'The Ladybug Game' 'The Ladybug Game' (October 01, 2004)

Smiley Kylie's board game is a winner
by Cathy Jetter

Move over, Milton Bradley! Take a hike, Hasbro! Pleasanton has the game world's latest competitor, and she is looking for shelf space. Of course, since she's just 51 inches tall, the lower shelves would be best, please.

Kylie Copenhagen, known to friends as "Smiley Kylie," was 6 years old when she began the first-grade science project she calls "The Ladybug Game."

"I chose ladybugs because they are the coolest bugs around," says Kylie, now 9, flashing her trademark grin. "I learned a lot of facts when I studied about ladybugs, and I thought a game would be a fun way to share them with my class."

Her class loved the game, as did Barnes and Noble Bookstores, which recently purchased 5,000 "Ladybug Games" for distribution in their stores. Thanks to Kylie, gamesters between the ages of 3 and 7 will soon be experts on the lifestyles of ladybugs.

Kylie's parents, Shawn and Dan, say the enthusiasm that Kylie's sister, Anna, and neighborhood friends had for "The Ladybug Game" really caught their attention.

"Long after the project had been turned in," says Shawn, "the kids were making new pieces as the old ones fell apart." They repeatedly found themselves saying, "This could be a real game." Then they asked each other, "Why not try?"

With one phone call, the dice were rolled and pieces were in motion. Randy Horn, a family friend and president of the game manufacturing company Zobmondo!! Entertainment, put the Copenhagens on the path to production.

"Randy thought it sounded like a good concept," says Dan. "He made sure there were no other games about ladybugs, started copyright procedures and sent us graphics of bugs for Kylie's approval."

Dan and Kylie headed to Los Angeles for a business meeting where Kylie and Randy played the game together.

"I wanted to see how the game was played from Kylie's perspective," says Randy. "I was already impressed by the model; very few ideas are submitted in such a complete format. That it was developed by a 6-year-old is amazing."

Randy adds that Kylie was excited to learn a new business term: royalties. "That," says Kylie, with a smile, "means I get a little money every time someone buys my game."

But before the cash registers could start to ring, they had to get ready to take the game to market. "Randy said we needed to take the game to a toy show where people who buy games could see it," explains Kylie.

"Before they could make the game, there were a couple of things we had to take care of," she adds.

First, Kylie needed to write a story about the game.

"A story brings the characters to life," says Shawn. "When a game is directed at such a young age group, it helps to make them feel as if they are playing with friends." Because the game is for younger players, it also needed to be constructed so that reading would not be a required skill for playing.

Pleasanton author Amy Moellering was enlisted to help Kylie tell the tale of how four ladybug friends, blown from the safety of their rosebushes, conquer the Mighty Mantis and safely return from their adventures across the garden.

"I had fun writing the story with Amy," says Kylie. "She taught me about choosing words and being descriptive, to make my story fun to read."

Kylie turned to another expert for help on creating a "reading free" game. "The best teacher in the world," says Kylie without hesitation. "She's the one who made me do this project."

Laura Ditto, who teaches in Walnut Grove Elementary's Discovery Program, was happy to assist her former student. They worked to use color, arrows and other visual clues to make the game fun for children not yet ready to read.

Even when all that had been accomplished, there were still big decisions to be made. The road to game fame is filled with chutes and ladders, and Kylie learned a lot of lessons about real life while compromising with grown-ups who are used to having a monopoly on decision-making.

Take player color, for example. "They made me change Gary Green to Tommy Teal," says Kylie. "I tried to tell them kids don't even know what color teal is. But my mom said that it was OK, because then the players would be learning a new color."

Kylie did retain executive control over most other details of her game. "We were lucky," Shawn points out. "Most times the game rights are purchased and the artist loses control from that point. But Kylie got to have input through every step."

That included using a pile of cards to draw from rather than a spinner to direct the game. "I told them spinners always break," Kylie says. "I wanted my game to last a long time."

When the prototype was finally in her hands, Kylie discovered a major problem. "They had the game board going the wrong direction," she explains. "It needed to go from start to finish in the same direction that you read. They had it going the other way."

Once that flaw was corrected, "The Ladybug Game" was flying to New York. After nearly three years of work, there was nothing left to do but wait.

"I was so happy when Randy told us that (Barnes and Noble) had bought my game," remembers Kylie. "I called all my friends and told them my 'Ladybug Game' was going to be in stores."

Before long the word was out, and everyone was anxious to add "The Ladybug Game" to the family collection. It can be purchased online at www.theladybuggame.com. Also, local stores invited the ladybugs to land on their shelves.

"When G.R. Doodlebug said they wanted my game in their stores, I was so excited," says Kylie. "I can ride my bike downtown and see it."

When asked if she has any new game ideas ready to go, Kylie says not right now. That should let Parker Brothers sleep a little easier at night. At least until the fourth-grade mission project gets assigned.
Game trivia

Questions:

1. What depression-era game was originally turned down by Parker Brothers for having 52 "design flaws" yet went on to become the best selling board game of all time?

2. What board game was originally called "Draughts"?

3. What board game did Time Magazine call "the biggest phenomenon in game history"?

4. What American game is actually a version of the Indian game Parcheesi?

5. What modern children's game is based on the ancient game of Snakes and Ladders?

6. What game did Johnny Carson play with Eva Gabor on the Tonight Show?

7. Originally called Lexico, what board game is now known by a word meaning "to grope frantically"?

8. In the game of "Clue," who would Miss Scarlett kill, in the conservatory, with a candlestick?

Answers: (1) Monopoly (2) Checkers (3) Trivial Pursuit (4) Sorry! (5) Chutes and Ladders (6)Twister (7) Scrabble (8) Mr. Boddy

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