Match 5 Story

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I always liked lists. I like the idea of writing down or discussing my favorite movies or athletes or almost anything. Sometime during the 90's I got the idea to make up questions or topics for people to give their top 5 answers on different subjects.The first "question" or game card subject I ever thought up was "Name the top 5 airlines of all time." Then I thought of a few more. Then I did nothing about it for over a decade. 

My wife and I had two boys in the 1990's and went about our lives. I never entertained the idea of actually making our own game back then. We played many board games and card games over the years. We played Pictionary, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit, and Yahtzee just to name a few. We enjoyed all of the games, but I particularly liked Trivial Pursuit because I like answering trivia-type questions. The main problem with that game is the degree of difficulty. I felt that many of the questions in that game are very hard to answer. It crossed my mind that I could put together fun and interesting questions that would be more suitable for the average person.

Some time during the 2000's I began to think of more questions. I would think of them while driving alone and write them down. My wife Holly, and my sons, Brian and Joey would come up with new questions when we were all on car trips together. Sometimes, I would think of them in the middle of the night and try to remember them in the morning. Pretty soon we had 100 questions. Then we had 200. I would type them out on the computer and print out the sheets, but it never went any further.

Around 2010, we had over 200 questions and I decided to type them out on index cards and make a game that we could play with friends and family. "Top 5 Trivia" was born. My original idea was for each player to have a partner with whom they would try to match answers. I told Holly about the format of the game and she asked why I wanted to have partners to match. She suggested that you just have a lead player to match. As it turns out, she was right. Having a partner to match is a more difficult way to play, and it forces you to have an even number of players. Not to mention, people may not be satisfied with the skills of their partner. She also suggested that we change the name to "Match 5." Since I have been somewhat inspired by my favorite game show (Match Game from the 70's), I liked the name change as well.

For close to ten years, we continued to play the game and it was very popular among the people with whom we shared it. We tweaked the rules here and there and kept playing the game. Our question count was now at over 300. People would tell me how good the game was and asked me why I don't market it. I would say that it would be a long shot to succeed and that I was not interested. The truth was that I had tried a few other creative projects that did not succeed for one reason or another and I was just done with that type of nonsense.

In 2019, the game was getting ragged from all the play and also because standard index cards don't hold up very well. I decided to make new cards and somewhere during the process, I said to myself, "Why not?" Since that time, we have been hard at work developing and marketing the game. Match 5 is professionally manufactured and of very high quality construction.

The photos above show the game as it progressed from initial ideas to our homemade prototype to the finished product. We successfully funded our Kickstarter Campaign and Match 5 Trivia Game is now available! Stay tuned for updates and get ready for Match 5 Trivia Game!

- Clark St. John