history
How did the idea of Synapse come about?
The idea for Synapse was first introduced to Carol in the 1980s. At a family reunion, her sister taught a group game which didn’t even have a name. It was played by one team member guessing a word for which the other members of the team gave a clue sentence. The catch was that each person could only add one word at a time to the sentence. Carol was fascinated with the concept and added this game idea to her “Party Game” file. Over the years she pulled it out for various groups and occasions, sometimes calling it the “Sentence Game” or “Chain Definitions.” At Disney World, Carol saw the same concept used at a children’s exhibit where two heads stuck out of a “talking machine” to answer children’s science questions. The clever answers formed by each person adding only one word to the sentences were very entertaining.
At a 2003 New Year’s Day party, Carol suggested “Chain Definitions” to cap off an evening of games with friends. Unfortunately, it flopped! The next evening, while playing Sequence with her family, the topic of the game’s inventor, Doug Reuter, came up. He was a family friend of Carol’s sister. After finishing that game, Carol said, “Could we try a game that flopped last night?” It turned out much better this time with requests to play more rounds. After the last round, someone said, “That was fun! You should try to market this game!” That struck a chord with Carol.
First she contacted Doug Reuter whose best advice was to field test the game until all the kinks were worked out. Over the next nine months, over one hundred people field-tested the game. Her husband came up with the name “Synapse” and her son thought of the tagline “Teamwork at the Speed of Laughter.” Word lists were drawn up, categories were added and rules evolved. When she thought the game was market ready, she contacted the company Doug had used for Sequence. They, along with the other game companies Carol contacted, were not interested in her game. She quickly learned that game companies have their own professional game designers. After researching the problem on the Internet, she found a site that encouraged individuals who had a great idea to market the game themselves. So she made the decision to go it alone. Little did she know that it would be five years before production would start.
The biggest problem was an inadequate game timer. Another game inventor introduced her to the design team who developed a unique timer that has become the centerpiece of the game. A final contact with OPS America was the solution to getting the game manufactured in China and shipped back to the little town of New Ulm, Minnesota, where the idea for marketing Synapse first began.
Synapse. Teamwork at the speed of laughter
Synapse is a high-spirited game of teamwork and laughter. Form a sentence to get your team's Guesser to say a word. The Guesser has 60 seconds to get the answer... the faster you answer, the more points you score. Sound easy? The catch is that team members must take turns adding one word to the sentence without consulting each other. Your synapses might not match your neighbor's. That's when the hilarity begins! Be ready for surprised looks, unusual sentence structure and outbursts of laughter as connections are made... or not! Once you start, you won't want to stop!
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