Dingbats (board game)

Dingbats is a puzzle and party board game built around rebus puzzles, in which a familiar word or phrase is hidden inside a cryptic arrangement of letters, symbols or pictures that the players must decode. It was devised by Paul Sellers in 1980 and first issued as a syndicated newspaper puzzle feature before being published as a standalone board game in 1987. The rebus format proved adaptable to newspapers around the world, and it was syndicated internationally under different regional names, including Whatzit in North America and Katch-Its in Australia, while the Dingbats name itself became a registered trademark in the United Kingdom and the European Union. In play, participants take turns presenting or solving these visual puzzles, with correct answers advancing a player around the board; the game rewards lateral thinking and familiarity with idiom over strategy or chance. A 1988 review in the gaming press praised the game's packaging and presentation while noting that the difficulty of individual puzzles could be inconsistent from one card to the next.