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?

Earlier today I had an interesting conversation with the owner of the Chicago toy and game store Cat and Mouse about how there are tons of games that ”borrow” the play patterns of other games.  Some even look the same: Bananagrams and Scrabble Apple (both which are similar to Take Two), Yahtzee and Kismet, Connect Four and Toot and Otto to name a few.  Now my mother always told me that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” so I guess that the duplication indicates that the initial product had a level of success that the new game would like to attain.  And that got me thinking.

As an inventor I’d like to believe that the original version is always the superior one; for how could anyone improve upon my idea?!  Well, after quickly glancing through my games when I got home I found the perfect example of when the newer version improved upon the initial game and believe it or not the NEW version had been out since 1954.  (My copy is from 1962 & it’s seen a lot of games.)

Mille Bornes was developed by Edmond Dujardin and was very, VERY similar to the game Touring which was invented around 1906 and then picked up by Parker Brothers in 1925.  Touring was manufactured until it was replaced in their line by Mille Bornes sometime after 1954 which makes sense because who really needs two automobile racing card games in their line?

So what was the improvement that made all the difference?  The coup-fourré.  This is when a player earns a large bonus for stopping an opponent from playing a hazard card such as a flat tire or an accident that would impede their progress.  You do this by having “Safety” in your hand when the hazard is played.  This little difference made the game so much better.  Now when you go to play a hazard on an opponent your actions could be very costly.  However once a particular safety has been played (there are four different ones, seen below) it’s kind of a free for all.  Sounds a little complicated, but really Mille Bornes is a very easy and fun game to play.  Hence the half a century — and then some — this game has been on the market.   In fact, you can still find it at Target and Toys ‘R Us today for right around $5.99 if you don’t already have a copy.  Look in the card game area, it’s manufactured by Winning Moves now.

Now I know that this one example should not indicate the rule, but I think it goes to show that sometimes game play can be improved upon.  But more often I think that the copy-cats are reusing a particular style of game play so that it is familiar, fun and easier to learn – something I guess we should chalk up to flattery.

Mille Bornes Stats:
~$5.99 and up at Target, Toys ‘R Us, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com
2, 3, 4 or 6 Players (commonly played as a partnership game with 4 players, 2 per team)
35-45 Minutes
Ages 8 and up

**Cat and Mouse Game Store is located at 2212 W. Armitage in Chicago and is absolutely worth a look.

As a kid my older sister and I would frequently get games as gifts for birthdays and holidays.   And even though we’re only 13 months apart, we didn’t often see eye to eye on which games we liked.  I liked Life she liked Monopoly.  I liked Candyland she liked Chutes and Ladders. Maybe it was because we were TOO close in age and we were both grasping for some sort of individuality, but since my degree is in Industrial Design and not psychology we will not dig any further into that particular area.

Thankfully there were a freak few that we both liked otherwise we may never have played games.  PayDay was definitely a favorite of ours because it could be a long game or a short game since you play month to month.  On a rainy Saturday we would play a full 12 months while on a school night it might have only been a 3-4 month game.  The only thing we didn’t really like about the game is that the board is one month long so you played the same month over and over and over.  Well that all changes this year!  Laura Pecci of Winning Moves came up with a very clever solution to this in their new release called Big PayDay.  It fits into the “why didn’t I think of that” category of games.  It’s so simple; the board has channels that you can replace any day with a random new day tile, which allows you to play a different month every month.  It keeps those “year-long” games much more interesting.

When I play we start with the regular board and then add 1 special tile per player the first month, we then clear the board and place 2 special tiles per player on for the second month and so on.  We blindly draw tiles and each player can place it wherever they want and there’s a little bit of strategy to it.  Extra “Buyers” at the end of the month are a good idea whereas covering up some of the mail days is also wise if you keep drawing the $800 auto repair bill whereas your opponents receive cheesy advertisements and postcards.
Big PayDay keeps all of the charm from the 1975 classic PayDay while solving the redundancy with a quick and clever solution.  Fair warning that it’s still the same game as before – one I loved in my tween years — but it’s still a nice and easy game for families to play and for some of us it brings back warm and fuzzy childhood memories.

Big PayDay Stats:
~$30-$35 at Amazon.com, Winning-Moves.com
2-6 Players
~ 15-30 Minutes (depending on number of players and number of months)
Ages 8 and up

I love clever ideas; they just make me happy.  (And sometimes envious that I didn’t think of them myself!)

This past February when I was roaming around Javits during New York Toy Fair I saw the cleverest feature in the Winning Moves product King Me.  It’s such a simple “duh” idea that I am still smitten with it.  You know what it is?  Self-crowning checkers.  Yup, that’s right, the crowns rise up from each checker when you twist them.  How cool is that?!

There have been thousands of versions of checkers including The Simpsons checkers, Dinosaur checkers, magnetic checkers, oversized checkers, designer checkers but none of them have ever tempted me to buy a new game of checkers, until now.   So who came up with this clever feature?  Phil Orbanes did while he was in the shower.  (I swear, the shower is a great place to think.)  Anyway, for those of you who are in the industry you probably know who Phil is.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Phil, he’s one of the founders and current president of Winning Moves and before that he was the Senior VP for Research and Development at Parker Brothers, which means he knows a bit about good games.  He also has written a bunch of books about Monopoly and the book that is currently sitting on my desk called The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit.

Good work Phil!  I like the way you think.

King Me Stats:
~$15 at Amazon.com, Toys ‘R Us
2 Players
~15 Minutes
Ages 7 and up

If your family is anything like mine, there’s a whole shelving unit dedicated to old games in the basement of your parent’s house.  There are some well-worn classics like Monopoly, Sorry and the version of Clue with the stable and fountain from the late ‘80s.  But it’s also teeming with games you’ve never heard of and definitely never played because they sound so dull you’d rather clean the basement than play the game.  Like “The IRS Game” I recently unearthed in my father’s house.  He’s a CPA so I’m sure it was some sort of gag gift, but honestly, who would want to play a game about the organization that makes sure we stay good citizens and pay our taxes?  I left that one where I found it.

The game I was looking for comes in a small box and was invented just after the turn of the century — the last century that is.  It’s called Pit and although the name isn’t bad, it’s the “commodities trading” theme that is outright unappealing.  I’ll admit, it’s pretty hard to convince a group of players to sit down for a fun game of commodities trading, but I managed to sucker some friends into playing recently.  They didn’t have much of a choice since we were out of town and their alternatives were pretty slim, but I was happy that they obliged and promised it wouldn’t disappoint.

As one of my all-time favorite party games, Pit is easy to explain, even easier to learn and it’s quick.  The game is made up of rounds that are a free-for-all of people trading cards until they’ve “cornered the market” on one commodity, meaning they managed to collect every single wheat or soybean card in the game.  During this process people are feverishly yelling how many cards they want to trade, reaching across the table and over other player’s hands to conduct the card swap in hopes of finding the last couple cards they are missing.  The frenzy comes to halt when a player triumphantly rings the bell to signal that they have cornered the market.  As the other players sigh, the winner collects points and the next round is started.  The quick, fast rounds keep everyone excited, but adding twists like silent rounds or playing with the bull and bear cards add another level to play with the bull acting like a wild and the bear like an old maid.

While I have an older version of Pit that I found buried in a dusty corner, this game can be purchased new for less than $20.  It comes with eight different commodities to trade and a bell.  Sadly, since this game isn’t as well known as it should be, it probably won’t be available in your local Wal-Mart, but according to the manufacturer, it can be found at Toys ‘R’ Us stores nationwide.  There are also plenty of online retailers including Amazon.com who carry the game and it’s worth the 3-5 day shipping wait.  But if that’s too long, check out www.winning-moves.com to find a store near you that carries this classic game.

In the end, even though my friends had some pretty low expectations going into the game, when we finally decided to stop and grab some dinner they were all amazed at how much fun it was.  There have already been some requests for me to bring Pit with me whenever we get together next.

So grab 3-8 of your closest friends (over the age of 7) and spend the afternoon “cornering the market!”  Maybe just leave out the game’s theme when you ask them to play.

Pit stats:

• ~$15 Toys ‘R Us, Barnes and Noble or online retailers
• 3-8 players
• ~2 minutes a round (so play lots!)
• Ages 7 and up