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.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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