Family wants to make you a regular player of ‘It’s Not Poop’ card game

By Rett Nelson

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    IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (eastidahonews.com) — A local family is hoping to see their messy concept for a new card game become a reality.

On Friday, Caleb and Marci Dimick of Shelley launched a Kickstarter campaign for a game called “It’s Not Poop,” and it’s garnered more than $2,500, as of Tuesday morning.

Conor Mason with Porter Pro Media, who is helping the family market the game, tells EastIdahoNews.com the premise is a simple guessing game with two types of cards — T.P. (toilet paper) cards and poop cards.

“The T.P. cards (have images of) really simple, everyday items like a car, book, coconut, and the poop cards are gross, icky things. What you’re supposed to do is draw three of each. You take one of the T.P. cards and describe it in a way (that sounds like something on) one of the gross cards,” Mason says.

The idea is to throw off the other players by making it sound like something it isn’t.

The goal of the Kickstarter campaign is to raise $12,000 so that it can ultimately be mass-produced and sold in stores nationwide.

Caleb explains the idea for the game came while he was on his way home from a cross country skiing trip in Island Park with his 12-year-old son, Kai, who was bored in the car with nothing to do.

“I’m thinking, What are we going to do? I need to keep (him) occupied,” Caleb recalls. “So I thought, what would make him laugh? Well, poop makes him laugh.”

He started describing a stick to his son, with clues like, “It’s long and brown and can be different shapes,” with the overarching clue, “It’s not poop.”

“I said, ‘You can throw it at your sister,’ and he laughed,” says Caleb. “He’s like, ‘Dad, it’s totally poop!’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s not.’”

It all made sense when Caleb finally revealed he was describing a stick.

They played it again for several more rounds, using different words each time. When they were nearly home, Caleb told his son he thought this concept might make a good board game.

“He said, ‘Dad, is this just going to be another one of our ideas that we don’t do anything about?’” Caleb remembers Kai asking. “That was so inspiring to me and I was going to prove this kid wrong and not let this die.”

Over the next several months, it became a family project. Each family member contributed their own ideas and they’d even invite people over to play the game they’d created. A prototype was complete in June and Caleb approached Porter Pro Media to help market it.

“My favorite part about this is the fact that we have done this as a family,” he says. “So many times we would gather around our kitchen table … to have discussions about the game. We started figuring out how we play and how this works. My 14-year-old daughter (Mattea) is a good artist and she sketched out the design for our box.”

As he’s researched the gaming industry, Caleb says it’s been surprising to learn how passionate many people are about playing board games and he’s already thinking of developing another game with a similar premise called, “It’s not a Monster.”

Caleb says several friends have asked how he was able to develop a board game. With so much information available in this day and age, Caleb says creating something and getting it out there is something anyone can do and he’s encouraging people to make their dreams a reality.

“I think it’s our fear of failure that holds us back. It’s unfortunate that our culture makes a really big deal about people’s failings. I think it’s an achievement when we go after a goal,” he says. “Even if we fail at this campaign, we’ve still gained so much by going through the process.”

The Kickstarter campaign for “It’s Not Poop” will remain active for another 34 days. Caleb is asking for your support. Click here to donate.

Our attorneys tell us we need to put this disclaimer in stories involving fundraisers: EastIdahoNews.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries.

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