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Flat Acting is a creative, strategic board game for two
to five players. It's recommended for ages 8 and up, and game play
takes 30 to 45 minutes. I played the game with my 11, 10, and 8-year-old
sons, and my 6-year-old was on a team with me.
To begin game play, the four game board pieces are arranged. These
pieces can be set up in different ways, so the game board can look
different to vary game play. Each player then draws a genre card;
the four genres are western, scary, romance, and detective. If
a fifth person plays, the movie crew is added in. The genre card
does not dictate the kind of movie you must write; it is only used
for scoring purposes. After each player has a genre, it's time
to begin. There are 50 actors, or game pieces, and to play Flat
Acting, a player draws a movie card. The movie cards tells
the player which actor to place on the game board, and as the actor
is placed on the board the player must explain why they are placing
the actor there. This reason can be a continuation of a story line,
a one-line joke, or some other reason. At the end of the game,
points are awarded for different sections of the game board, and
the player with the most points wins.
After about 10 minutes of game play, my oldest son asked me if
Flat Acting "was for fun or was it supposed to be educational." I
asked him what he thought, and he told me that it was a lot of
fun, but it seemed like it might be educational as well. My other
sons agreed with his assessment, as did I. This game promotes creative
thinking and storytelling, as well as strategic thinking, since
you are trying to get your actors to the highest scoring parts
of the game board so you can win. We really had fun developing
the movie story line, and I love that the game encourages creative "writing" in
an informal, fun context. I described the basic game play above,
but 9 additional ways to play the game are also included. This
game can be played again and again, changing every time. At $29.95,
it's a great value, and I highly recommend it.
Product review by Courtney Larson, The
Old Schoolhouse® Magazine,
LLC, October 2010
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