Designer Diary: Sticky Stickz – Roll, Match, Stick!

For almost two years, I was an English teacher at various schools in Seoul, South Korea. It's a pretty decent job overall, but a bit unstable. I say this because about a month ago, while at school preparing for class, the boss came into my room and said, "We're sorry, Don, but the school has canceled the contract with our company, so we have to let you go at the end of the month."

"Great."

In Korea, you either find a new job quickly or find a ticket home, so I started making calls. Luckily enough, thanks to The Resistance and kind Koreans, I'd made friends with various game designers and publishers such as KJ Lee, president of Happy Baobab. I’d been visiting their office for the last few months, testing ideas and providing feedback. It was going well, so I went out on a limb and asked, "Do you want to work together?"

"Great!"

Thus began a life shift, and now I'm really in the game industry. In the last month I've been learning all about their products, and I'm excited to write about their new game, Sticky Stickz, a dexterity and set-matching game for children and adults that's very fun. In the box you'll find a tray full of tiles with nine varieties of silly faces, depending on color, number, and face. You’ll also find dice to match the types. Once ready, all players pick up the dice and their sticks, then:

Roll, match, stick!

That's the logo, and we think it explains the game pretty well. After rolling the three dice, your goal is to match the symbols shown to the tiles in the tray, then stick them and make stacks as fast as you can. Once they're all stuck, roll again. You’d be surprised how exciting it can be, especially with the wild tiles and the extra dizzy face in the advanced rules. We've played the game with all ages, even the busy photographers who took the box images, and they all had a great time. At the end of the game, the player with the tallest stack wins. Games usually take about ten minutes, and playing two or three times in a row is not uncommon. Check out this vid for game play:

So where did the game come from? Sticky Stickz is a collaborative office design, but lead credit would go to Dave Choi, head designer. He and KJ wanted to give kids a fun, easy-to-set-up, pattern-matching game with a twist. That twist came in the combination of the dice, tiles, and especially the Sticky Sticks. Plenty of games use these, but whereas some games provide only one "solution" for players to find, Sticky Stickz usually has many. Everyone can be jumping into the board at once, searching for all the matching "double red happy faces" to stick before anyone else does!

So we had the design, including basic and advanced versions for diverse players, wild tiles for more excitement, and a handicap system for skilled players. Cool. Game design done, art design begins. What should the tiles look like? We played with lots of different images, considered fancy faces and many colors. We even looked at an "early bird catches the worm" theme, but after testing we found that simple faces and colors helped players connect and stick the tiles the fastest. Game play was most important, so simple faces it was. Then came the box cover, which went from the themed version to darker neon to the colorful, clearer box image above. We feel both convey the simple premise and excitement of the game.

After that comes manufacturing – but I can't say much because it was accomplished by my hardworking peers, whereas I sat happily translating documents and dreaming on design.

Overall, I'm glad to be working in the field I've thought about so long, and thrilled that I get to introduce Happy Baobab's Sticky Stickz at its Spiel 2011 debut this year. You can find us in the Korean pavilion, booth 4-102. We'll have lots of fun demoing the game, free copies to give away, and even a competition to beat my boss KJ, the Happy Baobab herself. I'll also be happy to talk about The Resistance with anyone who comes by, and I hope you'll let me show you this great game as well. Cheers!

Don Eskridge