We’ve gotten a lot of requests for a Flibbix intro/demo movie. We think you’re onto a great idea, so we took your advise and made one. Flibbix is an amazingly fun game, and we’d like to see more people experience the joy of making a game that’s perfect for them. It’s such a revolutionary new idea that it helps for people to visually see how it works to really “get” the concept. So we finally got that intro video posted. You can find a YouTube version here…

…or you can view it in higher quality QuickTime format. Click the images below for a medium-size movie (7.6MB) or a large (17MB) high-def movie that show you how to build a board game (or make a board game) with Flibbix—and what all the buzz is about.

Ever wondered how to make a board game? It’s easier than you think to make a game, or build a board game. All you need is Flibbix™ and a sense of fun. You could also try making a game by drawing on paper or cardboard, but it’s tough to make one that plays well. You’re also stuck with one design and won’t be able to “tweak” or improve game play since it’s set in stone (well, drawn on paper).

Flibbix is a better option for most people. It’s easier, more flexible, and a lot more fun. If you’re looking for a super quick intro, the How to Play Flibbix page shows you in a few seconds how to build and play your own board game.

The Game Guide and How to Play sheet that come with Flibbix are great "how-to" resources, but for those who don’t yet have Flibbix, here’s more detail on how you make your own game. We’ll start with building your own custom game board and will follow up with later posts on making rules and playing.

Building your game board…

Flibbix tiles are big and easy to use. Each tile has two magnets embedded inside. Magnets are injection molded inside tile inserts, and tiles are sonic-welded for extra safety.

Just put two tiles near each other so the red and green sides of the tiles are near each other and tiles will pull together and connect with a satisfying "snap."

How do I design my own game board? Well, you can just experiment with Flibbix since you can always rearrange your game board tiles later, but it’s also fun to plan out your game while you’re building it. You probably don’t want to put a Move Ahead 5 tile five behind a Move Back 5 tile, or you’ll end up getting players stuck.

Tiles are double-sided, so you get to choose which side to face up. Do you like to have lots of tiles that move players forward (like Fast Lane™, Move Ahead, Extra Turn), slow things down (Slow Lane™, Move Back, Lose a Turn), or a mixture? Usually, tiles have opposite actions on opposite sides of the tile, like Extra Turn on the opposite side of Lose a Turn, or Move Ahead vs. Move Back.

There are tiles that let you mix up the game board while you’re playing (Tile Swap™, Tile Flip™, Super Swap™, Super Flip™). Some tiles move you from place to place (Switch with Opponent, Jump to Red, Jump to Green). Some tiles let you draw Flibbix cards, and there’s even a Custom Tile™, which can be whatever you want it to be. More on that next week

You can choose the shape of your game, too…a rectangle, zig zag, letter-shape, straight line…whatever you want. There are ideas on the Board Blender page. Build a game board on the floor, a table, wherever.

You can turn the direction of your game left or right using turn tiles. Just flip over a turn tile to choose which way it sends game play.

Basically, it’s super easy to build your first board game with Flibbix, and it only takes a few minutes. Over time, you’ll learn fun tricks to make your games more challenging, exciting, or crazy. Every player (and group of players) is different, so you’ll end up with games that are as unique as the mix of people playing the game.

So, who makes the game? Usually, all of the players collaborate on building a game board the way they like, but you can designate one "builder" if you prefer. You can also deal out tiles to all players (like playing cards) and let people take turns placing the tiles they’ve been given. Or, to make things more random, you can shuffle and stack tiles, and place them in the order they’re drawn. There are as many ways to build Flibbix game boards as there are possible Flibbix game board designs.

In our next post, we cover rules. Making your own Flibbix rules is as easy as building your own game board, thanks to the Flibbix Make your own Rules™ sheets.

It was our first year exhibiting at Toy Fair New York, but we had tons of people come through the booth and made some great friends and contacts. It was definitely a worthwhile show.

We wanted to show the Merillian booth during the show when it was busy, but we had our hands full demoing Flibbix and talking to buyers and press. Too hard to break away and capture photos. So…here’s a shot of the booth before the show opens when it’s nice and quiet.