Mingle Word-Roulette is a game more than 35 years in the making.

It all started when Tony Aceti, 51, was a child. Today he owns Hay Depot, a local hay distributor, in Bend. Aceti’s mother, Rose Aceti, developed a word game based on a roulette wheel that had letters rather than numbers. Players used the selected letters to form words.

Through the years, Aceti altered the game for playability; it now includes four balls that roll around the roulette wheel and select both a consonant and a vowel that have points. The game is offered in two versions: the Home and School Edition for $27.95 and the Classic Deluxe Edition for $29.95.

In the 1970s, Tony Aceti was a typical child who enjoyed playing outdoors and building projects at his home in Silver Lake, about 80 miles southeast of Bend. The game was originally designed by his mother as a fun educational tool.

“She needed to motivate me to be interested in spelling and words,” he said.

They played the game together during Aceti’s youth. She died in 1981 from breast cancer, with one last request.

“Her last dying words to me, and this is literal, were, ‘Anthony, you have to finish the game and carry it through.’ I still get chills thinking about it,” Aceti said.

Slow start

A few years after his mother’s death, Aceti made the first attempt at selling the game. He made a prototype, got it copyrighted, made black and white brochures, and took it to local schools. A radio station based in Kah-Nee-Ta used it as a game that listeners also played and the winner received a prize. Aceti also pitched the product to Fred Meyer in Portland, but the company requested too much money from him for a marketing campaign.

At the time, the challenges were too much for Aceti to overcome.

“You have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them,” he said.

Mingle had some initial success, but the business was not making enough money to prove viable, even though it was more than just about profit.

“It wasn’t about the money. I had a family dream to carry through,” Aceti said.

The initial investment of creating a prototype of a game or toy can be a hard challenge for inventors, said Mark Burginger, local inventor of the educational toy Qubits.

“The starting cost is hard,” Burginger said. “You have to put together a pretty good inventory, and once you do that you spend a lot of money on it, and that’s just the venture part of what you are doing. You have to say to yourself, ‘Is it worth it to me to spend this money just to see if it will sell?’”

Aceti ran into similar obstacles in the 1980s.

“The biggest problem, and the biggest problem for most investors who try to do something themselves, is the cost.”

Aceti started Hay Depot in 1995, but the game was always in the back of his mind.

“In my mind, I never gave up on it,” he said. “I would always think how I could have it more playable and reach a broader audience.”

Aceti recently dealt himself another hand, with the help of marketing on the Internet that was not available in the 1980s.

“It’s a great possibility of what the Internet can do,” he said. People can purchase the game both locally and around the world, he said.

Aceti, who started using the Internet four months ago, now has a Web page for Mingle Word-Roulette. He started packaging the game again last December, with many pieces he had stored from his first effort. The game, as of last month, is available at Di Lusso Bakery Cafe in downtown Bend, Jackson’s Corner in Bend, on consignment at the Tumalo Store and at www.minglegame.com. Sample games also are available to play at the Bend locations.

Barbara Mitchell, 62, bought the game and plays it with her daughter and grandchildren. She grew up in a family that played games that helped with future math and spelling skills. Her family continues the tradition, with the new addition of Mingle.

“That’s the coolest thing about the game — is that you can play it at any level you want. You can play it at the child’s level, and you can play it at the adult level, so that makes it very educational,” Mitchell said.

The game has something for everybody and all ages, according to Amy Berggren, 38, teacher for the Oregon Connections Academy. Even her 4-year-old enjoys learning letters and watching the ball spin in the roulette wheel. Berggren also has plans to use the game for her classes held online.

Mingle is even on its way to Iraq with John Roskowski, 53. Roskowski and his wife, Deb Roskowski, 51, played Mingle during a game night with friends. John Roskowski was deployed the beginning of May and is training in Georgia.

“They just have to pack up things they think they might use,” Deb Roskowski said. “I’m sure people take pictures and tape players and things like that, and we thought this might be more fun because it’s not just a deck of cards.”

Focus on marketing

New steps to market the game have been a focus for Aceti. Other than the Internet, he is placing inside the game $2 coupons for food or drinks at the two Bend businesses and giving them out at events.

“If they buy a game, I would like to show my appreciation, and my appreciation to the local stores,” he said.

Other marketing efforts include appearances at the Central Oregon Saturday Market in Bend this summer. A game night for Mingle also was held Wednesday at Jackson’s Corner Market.

Business for Hay Depot decreased a few years ago due to the economy and local competition, Aceti said. Even though it was negative for the business, it gave him time to think about the game again and make alterations to its playability.

“I like to make lemonade out of lemons,” Aceti said, which included “being able to pursue getting the Mingle game out … at a time that was probably right for me.”

And the time might be right for Aceti to introduce his game. Board game sales in the United States rose 6 percent in 2008 while toy sales decreased 3 percent, according to The NDP Group Inc. and a report on bloomberg.com.

Success for a product can depend on many variables, though, Burginger says.

“It’s due to everything, really,” the Qubits creator said about the success of a new game or toy. “It’s the economy now, the product itself, does it work well and will people want to buy it. Will it be successful, period.”

While Aceti hopes for success and is taking steps to market the word roulette game and fulfill his mother’s final wish, he also is trying not to bite off more than he can chew at the moment.

“My initial challenge right now,” Aceti said, “is to get the game out locally, regionally, and to have fun with it.”

Mingle Word-Roulette: How it works

• Geared for two or more players ages 12 to adult. Players agree on the number of rounds to complete the game.

• Each round consists of every player spinning the roulette wheel. Four silver balls select eight letters, each ball selecting a consonant and a vowel. Players then have 90 seconds to create words with the appointed letters. Letters are designated with points and each player records his or her highest scoring word for the spin. The player with the highest score at the end of the game wins.

• Balls also can land on icons, such as the “Lucky Ladder,” which gives the player five points or the “Lightning Bolt,” which deducts five points.

• There are three levels of play, from basic to advanced. Advanced plays may involve more than eight letters and include options of prefixes and suffixes.

• At the end of the game, players can build a descriptive sentence using as many words as possible that they formed during play.