Playing Checkers in a Pond
Larry Vallier is the 44-year-old inventor of Pond Checkers, a game that plays with traditional rules but decidedly untraditional pieces. He created the game because he wanted to make checkers, which he has enjoyed for nearly four decades, more visually interesting.
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Larry agreed to share some of his thoughts on the game.
I first began playing checkers when I was about five or six years old, like most people. Although I enjoyed the logic or strategy involved in checkers, I, like most people, considered the playing pieces and board to be relatively drab or boring compared to some of the more modern boardgames which went heavier on the artwork and had more interesting playing pieces.In traditional or ordinary checkers, it's said that the round disk playing pieces "jump" one another when capturing. That's what gave me the idea for Pond Checkers. Frogs, I thought, would make more interesting playing pieces that naturally jump. And the 32 black playing squares of checkers could be represented by 32 lily pads in a scenic pond setting. The regular men of checkers could be represented by baby frogs, and the kings could be represented by bullfrogs -- making for a more life-like transition in the game, with a heavy emphasis on nature itself.
The thing that strikes me most about children's reaction to Pond Checkers is that, according to the parents of the children whom own a copy, the children never grow tired of the game, and play it on a more regular basis than they do their other toys and games.
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Checkers Board Games Subjects
Pond Checkers
For the record, I am 44 years old, and was born and live in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, home of the famous Queen's University, which I am a graduate of. My family and myself have invented several other games: Puzzle Playing Cards; Alphabet Roulette; Jumping Jack-Rabbit Checkers; and Lunar Checkers.
I especially like Lunar Checkers. It's played on the moon with 32 lunar craters. The playing pieces are astronauts and spaceships. It would be a fantastic computer game. The hardest part about developing Pond Checkers was raising the over $100,000 Canadian that was required to get it marketed. The most satisfying part about developing Pond Checkers was the finished product itself -- the high quality of fine artwork that went into the board, and the durable quality of the frog playing pieces that guarantee that the game can be enjoyed for years, unless of course you lose the pieces.
Here's some inspiration for up-and-coming game inventors: When you finally do invent a new classic game, a part of you will never die, and what could be more satisfying than that?
As for me, I will probably invent more board games, providing of course that the ideas for them come to me, which has never been a problem in the past. New ideas are always coming to people, aren't they?
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