent, same-color cards from your holder with two adjacent, same-color cards in an opponent’s holder
5. Score: Collect a set of 4-6 adjacent same-color cards from your holder
6. Swipe: Collect a set of 4-6 cards from an opponent’s holder — BUT you must give them one card (kind of as payment for stealing their cards)

You play until you run out of cards and then everyone counts up how many they’ve collected and the person who has the most wins.  Simple as pie.

I asked Daniel Weaver how he came up with this pretty unique game and here’s what he said,

“I discovered FlipOut where many great American inventions are discovered – in the shower!  The previous evening, I had played poker with friends and while shampooing my hair I started thinking “what have I never seen before in games?”  I was visualizing the previous evening’s poker game and realized that the backs of playing cards are never used!  By the time I was done drying off, FlipOut existed in my head almost exactly as it is today.”

You can see that not much has changed since Gamewright has licensed the concept – the game play is the same, the cards have the same patterns (although the colors look brighter) but the biggest difference is the packaging.  The old Patchwork version of the game didn’t have a box that visually “popped” and I think FlipOut has a “fresher” feeling to it.  The one thing I do miss?  The beautiful wooden cardholders – they made me drool.  But in the end, it’s always easier to convince friends to play a game in a pretty box.

FlipOut Stats:

• ~$20 Amazon.com, Fat Brain Toys, Barnes & Noble (starting in July) and some mom & pop retailers
• 2-5 player
• ~15 Minutes
• Ages 8 and up

Is it me or is Easter REALLY close to Mother’s Day this year?  And because they’re so close you really can’t get your mother flowers and candy since the Easter Bunny delivered those two weeks ago.  So what are you going to do?!  Sounds like the perfect time to give Think Fun’s Chocolate Fix!

I know – a lot of you out there don’t consider 1-player puzzle things “games” but we’re going to ignore that just like we did for the Rush Hour and Solitaire Chess reviews.

Chocolate Fix has been out for a little while, but the folks at Think Fun just issued all new puzzles so it seems like a good time to do this review.  (Side note: you can tell the new ones because they have the blue chocolates, not the pink ones) The game is well loved by many because it’s so easy to jump right into a challenge when you’ve got some spare minutes.  The challenges are bound in a cute little spiral notebook and they give you hints on where to put the chocolates so the right color and shape end up in the correct position.  Sometimes the hint will say what color needs to go in a particular spot, sometimes it only gives you the shape.  Other hints may tell you what colors or shapes go near each other.  You can see an example of what this looks like in the pic at the right.  It may look a wee bit complicated but you will pick it up really quickly.  For example – look at #5; this means that you will need to have a pink, dark chocolate and light chocolate in one of the three rows in that order.  And #7 tells you that in the upper right hand corner it will DEFINITELY be a triangular dark chocolate.  So from #7 you now know that the row shown in #5 is NOT the top row.  Get it?  You will.

Like all Think Fun puzzles, Chocolate Fix comes with challenges that range from “a monkey-can-do-it” easy to my “brain’s-really-flexing” hard.  And it all fits neatly into a little nylon bag for easy travel and storage.  It’s cute, it’s sweet and Mom will thank you for not breaking her diet!

Chocolate Fix Stats:

• ~$18 Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and pretty much any store that sells Think Fun products (*It’s $14 right now at Amazon!)
• 1 player
• as long as you’d like to spend playing it!
• Ages 8 and up

There’s something about those old school, hotel desk bells that is just awesome.  One of my all time favorite games – Pit – has that style bell.  The quick, frenzied game Halli Galli that I’m reviewing here also has that bell. Seriously, who can resist like a game that you have to hit a bell?!

I briefly mentioned Halli Galli in a holiday posting a couple years ago, but really the game deserves it’s own review.  But since I’ve already touched on it once, I’ll keep it short and sweet – kind of like the game!  Halli Galli is a simple to learn card game with, like I said, a bell in the middle.  Players keep a stack of cards with 1-5 pieces of fruit on them in front of them.  Everyone turns their cards over at the same time and if you see a total of EXACTLY five similar items on the table you ring the bell and collect the cards.  The player with the most cards wins and there are penalties for ringing in at the wrong time — like if there are too many or two few of one piece of fruit.

Halli Galli is a great game for tweens and kids because they have wickedly fast reflexes.  It’s been on the market since the early 1990s and has sold more than 2.5 million games worldwide but I think the odd-sounding name scares some people off.  Don’t let it!  And as a fun tidbit, rumor has it that it was originally called Tutti Frutti but then an erotic game show was launched with the same name so – for good reason – it got changed!

Halli Galli Stats:

• ~$16-20 at Amazon.com, AreYouGame.com, Barnes & Noble, and many more
• 2-6 players
• ~10-20 min.
• Ages 2-6 and up

Earlier this week I posted an interview with Mary Jo Reutter who won the TAGIE award for Excellence in Game Design in November of 2010 and you can see that article HERE.  But now it’s time to take a peek at some of her games and Mary Jo has AGAIN been nice enough to share some tidbits about how the games changed from her initial prototype – which is something I always find interesting!

First up, Laundry Jumble by Educational Insights.  While this game has roots in the 1967 game Feeley Meeley I think that the updated theme is adorable.  During the game players select a card with an image of an article of clothing on it.  They reach into the “dryer” and try to feel around to find the correct fabric item.  If they do, the player gets to keep the card.  If you pull the “Skunk’s Undies” you need to return a card you’ve already collected.  (ugh!)  Regardless, of whether you pull the correct item or not, it goes right back into the dryer so there’s always tons of stuff in there.

Mary Jo:

“When I pitched Laundry Jumble I called it “Tumble Jumble” (and I think some of the older cards even still say Tumble Bumble).  We loved the name Tumble Jumble, but it was taken, so Educational Insights had to make a change to “The Laundry Jumble Game”. The prototype had a spinning mechanism and also folded flat.  Originally the child was to roll a die to see how many times they’d turn the dryer before reaching in to find the item. Unfortunately this didn’t cost out low enough so we had to lose that feature. Fortunately the play was not compromised.  I’m very pleased that Educational Insights was able to keep the fabric for the construction of the dryer — one of the sweet subtleties of the fabric construction is that the dryer begins getting warm as your hand reaches around searching for the right piece of clothing.  And I’m also very pleased that they were able to get the small details in all of the clothing items. The Skunk’s Undies are a favorite!” (See Mary Jo’s prototype at left – wow that looks just about the same!)

Second is her mini-line of Flip-A-Longs with Fat Brain Toys.  There’s a train version called “Long Long Locomotive” and a medieval version called “Knights of the Long Table” but both play exactly the same.  It’s a matching game but instead of matching the same thing, players must match two halves of the same scene.  In the locomotive version each player starts with an engine and each time they get a match they add this new car to their train.  Obviously, the player with the longest train wins.

Mary Jo:

“The Flip-A-Long theme that was originally pitched was “Lenny’s Limo” — a long stretch limo with different sets of interesting passengers inside.  We changed that theme out for Knights of the Long Table, and Long Long Locomotive.  This game is much like a standard match game in that you can have a lot of different themes, and the twist of using your winning pieces to create a long scene.  The kids are much better at the memory and matching than most of the adults who play!  I like it when kids can genuinely beat their parents at a game.” (see Mary Jo’s prototype at left – it’s super cute!)

Even though the previous two have classic game play roots, I really enjoyed them both.  I thought that Mary Jo really improved upon Feeley Meeley (especially cute fabric instead of weird plastic tchotchkes, click HERE to find out more about Feeley Meeley if you have no idea what I’m talking about.) and making memory/matching play FAR more interesting and visually appealing.

The last game I’m going to review was probably my least favorite out of the three I’m reviewing here, but it definitely gets BIG points for cute!   (But note, that I’m not entirely sold on games action games like Rock’em Sock’em that are essentially toys with rules that are designed for kids — I’m sure skews my rankings.)  Sumo Ham Slam is a game about Sumo hamsters, which in itself is hilarious.  Players battle their hamsters using a wand that goes underneath the plastic board and magnetically attaches to their hamster.  It’s a battle of the bulge with each hamster trying to push the other out of the ring.  Along the way you earn food which are little white discs that adds to your hamster’s bulk when you shove it down their gullet.  The funny theme mixed with the cute characters really makes it a great birthday party gift for any kid 6-9.

Mary Jo:

“Sumo Ham Slam was originally called Masu Masu (which means More! More! in Japanese). The brilliant addition of the hamsters goes to Jason Schneider at Gamewright!  The game play and mechanisms stayed the same, and the hamsters and fantastic name just take it over the top in wacky.” (see her prototype at left, click to enlarge)

Thanks again to Mary Jo for all of her help and the great prototype pics she was awesome enough to send along!

Laundry Jumble Stats:

~$25 at Amazon, Target.com,  QVC, EducationalInsights.com, mom & pop retailers
2 to 4 players
~5-10 minutes
Ages 6 and Up

Flip-A-Longs Stats:

~$13 at Fat Brain Toys ONLY
2 to 4 players
~5-10 minutes
Ages 4 and Up

Sumo Ham Slam Stats:

~$20-25 at Amazon, Fun Again Games, mom & pop retailers
2 to 6 players
~10-15 minutes
Ages 6 and Up

Every holiday season at some point I end up raiding the game shelves at my father’s house looking for something to play.  I’ll admit that over the years, I’ve “liberated” many of my favorites and they now reside in one of my game cabinets, but there are some that I’ve left for sentimental reasons (and there are others that haven’t made the cross-town journey simply because I’m afraid of the wrath if he noticed they were gone). The games at my father’s house are classics from my childhood and earlier.  If something happened to them, some may be impossible to replace but others you can still find on store shelves, because good games are like that, they don’t die – they get reincarnated.

Most of the time games are resurrected using the same name to give consumers that warm-fuzzy nostalgia feeling; great examples out now are Bed Bugs, Hedbanz, Shark Attack, Mall Madness and Rock’Em Sock‘Em Robots.  All except Rock’Em Sock’Em (it’s a bit before my time) were out when I was a kid, disappeared for a while and came back.  Bed Bugs even reused the artwork from the 1985 box when Patch Products rereleased it this year, so it looks just like it did when I was putting it on my wish list for Santa.  On the other hand, Spin Master had some really dated box art for Hedbanz and opted to give the game a facelift, which resulted in a far more appealing package.  But either way if the reincarnated game was notable enough, the product should evoke memories of playing with friends, wishing for it to appear under the Christmas tree or even fuzzy recollections of the game’s commercial.

This “reincarnation” phenomenon isn’t exclusive to the game industry.  Toy brands, shoe brands, car brands, beverage brands, video game brands all go through cycles like this too, but what makes it interesting in the board game arena is that products don’t always stay with their initial manufacturer.  In fact, neither Hedbanz nor Bed Bugs is with the company that originally released it.  Hedbanz has been published here in the US by IRWIN Games, Pressman Toy, Western Publishing and many international manufacturers.  Bed Bugs doesn’t have quite as lengthy of a history, having only been published by Milton Bradley before being picked up by Patch Products.  So why all the jumping around?  Sometimes this is due to a “trickledown” effect.  Hasbro now owns Milton Bradley and they may not have thought that Bed Bugs could sell the volume of games needed for them to spend money to promote the product or maybe they’re focused on building their core brands and didn’t have room for it, either way it ends up with a smaller company who has the time to nurture and rebuild the brand.  Other times it’s in the hands of the inventor to find their game a new manufacturer “home.”  Regardless, it’s obvious that well-loved games have multiple lives and don’t disappear forever – which is good, because there are a couple I’m hoping to see again!

Part 2 – The Reviews

Instead of explaining Bed Bugs I think you can just take a peek at the “vintage” commercial:

Remember that?  And obviously, with New York’s little bed bug problem this year, the rerelease of this game is extremely timely.

Now, I couldn’t find a commercial for Hedbanz, but I’ll explain it for those of you who don’t recall how to play.  Everyone wears a band on their head with a card clipped in it.  Cards have a picture and say “I am a [image word].”   Players don’t know what picture is on their card, but obviously they can see the cards of the other players.  Everyone takes turns asking questions in a “20-questions like fashion” until they can guess what’s on their card.  The quicker you can guess what you are, the more likely it is that you’ll win.  Overall, everyone looks a little silly — but it just adds to the laughs!

Bed Bugs Stats:

~$15 at Amazon, Meijer, Are You Game, Wal-Mart
2 to 4 players
~5-10 minutes
Ages 6 and Up

Hedbanz Stats:

~$15 at Amazon, Target, Toys’RUs (which also has the exclusive Hedbanz for Adults for $17)
2 to 6 players
~20-30 minutes (depending on the number of players)
Ages 7 and Up

I know that there are plenty of toy and game inventors that read this site so and I’m sure they’ve had similar experiences – but there’s no feeling in the world quite like seeing your game on the shelf!  It makes all of the hard work and late nights worth it, and dulls the pain of all of the rejection letters that go with being in the business.  My big game this year is Scattergories Categories manufactured by Winning Moves.  Now, I don’t entirely think it’s fair that I review my own game, but then again this is my site…and I like this game – A LOT.  So I’ve decided to compromise a bit and I’ll explain a little of the history of the game, then I’ll have some outside folks toss their two cents in.

I’d like to say I knew Scattergories Categories was exactly what it was when I came up with the idea, but I didn’t.  I didn’t think the idea of having a vertical category word with players trying to come up with words horizontally that start with the letters in the vertical category word was enough to stand on it’s own, so it ended up being a mini-game in another game.  Luckily, Mike Gray remarked that the little mini-game was an interesting idea and that feedback got the Scatttergories Categories ball rolling.  After making it a game on it’s own it was obvious that it was a great line extension for the Scattergories brand (sketch at right).  Unique answers get you points just like in the classic version, but  it solved the one thing I disliked about Scattergories, which is you play the same 12 cards over and over.  This new method solves the “repeat” problem so easily because you get a new category every round thus you never feel like you’re playing the same questions over and over with different letters.   Thankfully, Winning Moves agreed, licensed it and asked me to write the content!  (Yipee – I LOVE writing content!)

I will admit that coming up with enough category phrases/words was a little more difficult than I had expected.  Scattergories Categories not like other category games where you come up with a category and boom – it’s done!  In Scattergories Categories the vertical word or phrase needed to have a minimal number of vowels, virtually no Is, Us, Xs,Ys, Zs or any other weird consonants.  For example: if I wanted the topic to be “Bubble Gum Brands and Flavors” BUBBLE GUM seems like the obvious choice especially since there are a ton of answers for B like: Big League Chew, banana, Berry Blast, Big Red, Bazooka, etc. but what flavor starts with U?!  Ugli fruit?  I’d veto that.  So the vertical word became BEST CHEW because it still includes the B and limits the vowels to only two Es which have a bunch of answers: Eclipse, Extra, Excel Extreme, euclyptus (although not common flavor it’s one of my favorites) just to name a few.  So coming up with words turned out to be more of a science than I expected!  But after two weeks and almost 1.5 inches of paper I was done and was more certain than ever that the game rocked – mostly because after essentially playing for 2 weeks straight, I wished I had to do more!

Like I said earlier, reviewing my own game may not be the most believable thing I could do (although I must ask, have I steared you wrong in the past?), so here are some other people who gave me their reviews:

Lauren Rizzo, Teen Programming Librarian at Indian Trails Public Library · Addison, IL

(Lauren got introduced to the game when I brought an advance copy to her library “Meet the Inventor, Play the Game” program back in June.)

“If you want great fun, Scattergories Categories definitely the way to go.  This game is a fun twist on the original game (Scattergories), and, I think, gives the game an additional level of strategy.  Players are given a word that describes a category – it is then up to the players to come up with words that start with each of the letters in the original describing word – a deeper level of play.  The fun begins when the timer starts, and you’ve got 2 minutes to think of something that will (1) fit into the category, (2) start with the correct letter, (3) be unique (in that no one else will write it as their own).  Example—Carnival: C = cotton candy, A = acrobats, R = rats, etc.   This can get very creative and you’ll get answers you would’ve never expected.  Especially if you’re playing with my mom who tends to “cheat” – somehow if there’s a letter D in the original word, the answer will always be “dirt.”  The rules do allow for people to challenge another player’s answers, which adds another hysterical dynamic to the fun-for-all-ages game.  My mom’s defense to any challenges?  Dirt is everywhere.  And it’s hard to say no to that!”

Suzette Soukup-Oko, Private Investigator · Westmont, IL

“It’s now my favorite game to play.  I like it because I am a light-weight (drinker) and you can play it when you are drinking and it seems like the answers we come up with get funnier and funnier!  It’s easy, relaxing and fun to play with a lot of people or just 3 people. Even though there is thinking involved, the unique questions that are asked of us on the cards really seem to stimulate thoughts and are answer-able when intoxicated!  It’s easy to set-up, easy to explain to a new-comer, and the time really flies when playing it.  Nobody ever seems like they are ready to stop playing the game.  It’s great because both young people and old people can play it.  It brings out a lot of laughter from the group!”

Josh Gorman, Program Assistant at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History · Washington DC

“I found [the game] before thanksgiving and pulled it out a couple times with my family and [my wife’s]. It was great – a huge improvement over the original.  More letters makes it only slightly easier and tons more inventive (and thus more fun in my book).”

Chung Liang, Design Manager at Learning Curve Brands · Chicago, IL

“The categories are funny and people’s answers are likely to spark lively debate.  Also, the odds of having similar answers are more likely so there’s some strategy in how you fill in the answers for words with 2 of the same letters.”

Nicole Flores, Northside Prep High School Math Teacher · Chicago, IL

“I love Scattergories Categories!  Having a love of Scattergories and board games in general, I was naturally drawn to this new hit game.  What I enjoyed the most is having the category provided and then different letters as opposed to rolling a die and using one letter the whole time.  I think this offers more diversity in answers and more playing fun!  I have played Scattergories Categories with family, friends and even students.  This is definitely a game I will continue to play.”

Nina Kult, Public Relations Executive · St. Louis, MO

“I love the challenge of Scattergories Categories, taking the original Scattergories concept one step further. It forces you to think fast and be creative in attempt to outsmart your fellow players.”

Tracy Lopata, Manager at Lopata & Company · Naperville, IL

“I loved Scattergories Categories.  It was better than the original.  A wonderful game to play with a group of friends.  We had silly, warmhearted fun and laughter playing this game.”

Scott Slimmer, Post-Doctoral Student University of Illinois · Champaign, IL

“I’ve always enjoyed the original Scattergories, but I love the way that Scattergories Categories breathes new life into a familiar game with one simple yet elegant twist.  The combination of intriguing categories with playfully worded clue phrases also serves to infuse the game with the kind of unpredictable fun that brings to mind one of my all-time favorite game shows, Pyramid.  Scattergories Categories is definitely going into heavy rotation in my family’s game repertoire.”

Bonnie Olszewski, Public Relations Specialist · Joilet, IL

“I enjoyed it because of the wide variety of categories. It was harder than I thought to come up with answers for some of the letters, and tons of fun to hear what everyone came up with and for them to defend their words that were kind of a stretch.”

Lindsey Smith, Museum Curator, Archivist and Exhibit Developer · Des Moines, IO

“Scattergories Categories is the perfect game for anyone who wants to be a little creative and have a lot of fun!”

Jack Degnan, Board Game Inventor, San Diego, CA

“Very fun, easy, contagious!”

Laurie Wojtko, Scientist · Palatine, IL

“It’s a fantastic challenge and provided for lively conversation and competition.”

Emily Vandenbroucke, Pharmacology Doctoral Candidate · Chicago, IL

(yea, so we’re related…we grew up playing games together so if she likes it, it’s probably good.)

“Really creative take on the original Scattergories- still a ton of fun to play in groups or with just 2, but now with a new twist that makes you think just a little differently than before.”

Scattergories Categories Stats:

~$20 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and lots of mom & pop stores
2 or more players (it says 4 but we’ve played with 10+)
~4 minutes per round, ~20-30 minutes for a game to 25
Ages 12 and Up

What did YOU think of Scattergories Categories?

If I bought every game I thought looked cool, I’d be broke.  No really, my “to buy” list is very, very long.  Lucky me I got a freebie version of the game Q-bitz and I LOVE IT!  Why I waited when I knew it was a Peggy Brown game is somewhat perplexing me right now, but hindsight is 20/20 right?

Peggy is an inventor chum of mine and so I asked her to tell me a little about how she came up with the game.  She was also nice enough to share a picture of her Q-bitz prototype and inventor “sell sheet” which provides a great glimpse into the inventor side of this game! (Click to enlarge the sell sheet below.)

“Q-bitz is the game I wish I would have had as a kid. That’s where it came from. I wanted to make something fun based on graphic images – not recognizable graphics like logos or typefaces, but on some kind of graphic fine art. I also wanted to level the playing field between brainiacs and regular folks, and between people who could and couldn’t draw. I thought if I started with a few simple graphic elements, black and white squares, a black dot on white, a white dot on black, black and white triangles… these elements could be combined in a limitless number of ways to make graphic art in it’s purest form. Putting these images on cubes rather than on tiles was kind of a logical evolutionary step, and it turned out to be a pretty elegant way for players to make these little works of art, without having to think really hard, and without having to draw. All the cubes are identical, so you know that no matter which one you pick up, it’ll fit in any spot on your tray… all you have to do is orient it a certain way. And I secretly loved making up all the different “works of art” on the cards… by the way, I just got to make 120 new cards for a booster pack, and was so excited to do it, I couldn’t stop ’til they were all done! The rules are simple – in fact, you barely have to read them. Just use your cubes to recreate the image on the card. That’s it. It’s almost a toy with rules. I’ve watched kids whomp their parents, (which is what an overgrown kid/game designer like me lives for), and I’ve watched people who generally don’t excel at other kinds of games, like word games or strategy, go nuts over Q-bitz because they can really compete, and even win! Sometimes, from a game designer’s perspective, it takes so much time and gnashing of teeth to get a game over all the hurdles on its way to market, I’m kinda tired of it when it finally comes out. Not true with Q-bitz. I could still play it ever day!”

And I agree with Peggy, I could play it ever day too.

There are three mini-games in Q-bitz.  One you race to get your cubes into your tray so they match the card.  In the second game you do the same thing but you have to roll the cubes.  You may use any cubes you’ve rolled and you can roll again and again until you’ve completed your image. The last game I’m terrible at – no really, HORRIBLE.  You get 10 seconds to study the card then it’s flipped over and you have to put your cubes into the pattern you just saw.  I can’t win this game to save my life, but I still have a great time trying!

Q-Bitz Stats:
~$25 at Amazon, Mindware.com
1-4 players
1-3 minutes per round
Ages 8 and up (some younger kids might enjoy it too)