Review Fix Exclusive: Marcus Ticotin Talks Bob-A-Long

Review Fix chats with Freaky Pets creator Marcus Ticotin, who discusses his new card game, “Bob-A-Long,” as well as the Kickstarter supporting it.

About Bob-A-Long:

A family card game that inspires creativity, BOB-A-LONG challenges players to bring out their inner comics as they perform charades to get other competitors to guess what’s on their bizarre “action” or “item” card, wonderfully illustrated by book artist Kory Fluckiger.  Once the card is guessed, it’s used to fill in the blanks in an outrageous FREAKY PETS adventure story. Then, game play truly turns zany as the designated reader is given a “flavor” to use while performing the story – whether it’s speaking in “pirate”, wearing a feathered chapeau or while squinting and leaning to the left.  Guaranteed to turn an ordinary game night into a hysterical event, the goal of BOB-A-LONG is to have a BOB-load of fun, while being as creative, zany, funny, as humanly — or even as non-humanly – possible.

For more on their Kickstarter, click here.

Review Fix: How did Freaky Pets make this product possible?

Marcus Ticotin: One of our most recent Freaky Pets characters is BOB.  He’s not really a Pet, like his buddies. He’s more like…well…he’s BOB!  As soon as he started hanging out with the gang, all of our Friends on our Facebook page fell in love with his zany, hyper-energetic, slightly bizarre way…and it didn’t hurt that he’s really cute!

Review Fix: Why do you think kids are still so entranced by card games?

Ticotin: Cards were actually the first things humans invented, even before fire.  Okay, that may be slightly untrue but it’s no doubt that kids and families have loved cards since at least the time of the Sphinx.  King Tut, the boy King, is said to have invented Go Fish, though it was called Go Hawk, originally.  Cards are really cool because they combine something that’s easily handled, can have awesome illustrations (like ours), are perfect for creating games that can have simple to advanced strategies, lend themselves to fun collectibility and most importantly, let folks look right across the table and laugh (in our game) or pretend, or plot.

Review Fix: What was the development cycle for this product like?

Ticotin: My daughter and I were talking about some of the games we used to play when she was little and how we did some of that on our Freaky Pets Facebook page, and then we had one of those moments where we thought we could come up with a cool game for folks even beyond our page.  We thought we could do a Kickstarter but didn’t want to try anything too ambitious, so we settled on a card game and charades, both of which we love!  So, we brought in a couple more folks and started brainstorming, testing, trying, eating ice cream (for inspiration). Then, the final part was we created a simple prototype, sent to a bunch of people and got great feedback that helped us make it so much better!

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy this product the most?

Ticotin: Well, even though we adults had a total blast creating and laying the game, it really is great for family and friends who get together and want to be silly, goofy, slightly bizarre, active and really creative.  Anyone can play but probably best if they are over eight.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this product?

We want to get this game to as many families as possible.  That’s our main go.  Of course, we’d like it to be so loved and successful that we can do expansion packs, add cool things Ned even introduce The Legend of BOBBO, which is a top secret BOB story that I’d be glad to share with everyone!

Review Fix: How is your Kickstarter different?

Ticotin: We think our Kickstarter is unique because we kind of a hybrid game, combining awesome, hysterical cards with the guessing of charades, and zany performing wth costumes, props, accents, ice cream (for inspiration) and a whole lot of laughs!

Review Fix: What’s next?

Ticotin: First, we have to get folks to join us in making this BOB of a dream come true by backing us on Kickstarter.  Then, the fun starts!  We get to do our awesome rewards with exclusive cards, a personalized audio version with a voice over from someone who’s done voice overs for Pokemon, Tai Chi Chasers,  and new stories, new illustrations.  If that all works, maybe we even try and do a web animated series!  Why not? No matter what, not for us is getting families and fiends to get together, get zany and get laughing.