Say Anything - The Game of Verbal Gymnastics
Brass Thing - approx size is of a tall 6 pack of your favorite beverage - but much heavier
The Game of Verbal Gymnastics
By this time next year, you will have changed the lives of 5,000 people across America. You could be walking down the street or surfing the net and yet you will be able to take credit for having helped establish a resource that could well outlive you.
Do you know how old you were when Scrabble was invented? Well, most likely you weren’t even born yet. You already know that Scrabble has been a very successful game, having versions in over 120 countries, competitive teams and world-wide ranking systems, but did you know the game was first introduced in 1938? Since then, thousands of people have tried to duplicate the model, and, well, most of them haven’t had much of any luck. It’s a nut we think we’ve managed to crack, and with your help, we want to find out.
What we place before you is a complete mock-up of a fun, mildly addictive, maddeningly expansive, and certainly educational board game. We call it Say Anything, but we have to modify that name, as you'll see.
Ours is as simple or complex a game as its players fancy. The player rolls a die and moves his/her piece around the board to a center goal. The game is spiral-y and very colorful and has words segregated by parts of speech. i.e. all nouns are blue, all adverbs are yellow, etc.
There are several ways to play the game, but the classic method is to go around the board and collect the most delightful words one can; then form a sentence or phrase from those words. There are set-backs/forwards along the way. Play is for fun but it's also a gentle lesson in English and grammar. It can be played by people 5 years old and up, with peers or multi-cultural/generational, and either alone or in groups from 2 to more than 10. The game play can take only 10 minutes but it is usually about 30 – 45 minutes, and makes for a perfect solution to evenings with friends or even a quick game before bed for the kids. There have been some games we’ve watched being played that closely challenged the length of a monopoly marathon.
In addition to the standard game set, we will produce a series of expansion packs, which are already in mock-up, including Techomaniac, Words for Nerds, Gutter Talk, and our own favorite, Gallimaufry, a set specializing in obsolete and obscure words. If the pledging exceeds our goal, we’ll be able to add others.
As we indicated, we have a completed prototype of the standard set, although we need a different name, because Say Anything is already being used on a separate fun game (that we encourage you to play). We are ready to have our full game including expansions made on a cost-effective scale. However, it has multiple pieces, and the quotes we have gotten have forced us onto Kickstarter.
With any pledge amount, please include a suggestion to call our little bundle of joy. We'll put every suggestion that matches what we end up calling it into a hat, and then choose 2 lucky winners. These 2 will get all features of the personal supplement pack – including ownership - as described under Special Guest Stars in the Benefits down below here.
! Boast to your grandkids of your personal and crucial backing of a game they’ll still be playing 30 years from now
The life projection of this game is extremely long. We firmly believe that Say Anything will be on wishlists into the next century. When will people stop being interested in words? Never.
We want to make 500 boxed sets of this game. The physical game is roughly the same size as a Trivial Pursuit package, and the individual expansion packs would be relatively small, consisting of additional word tiles and a small addition to the main board. The retail price of Say Anything is projected to be $49.95.
Our brand itself is one of the inestimable perks from this Kickstarter project that you will be able to smile and feel good about for as long as you live.
! A Fad with Legs
And who are we? Our lead is Jerice Bergstrom who has 2 patents and dozens of trademarks, inventions, innovations and copyrights. She’s run a platinum-record earning recording studio, an award-winning weekly humor magazine, and in 1983 she started America’s first Toybrary, the lending library of toys for adults and children. She’s got a proven record in bringing ideas to market and in innovating not just the game and toy industry.
So, we think we know what we’re doing – although everything, including this project includes learning. We have fairly thoroughly play-tested the board game, and now we need your backing to get to the next step.
In all, we are asking fellow Kickstarters to consider helping us meet our target of $8,850. If any additional money is raised it will go to making the product even better: bigger, available in other languages, more durable, and the PR campaign even more, er, wordy.
___________ Here's how to Help___________
Buddies, who bang us a buck, we are delighted you're involved, and we'll send you a lovely personalized “Shut Up” license to honor your forward thinking and helpful support and allow you to comfortably show the superiority you rightfully feel. After all, you are one of the very few who abides others when they Say Anything.
Friends, backers who provide $10, will be given a personal thank-you letter, signed by the team and including a really special sticker stolen by hand from our team’s youngest child’s overflowing collection and an invitation to the flashy product launching event. Mostly you will be able to feel good about helping a worthwhile project, and we sincerely thank you. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerice50/say-anything
Super Friends, backers who provide $100, will be offered a limited and numbered edition of the boxed game, each with the personalized letter from our team, complete with sticker, thanking you for your help. In addition to this, you’ll get a coupon for $10 to give to someone you love or maybe to someone who needs gentle assistance to enrich his or her verbal abilities. You are our primary supporters. You know a good idea when you see it and you want to be in on the ground floor. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerice50/say-anything
Best Friends, backers who provide $250, will be given the limited edition boxed game above, complete with letter, and will also get a really snazzy T-shirt that won’t embarrass you in front of your grandmother. In fact, it will, Say Anything. And, not only do you get the $10 coupon to pass on to anyone you like, you also get a high-quality poster. Most alluring of all perhaps is a supplemental word pack of your choice, and a credit in the official game rules acknowledgments section. You make shrewd investments and want proof of your clever foresight. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerice50/say-anything
Fan Club Members, backers who provide $750, will be given all the previously mentioned perks, but, instead of just the one expansion pack that Best Friends get, ALL original supplemental word packs will be included and your poster will be signed by the team members. Plus, we will write and perform an original song in your honor, possibly according to your specifications. Remember, Jerice Bergstrom used to run a professional recording studio! You think a great idea is only the beginning of an important involvement. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerice50/say-anything
Special Guest Stars, backers who provide $1250, will be provided everything the Fan Club Members get as well as a custom supplemental word pack that will include up to 50 words that you specify. With this option, you can truly Say Anything you want, and have it professionally printed and included in your game. Consider private or coined words, or words you use with just your family or friends, or maybe places, events, eras, schools, embarrassments, whatever you want. You may also give or offer-for-sale your supplement to others as it will be “owned” by you entirely, and only available through you (or us, if you so designate – where we will act as your agent and you collect royalties). Your words could say something that starts a rumor or perhaps a conversation that couldn’t happen another way. Just imagine… https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerice50/say-anything
Partners in Crime, backers who provide $3,500 or more, will get everything the Special Guest Stars receive as well as a lifetime subscription to all future expansion packs, and a work of original art straight from the crayon of the team’s youngest child. The original song written and performed in your honor will be delivered live at the location of your choosing* in person by Jerice Bergstrom’s children who may never forgive her or regain their dignity but have it coming, believe me. You will also receive a mysterious hunk of brass machinery, a box of which appeared in our garage one summer. Perhaps they are sections of industrial hinge, but their real functions have never been determined and their origins remain shrouded in the mists of time. Your piece of metal will make a marvelous paperweight or conversation-piece, and in the event you can figure out its true intention perhaps it will even prove useful. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerice50/say-anything
* Locations limited to the US mainland or any Ionian or Caribbean island - Zante is preferred
Go help fund this fun project.
Go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerice50/say-anything
