Bop It Inventor Dan Klitsner Launches First Self-Published Game Sling It, In Tribute to His Late Father

Sling It was the last game Dan worked with his dad, Stu, before he passed away, giving it a personal significance. He emphasizes the importance of play in creating lifelong memories with loved ones.

The holiday season is when toy and game sales are traditionally at their highest, as consumers buy them as gifts for their loved ones or as fun activities to do with family and friends during holiday get-togethers. It is a time when people gather together and bond over games and play with family, and often it is these moments that stick in the memory and live far beyond the holiday season. No one knows this better than Dan Klitsner, inventor of pop-culture phenomenon Bop It, whose new game was invented in honor of his late, always playful father.

Sling It, Dan’s first self-published game, has been developed specifically to create these memorable, fun moments, with his father inspiring its creation and whimsical backstory. Described as a hybrid between Axe-throwing and Cornhole, Sling It can be played by two players or two teams, each with four sausage-shaped bean bags that are thrown on a board with vertical slots and trying to get the ‘sausages’ stuck within the slots. The player/team whose sausage is the highest gets a point, and the first to get 11 points wins the game. For his work on Sling It, Dan won Game Designer of the Year (Kids/Family Games) at the 2024 Play Creators Awards.

“After more than thirty years designing games, this is the best game I’ve ever created, on so many levels,” says Dan, adding, “This includes Bop It. Sling It is ridiculously social, seriously competitive, and so universally satisfying. Most importantly, it will bond families and friends, and create amazing memories. Ultimately, that is why I bother to do this at all.”

Aside from its exciting play and easy-to-understand rules, Sling It also comes with humorous fictional lore, where it claims to be inspired by a contest by sausage makers in the medieval Spanish kingdom of Mallorca. According to legend, during Dia de la Sobrasada, or “Day of the Sausages”, artisans would compete on who made the best sausages by slinging them toward the castle gate. Only the most perfect sausages would stick between the gate’s bars, and the winner of the contest would receive the distinction of Royal Sausage Maker.

Across his toy design career of more than 30 years, Dan has created hundreds of toys and games, having licensed them out to major companies. However, he decided to take a different route with Sling It, choosing to publish it independently, as a tribute to his late father Stu Klitsner, who died in early 2024 at the age of 97. Dan describes Stu as a “wonderfully fun, ever-supportive, unconditionally loving, prototype-testing, game-playing Dad” and Sling It was the last project that they worked on together, giving the game a special personal importance for Dan.

According to Dan, his father was not part of his toys and game studio, KID Group, in an official capacity. Yet, Dan would frequently consult with Stu about the products he was developing and play together with him. While Stu did provide some feedback about the toys, especially about how hard or easy the rules were to understand, Dan’s real reason for having him involved was that he wanted to spend time and play with his dad.

“I just wanted to share my time with him, not necessarily to talk about any serious business-related matters,” Dan says. “People would often tell me I’m a good son for spending so much time with my dad. But, the truth is, I just enjoyed hanging out with him more than anyone on the planet.”

When Dan was developing Sling It, he was worried that Stu would not be able to enjoy the game, as it required some physical activity, which was hard due to his advanced age. However, Stu, who was 95 at the time, managed to stand up with the support of a walker and throw the bean bags, commenting that the ‘thwack!’ sound made by the impact was incredibly satisfying.

A veteran Broadway theater actor who even appeared in a few movies and TV series, Stu was enthusiastic about Sling It and inspired Dan to come up with the game’s lore. After hearing the funny story about medieval sausage-throwers, Stu enjoyed it so much that he agreed to lend his voice to the video. Aside from acting, Stu was also a school counselor for many years, and Dan says this is where his father’s qualities of being warm, engaging, and people-focused shone through.

“My Dad had a really unconventional sense of humor, such as when we’d co-write parody songs for family members’ birthdays. Everyone who’s spent time with him said that he made them feel like they were the only person with him and that they were his most special friend. It was just effortless for him because it was just truly who he was, and you could feel his genuine joy whenever he met a new person,” Dan says.

Dan also credits his father with setting him on the path toward becoming a toy inventor. Dan had initially studied engineering, but he was unhappy with it. Stu, who sensed his son’s unhappiness, suggested that maybe a different career path would suit him. He then recommended the industrial design program at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, which he had heard from a director he had worked with. Dan decided to join the program, and the rest is history.

Stu’s passing left a huge hole in the lives of Dan and the rest of the Klitsner family, but his playfulness and positive attitude will remain in their hearts forever. One of his largest influences on Dan was his love for play, and Dan emphasizes the importance of play in strengthening bonds between family members and friends.

“Some of the most lasting memories we have of the people we love are when we are playing together,” Dan says. “I always tell people to play with the people they love and cherish their time together, especially during the holiday season. It might not seem like much, but these moments of play create positive feelings that imprint memories deep enough to last a lifetime.”