Ellen Pfundt saw a flyer last year at The Elephant’s Tale that was advertising a National Young Game Inventors Contest. Pfundt thought it would be something fun and educational for her daughter, Greta, to try. The project turned out to be a lot of fun for Greta, a nine-year-old homeschool student, especially when she found out she was the winner.
Greta’s game, “Rhyme Time,” won the 2003 contest. The criteria for the contest was that the game must be a board game that reflected the whimsy, creativity and fun of Dr. Seuss in celebration of his 100th birthday this year. This was perfectly suited for Greta, who is a big Dr. Seuss fan and had done a literature project on his books.
“Rhyme Time” has players race up the middle of the board, while they play with rhyme cards or poet cards. An example of a rhyme card would feature the phrase, “One fish, two fish, red fish, (blank fish) and the player would need to find an appropriate rhyme to fill in the blank, though not the one from Seuss’ book. A poet card features three words such as “tree, three and bee” and the player would have to invent a poem using those words. Greta created 38 different cards and the staff at University Games created more after declaring “Rhyme Time” the winner.
“It was hard work to find good rhymes,” said Greta of the creation process, adding that Seuss’ book “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket,” which is filled with lots of nonsense words, was one of the hardest books to take rhymes from.
In addition to having her game made into a real game by University Games, Greta received a $10,000 savings bond, a trip to San Francisco for two adults and two children and an exciting game library from University Games. Greta and her family had a great time in San Francisco, where she was presented with the award. They got to see a production of “The Lion King,” attended a San Francisco Giants game, and toured Alcatraz.
Though her game will be introduced to the public this weekend, Greta has no plans to create more games any time in her immediate future. She is currently reading “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” and has also recently enjoyed reading books by Roald Dahl. Among her other interests are nature, dance and playing the mandolin and piano. Her advice for others who want to follow in her footsteps and create a game is to build off of something you like. For Greta, her favorite parts of the Dr. Seuss books were the weird and wacky rhymes and starting Saturday players of all ages can start rhyming too.
Greta will be at The Elephant’s Tale Saturday, Sept. 25, from noon-2 p.m. There will be a game giveaway and the public can play “Rhyme Time,” hot off the presses. There will also be information about this year’s National Young Game Inventors Contest available.
