‘Pickles To Penguins’

So much of life has to do with making connections.

A meeting in the summer of 2008 between Westport’s Kevin Carroll, his daughter, Claire, and Norwalk game inventor Mary Ellroy has resulted in a fast-paced game called “Pickles to Penguins,” where participants shout similarities between objects as dissimilar as a sea conch and a cupcake so writes The Connecticut Post.

You just try to think up the relationship between the card you’re throwing down and the card in front of you,” said Ellroy, who has seen about a third of the 100 games she’s invented hit the market. “The idea is to get rid of your cards first.”

After a few brainstorming sessions, Kevin Carroll and Claire, 14, came up with the idea and name for Pickles to Penguins, Ellroy said.

“He went home and took it to the stratosphere,” said Ellroy, founder of inventor consulting firm Game Bird. “The moment I saw this game I knew it was a winner.”

Carroll said he met with Ellroy after telling business coach Jane Pollak about his idea for the game, which Adelaide, Australia-based Imagination Games began manufacturing a few months ago after several months of development.

The game, which uses cards with images on both sides and is for “ages 6 to 106,” also tests players’ confidence, because a connection can be shot down by another player, requiring the first to take back his card and grab three more, Carroll said.

Photo by Imagination Games.

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