Family Fun Doesn't Mean Spending Mega Bucks

As more families live paycheck to paycheck, many are forgoing expensive nights on the town and bonding over game nights instead. 

"I think game nights at home, and playing with the family has become more popular," said Susan McKinley Ross, a Petaluma resident who owns a game company called Idea Duck, which she started in 2002. "There's a push to introduce more games to the American market."

One of Ross's creations is Qwirkle, listed as the highest selling board game on Amazon.com and sold in 25 countries.

Though classified as a board game, Qwirkle uses 108 wooden tiles to connect lines of various colors and shapes. The game was so popular, a sequel was created. Qwirkle Cubes follows the same play guidelines, but allows users to improve their hand by rolling the cubes to receive better pieces. 

As someone who has spent many nights participating in board games with her family, Ross wanted to create something that everyone could enjoy.

"I'm just delighted with the visual appeal of my games," she said. "I try to make games that parents and children and grandparents can all enjoy together. They're easy enough for kids to learn but interesting enough for the adults to play."

Ross and her husband Chris run the company out of their home in East Petaluma.  Neither studied marketing or design, but when a call for toy ideas came from the company Susan worked at, she knew she wanted to contribute.

"Once a year they put out a call for toy ideas. They asked if anyone in the company had any toy ideas. I was amazed that if I thought up something they might turn it into a toy" she said. "I was so thrilled. I had about a month and it was all I could think about."

Out of 200 ideas Ross pitched, several, including the Decorate a Great Snowman Kit, were produced.  This was the first toy licensed by Idea Duck and since then Ross has continued to produce over 30 games, kits and toys with many more promising ideas to come. 

Her latest game, Skippity, is a modern-day take on Checkers, which starts out with players who have no pieces of their own. Using any piece of the board, players make straight-line leaps in any direction they choose in order to collect one piece of each color creating a set. The player with the most sets wins.  

The rest of Ross's games have rules that are just as simple, injecting tactic and cunning decision as the players become more skilled at the game. 

"There's not a huge barrier to learning the games, which is what I want," Ross said. "I want people to play it without stressing too much about the rules."

Ross will unveil two more of her games at New York's Toy Fair in February and Skippity will officially be launched into the retail market. Her husband, Chris, will also release his first game at that time, though she won't give any details until then. Until then, she will begin prototypes to pitch to manufacturers at the event.