Biography of a Board Game 227.5 - Twister

Ludology

• Episode: Biography of a Board Game 227.5 - Twister
• Website: Ludology
• Feed URL: http://ludology.libsyn.com/rss
• Duration: 00:11:33
• Published: 2020-06-21 18:00

Scott takes us through the twisted history of the classic game Twister. How did it overcome its risqué premise to become a perennial favorite?

Bibliography of a Board Game:

• Video - Twister was created 55 years ago
• Video - Ren Guyer: The Man Who Invented Twister & Nerf
• Video - Original Twister Commercial 
• Video - Twister Mania for Xbox 360 review
• Text - Ren Guyer's story of Twister from his official website
• Text - Twister on Board Games Galore Fandom Wikia
• Text - Patent information on Twister
• Book - Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them, by Tim Walsh

7m46: One interesting note is that Shuffle Twister's gameplay is similar to Bez Shahriari's independently-released In a Bind, but Shahriari released her game in 2015, one year earlier. In a Bind went on to be re-implemented by French publisher Gigamic as Yogi.

9m19s: To clarify, Monkey Auto Races wasn't #1 on the BGG Hot Games; as an April Fool's joke in 2007, a bunch of BGG users gave the game a high rating, and it was actually the #1 game on BGG for one day.