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. This can get very creative and you’ll get answers you would’ve never expected. Example-Carnival: C = cotton candy, A = acrobats, R = rats, etc. 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). 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. This game is a fun twist on the original game ( Scattergories), and, I think, gives the game an additional level of strategy. “If you want great fun, Scattergories Categories definitely the way to go. (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.) Like I said earlier, reviewing my own game may not be the most believable thing I could do (although I must ask, have I steered 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 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! Reviews 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, eucalyptus (although not common flavor it’s one of my favorites) just to name a few. but what flavor starts with U?! Ugli fruit? I’d veto that. 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. 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. I will admit that coming up with enough category phrases/words was a little more difficult than I had expected. Thankfully, Winning Moves agreed, licensed it and asked me to write the content! (Yipee – I LOVE writing content!) 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. Unique answers get you points just like in the classic version, but it solved the one thing I found frustrating about Scattergories, which is you play the same 12 cards over and over. 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). Luckily, Mike Gray remarked that the little mini-game was an interesting idea and that feedback got the Scatttergories Categories ball rolling.
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. 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.
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. 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.
My big game this year is Scattergories Categories manufactured by Winning Moves. 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.
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