ICv2 met up with Tom Donelan, president of Heartland Consumer Products, at Toy Fair to discuss its hit dice game Square Shooters. The card-themed dice have proven to be a big success: Donelan reports that Heartland has sold over 50,000 copies in the first year.
Donelan describes the dice:
“What we’ve got is a full deck of playing cards printed on nine dice. The inventor knew that… you actually had to be able to use the dice to play card games. In fact, the two most popular card games are poker and rummy, and both games actually depend on the same thing: you need to be able to achieve a four of a kind, and you need to be able to achieve a straight flush, or in rummy a rummy run. Any time you roll all nine dice, for every rank, all four cards are always on a separate die. But what’s remarkable is that there are 40 straight flush combinations. And whenever you can choose any range of five cards of the same suit, you’ll find that they are always on a separate die.”
In addition to their usability as poker or rummy dice, Heartland also includes their own game, designed to feature the dice. Donelan explains the play of the game:
“In our game, instead of looking at a score pad, or shooting for standard hands, you’re turning a game card that’s giving you an assignment. It’s telling you to get a full house, or a flush, or a royal flush. You have three rolls of the dice to collect the hand. And you have a choice to make: you can get any full house, for instance, and you win some chips. Or you can get the exact hand that’s printed on the card and win twice the chips. So, with every roll, you’re deciding what to keep, and whether you’re going to be greedy or take what fate is giving you.”
The dice game is suitable for children and adults, with an age range of eight and up. It plays in about 20 to 30 minutes.
Both versions are available to the game trade exclusively through ACD, Heartland’s “preferred” distributor.