SU graduate student creates 50 Worst Dates card game
Prince Dudley | Staff Photographer
Kyle Ott first demonstrated the game 50 Worst Dates at a local convention in November.
Kyle Ott is developing a party game with spunk.
50 Worst Dates is similar to fan-favorites Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples, except the goal is to combine varying traits and situations for the most heinous date possible. One person could be dating a greasy road trucker who lives with his mom, while another could be dating a “douche-y frat guy” who cries during sex, he said.
“Everyone has bad dates. Everyone can laugh at themselves. Why is no one jumping on this?” Ott, a graduate student studying television, radio and film, said about his game.
The game is now being promoted on KickStarter, but it had humble beginnings. Ott started creating the game in August 2015 after he spent back-to-back weekends playing board games with friends.
“It was 2 o’clock in the morning, I had a piece of paper nearby and a stump of a pencil, and I was like, ’50 Worst Dates … two decks …’ and then I crashed,” he said.
Ott first demonstrated the game at a local convention in November after Sean Branagan, director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, said he felt confident the game could be successful. The first prototype started out as a bunch of index cards and magic markers, Ott said.
“I made the game on bus rides to and from class,” he added. “It was terrible, it was awful, but it worked.”
Now that the startup is on Kickstarter, Ott said he hopes it’ll continue to gain popularity, allowing it to be the game that “lets (him) keep making games.”
Ott joined the game business by chance after working as a freelance writer for card and board game companies, and as a website staff writer while getting his undergraduate degree at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland. The English and history major was content enough with being able to afford guacamole with his Chipotle.
“That’s where I got my start,” Ott said, adding that he never thought he’d be in Syracuse or even making board games. “But clearly something worked out, and I’m loving it.”
Published on January 31, 2016 at 9:40 pm
Contact: ghhughes@syr.edu
