| Party Game Designer Loves Her Work | |
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Joan Moravick, the brains behind Games For All Reasons, has designed two party games -- Finish Lines and Paired Up -- and has more in the works. So far, she has enjoyed positive reactions to both of her published games.
Finish Lines, in which players compete to complete well-known quotations, earned a spot in the Games Magazine 100 list and won a Mensa Select Award. Paired Up, which challenges players to get their partners to guess commonly coupled words (e.g. salt and pepper, Abbott and Costello), was named one of the Best Vacation Products of the year by Dr. Toy.
Moravick recently took some time to answer some questions about these two games, her future plans, and other boardgaming topics.
Tell us a little about the games you've published and others you're working on.
Finish Lines and Paired Up are my two games currently on the market. I'm also working on a second edition of Finish Lines -- a completely new set of 500 game cards which should be available for sale soon on our web site. I've developed a Junior version of Paired Up that I'll be premiering at Toy Fair next February. I'm also working on a 'grow-along' game for pre-schoolers (ages 3 to 6).
How did you come up with all the pairs in Paired Up?
Once I started working on Paired Up, I was unstoppable in my search for finding popular pairs. I remember driving on the highway one day and looking more intently at the road signs as I hunted for possible combinations. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I passed a big, green sign that read: "Park and Ride." I even thumbed through the dictionary searching for words that could be joined together into a "pair" (e.g. "beck and call").
In the course of my daily routine, I became very conscious of my goal as I read through books and magazines, and watched TV and movies. It was fun to discover that there are "paired up" expressions, such as "Come and get it!" and "Up and at 'em!" I'm quite proud of my achievement, having found a total of 800 "commonly coupled-up people, places and things" for the game!
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| Finish Lines from Games for All Reasons. |
Bartlett's Book of Quotations was a great source for some of the quotes in Finish Lines. Again, it was a determined effort that wasn't exhausted until I had all the material I needed -- 100 quotes in each of the five categories. I bought CDs with TV theme songs on them and listened to the lyrics. I watched a lot of movies and read through a lot of quotation books. I knew I wanted phrases that spanned generations and interests, so I was intent on finding a good mix of material. I also wanted some familiar phrases, along with some that were a bit more challenging.
Have you ever been surprised by the reaction to any of your games?
I'm thrilled by all of the accolades that Finish Lines has received (Mensa Select, Games Magazine Top 100, Top 10 Game of the Year in the Chicago Tribune, and Dr. Toy's Best Vacation Children's Product) - especially since it was my very first game on the market.
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