In February 2006, I created a game call the Alphabet game. I was looking for a game to stimulate my creativity, but also challenge me to make balloon figures that I would never have made if left to my own accord.
One afternoon I was driving in the car and a local radio station was playing the “last letter” song. The radio DJ would play a song and the last letter of the Artist’s/band’s name would be the first letter of the next singer or band. The radio station encouraged listeners to call in songs and thus the listeners created the play list for the lunch time hour.
This was creative. I wondered if this would work with balloons. So, minutes later, I sat in front of my computer tapping away at the keys and in February 2006, the Balloon Alphabet Game started. It caught on very quickly and before I knew it the players established the rules. No double posting, no duplicate animals, object should be newly made – no stock photos, no mythical animals, only animals – not objects – and penalties were established. Some 245 designs were created.
In February 2013, some seven years later I have started the game again. Many of the rules are the same, no double posting, no duplicates, 1-2 stock photos could be posted, but we would prefer newly created images, and objects are allowed in this game. This has added another dimension to the game.
Unlike the first game which was played by subscribers of the mbd2.com forum, this game is being played in a Facebook Group. The group has produced over 100 images and both images and membership are growing.
Like in the first game, there are many people sitting on the sidelines watching, admiring, and dreaming up new designs. It does not matter what skill level the player has, the goal is to challenge yourself. I never made a Ukulele in my life, but I did for the game. Oh, by the way, “U” was already played, so I could not post it. The Ukulele picture has been sitting on my computer’s desktop for going on two weeks now, so I am using it for this blog posting.