Frequently Asked Questions

Flibbix and Merillian FAQs

What is Flibbix?

Flibbix is a fun and innovative new board game that completely changes the way games are played. You get to easily build your own game board, make your rules, and pick the cards you want to play with. It's super easy. And every game is new, because you made it. Building doesn't have to stop once game play begins. The board is dynamic; you can change it—and even the rules—during the game to make things exciting.

Do I have to know anything about making a game?

No. The beauty of Flibbix is that it's really easy. If you want, you can write your own super-custom rules. But you can easily check off standard ones to get going quickly and easily. No experience necessary! Even better: you can experiment and change things around—so there's no danger of making a "bad" game. If it doesn't work perfectly, tweak it! You don't have to be a rocket scientist—but after a few games, you might just become a game design expert without even trying. The Flibbix Game Guide included with Flibbix has some great tips.

What ages is Flibbix for?

Flibbix is great for ages seven and up. It's perfect for the whole family since both kids and adults will have fun playing.

Do young kids need adults to help them play?

The seven year olds who play tested Flibbix were easily able to build and play a game on their own. Like almost every other game, it can can help (and be fun!) to have someone older play with you the first time. But the game is really intuitive—and there's no "wrong" way to play—so it's okay for kids just to have fun and experiment. Also, Flibbix cards, tiles, and Make your own Rule sheets use lots of pictures to make them understandable without always requiring a lot of words. Check out the fun Flibbix Card Matching Game to see this in action.

Will adults have fun playing Flibbix?

Sure. While Flibbix is designed to be fun for the whole family out of the box, there is plenty of room for customizing a game that is specifically targeted more for adults—with opportunities for fun, strategy, creativity, social interaction, and competition. The beauty of Flibbix is that you can customize the game to be anything you like. Choose or make rules and card actions that make the game fun and exciting for everyone playing. The Flibbix Game Guide that comes with Flibbix has recommendations on how to make the game both exciting and challenging for adults, even if they're playing without kids.

Is Flibbix Educational?

Flibbix isn't stuffy or boring like some of your old school textbooks may have been. But while you're having fun, you might accidentally learn something! There are a ton of great educational aspects to Flibbix. Here are just a few:

  • Teaches kinetic motor skills, logic, building, and strategic thought.
  • Encourages both planning and experimentation as you test to see how your creations work. Put a Move Ahead 5 tile five behind a Go Back 5 tile and you'll quickly learn it doesn't work. Next time, you can adjust how you build your game.
  • Cards and tiles teach math, memory skills, color matching, strategy, and more. With Custom Tile™, Custom Card™, and the Make your own Rules™ sheets, you can customize the challenge all the way from young children through adults.
  • Game board and rule building process exercises both left and right sides of the brain—especially encouraging creativity, invention, and critical thought.
  • Lots of great social aspects to the game: It can be collaborative and not just competitive. Two players can build a game board together, or one builds the board and the other the rules. There are a number of socially-focused cards which encourage players to interact, learn more about each other, and just have fun. Share your game design secrets and successes with friends or family. Collaborate on building the rules before the game and you won't have as many disagreements as the average game...if everyone agrees on the rules, it's easy to stick to them.
  • Encourages thinking outside the box. One of the most novel aspects of the game is that it gives the players so much choice in how they want to customize their game.

How about safety?

Merillian is strongly committed to safety. Flibbix has been tested and conforms to meet and exceed ASTM F963-07 (Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety) safety standard by independent test agency Intertek. Flibbix has also been tested Lead, Cadmium, and Phthalates Safe by Intertek, and even complies with the recent Washington State Safe Toys Act—one of the most strict toy safety regulations in the world. Flibbix contains a few common small game parts: a golf-style pencil, a standard six-sided die, and game pieces or pawns—like those used in many board games. Flibbix tiles use embedded magnets to connect tiles together in a way that's fun, flexible, intuitive, and easy. For added safety, Flibbix's magnets are injection molded inside a magnet-holding insert plug. These plugs are then sonically welded in multiple places inside Flibbix tiles for security. Flibbix isn't recommended for six and under, especially those three and under who might be prone to swallowing dice, pawns, pencils, or other small parts. Parents should use common sense and not let young children use any game, toy, or household or outdoor objects that they might try to swallow or somehow misuse.

A new way to get unplugged...

According to a 2006 CNN article titled "Are kids too plugged in?", kids today spend an average of 6.5 hours a day using electronic media. Many parents are reacting to this by looking for entertainment and recreation sources which are less “plugged in” than TV, video games, computers, and media players. However, video games, iPods, and the Internet offer a number of draws for kids that board games have failed to offer to date:

  • The ability to customize a product for your personality. We put music on our iPod that we like, decorate our Animal Crossing or Sims room the way we like, or customize a "Mii" on our Wii to look like us. Why shouldn't our board games be more customizable and personal?
  • Great replay value without becoming boring. Is that old board game just as fun the 15th time you play it as the 1st? Probably not, because the game hasn't changed at all and repetition gets old. Many video games can change depending on your choices or preferences. And your iPod is effectively "different" if you put a different mix of music or movies on it.
  • Innovation. iPods, cell phones, new video game consoles, and other "new" latest-n-greatest things are sometimes attractive because we admire the innovation that went into making something amazingly different than what came before. And we like the new features that gives us. When's the last time you admired the innovation in a board game? When's the last time a board game really revolutionized how games are made or played?

At Merillian, we're providing an alternative to being plugged in. But we think that it's important to really provide an alternative. Not to just say "no" to electronic media, but to provide all the benefits of personalization, customization, flexibility, innovation, and replayability in games and toys. Flibbix provides all these benefits without the drawbacks of electronic media. It also provides other important benefits, like opportunities for quality time with family or friends, social interaction, collaboration, developing motor and building skills, logic development, and encouraging creativity. It's definitely worth checking out Flibbix. We've seen kids who hate board games take to it like it's the latest video game.

How many games can I build with Flibbix?

The number is really only limited by your imagination. Flibbix comes with 50 double-sided Make your own Rules™ sheets, so you can create up to 100 unique sets of rules. And if you use up all your rule sheets, download extra ones for free from this site or use our online rule sheet form. You can create an almost infinite number of game board designs. When you mix and match rules and game board designs, the sky's the limit.

How can I get more Make your own Rules sheets?

First, don't forget that your filled-in rule sheets can be reused. If you made a set of rules that you like and that works well, save it. Use it later on the same game board design, or new ones. The same rules on a different game board design will play differently. If you still need more than 100 Build your own Rules™ sheets, you can download and print this free PDF Acrobat File (requires the free Adobe Reader software). Just print the rule sheet and cut or fold in half. Or, even better, use our new online Make your own Rules™ Form Make my own Board Game Rules. You can make your rules online and even save them for later or so you can send them to someone!

Flibbix Warranty Information

Flibbix (the Product) has a 90-day limited warranty. Product is warranted by Merillian, LLC to the original purchaser for a period of 90 days from the original purchase date for normal use and service against defective materials and workmanship. This warranty is void if the Product has been damaged by accident or unreasonable use, misuse, neglect, improper service, abuse, or other causes not arising out of defects in workmanship and materials. Merillian, LLC shall not be liable for consequential and/or incidental costs, damages, or expenses incurred by the purchaser. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not be applicable to you. If Product is found to be defective due to workmanship or materials during the warranty period, the Product or portions thereof may be either repaired or replaced with a reconditioned product—or components—or an equivalent value without charge to the purchaser when returned to the address below with 1) a dated sales receipt 2) an RMA number clearly written/printed on the shipping package and inside the package, and 3) prepaid return shipping. Purchaser must first obtain a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number before returning any parts or product to Merillian, LLC. To obtain an RMA number, contact Merillian, LLC using the contact information below. In the event that this game or game parts are replaced, the warranty on the replacement will be continued for 90 days from the date of repair or replacement. This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other legal rights which vary from state to state.

Customer Service
Merillian, LLC
RMA# xxxxxxxxx (insert the RMA you received from Merillian, LLC here)
PO BOX 207
Duvall, WA 98019
(425) 788-9955

What is Merillian all about?

We were looking for really fun and innovative games and toys, but had a hard time finding products that offered lasting entertainment. They were so cheaply made that they'd break soon after they were opened. Or, they'd get boring so quickly, the product would end up collecting dust on a shelf. Merillian comes from the words Million, Merry, and Millennium. Together, it means "lots of fun for a really long time." That's our mission— to make products for the whole family that provide instant fun and lasting enjoyment. With a quality product and great replay value, the product is still working and fun a long time from now. You can read more about Merillian and how we got started here, or check out the unplugged section above to see a bit more about how we're trying to bring lasting fun to friends and families.

Where did the Merillian and Flibbix names come from?

The name Merillian comes from the words Million, Merry, and Millennium. Together it means "lots of fun for a really, really long time." This fits Merillian's mission: to make products for the whole family that provide instant fun and lasting enjoyment. Merillian's products are easy to use, fun to play, have great replay value, and are built to last. Merillian is pronounced "Mur-il-yun." Sort of like the color vermillion.

Flibbix is a combination of the words Flip, Blend, and Mix: active words describing the crazy and fun way Flibbix is played. The upside-down "i" in the logo mirrors how Flibbix turns the board game idea on its head, and also how you flip tiles over in the game. It also happens to make an exclamation point (!), which represents the fun and surprise in Flibbix.

What is Merillian's environmental commitment?

We love playing indoors, but also are big outdoor play fans and are committed to doing our part to protect the world around us. We have made early decisions to reduce our environmental impact, including reducing packaging size from traditional, wide-format, game packaging. This reduces waste and the amount of energy required to make and distribute Flibbix. Also, Make your own Rules sheets are printed double-sided to give you plenty of rule sheets, while halving the amount of paper required. And, if you run out of rule sheet forms, you can use our free Online Make your own Rules form Make my own Board Game Rules. This not only saves you the time, money, and hassle of having to buy replacement rule sheet forms—it also saves paper, shipping, ink, and more.

Perhaps most importantly, we always strive to make products that will provide enjoyment and last for a long time instead of the "buy today, break tomorrow, throw away the day after" quality that is so common in toys and games today. This not only makes us all more happy, but significantly reduces waste. We're continuing to work on even more improvements to the way we live, work, and make products.

More about Merillian.com

We try our best to make Merillian.com as standards-friendly as possible to help ensure compatibility with multiple browsers, devices, and operating systems. If you have any any problems with the web site, let us know. We recommend you use the latest updated version of your browser available, whether you're using Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, or Google Chrome. For those of you interested in technical mumbo jumbo, pages on Merillian.com are W3C valid XHTML 1.0 Strict. CSS code is W3C Validated CSS. RSS from the Merillian Blog certified Valid RSS feed.

Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict[Valid RSS]

Technical Troubleshooting

Sometimes technology be a real challenge. If you're having problems accessing Merillian.com or any of our content, you can check here for fixes or known issues, or let us know if there's a problem you're seeing that's not covered here.

  • Flibbix Puzzler game doesn't work in Internet Explorer. It turns out to be a problem with the way that IE handles <table> and setAttribute tags. We won't get technical on you, but suffice it to say that you'll need to use Firefox, Opera, or Safari if you want to play Puzzler in Windows.
  • I'm not seeing any blog summaries on the Merillian Home Page in Internet Explorer—the section is blank. It's probably because your "Internet Protected" mode is set high and IE is not letting the Merillian page show you content from our Blog. Double-click the "Internet | Protected Mode" option at the bottom of your IE window. If you want to see blog entries on the Merillian home page, your "protected mode" setting can not be on the highest (most restricted) setting. The default setting works, but you might not see our blog entries if you've adjusted this to be higher than default.
  • I see a lot of blank white space below search results when searching Merillian.com. This appears to be a problem with the Google Custom Search Engine code since it uses a fixed-height iFrame. It won't hurt anything, and only seems to affect Safari and Opera (that we've seen), but it doesn't look as nice as it should. For now, just ignore it. We'll try to get a fix from them as soon as possible.

How to use Wallpapers or Desktop Pictures downloaded from Merillian.com

The Merillian Ideas/Fun Stuff page has "wallpapers" or "desktop pictures" that can be downloaded for use on your Mac or PC. To install them, you can use the same process as installing any other image on your computer. If you haven't done this before, here's how:

PC

  1. Click on the link for the wallpaper size that you want to use. The Flibbix wallpaper image should open in your browser.
  2. Right click the image and choose "Set as Background"
  3. If you see an alert stating "Are you sure you want to replace your desktop wallpaper?" click "Yes."

Mac OS X (version 10.5 and higher):

  1. Click on the link for the wallpaper size that you want to use. The Flibbix wallpaper image should open in your browser.
  2. Right click (or hold the CTRL key and click) the image and choose "Use Image as Desktop Picture"

Mac OS X (version 10.4.x and lower):

  1. Control-click or right-click the link for the image size you want and select "Download image to disk."
  2. Save the image to your desktop.
  3. Control-click or right-click your existing desktop picture and choose "Change Desktop Background" from the list.
  4. In the lower-left of the window that comes up, click the plus (+) icon.
  5. Click the Desktop icon on the left, and choose the Flibbix wallpaper image you downloaded.