Twister (game)

Twister is a physical skill game manufactured by Milton Bradley Company and Winning Moves Games USA. It uses a large plastic mat placed on the floor or ground, printed with four rows of six large colored circles—each row a different color: red, yellow, green, and blue. A spinner determines where each player must put a hand or foot. The game markets itself as “the game that ties you up in knots.”

The game originated in 1964 when Reyn Guyer Sr., who ran the design firm Reynolds Guyer Inc. Agency of Design, and his son Reyn Guyer were working on a promotion for Johnson Wax. The younger Guyer created a mat game called King’s Footsie, where players removed their shoes and stepped on colored squares drawn to resemble a giant multiplayer chessboard. Players tried to cross the board by landing only on their assigned color, and the close contact created tension and laughter. The Guyers thought the concept—where players act as game pieces on a large floor mat—could succeed. They pitched it to 3M, which passed, but the Guyers decided to fund development of a line of games based on King’s Footsie. They hired designer Charles Foley and artist Neil Rabens. Guyer led the project and developed the concept, with Foley and Rabens contributing to its evolution.

Foley, a toy designer who had worked for Lakeside Industries, saw the King’s Footsie mat while visiting the Guyer agency. He negotiated a royalty agreement for any games he designed and was hired. Rabens, a friend of Foley’s with an art degree and experience at Doughboy Industries, also joined. The team created eight mat games. The one closest to King’s Footsie was named “Pretzel” by Rabens, who changed the squares to dots and added the rule that players place both hands and feet on the dots. Foley suggested arranging the colored dots in rows to entangle players more, and added a spinner for a caller to direct which hand or foot went on which color. Any player whose elbow, knee, or butt touched the mat was eliminated, leaving one winner. On February 1, 1966, Reynolds Guyer Inc. licensed the game to Milton Bradley Company.

Foley and Rabens filed a patent on April 14, 1966, granted on July 8, 1969 (US Patent #3,454,279). Foley contacted his friend Mel Taft, a senior vice president at Milton Bradley, to present the idea. Milton Bradley liked it but discovered that the name “Pretzel” was trademarked by Transogram for a toy dog, so the company renamed the game “Twister.”

Twister became a major hit after actress Eva Gabor played it with Johnny Carson on *The Tonight Show* on May 3, 1966. Its success also sparked controversy: Milton Bradley’s competitors accused the company of selling “sex in a box,” likely because it was the first popular American game to use human bodies as playing pieces. In 1966, Nintendo—then a toy and board game company—licensed Twister for the Japanese market, releasing it as Twister Game. Hasbro acquired Milton Bradley in 1984, becoming Twister’s parent company. The Reyn Guyer Creative Group continues to work with Hasbro on new Twister products. Co-inventor Charles Foley died on July 1, 2013, at age 82. Co-inventor Neil Rabens died on May 18, 2020, at age 90. In 2023, Hasbro introduced Twister Air, an app-driven version using motion-tracking wearables and augmented reality, replacing the mat with digital gameplay on a connected device.

Gameplay: A spinner on a square board is divided into four sections—left foot, right foot, left hand, right hand—each further divided into the four colors. After a spin, the combination is called (e.g., “right hand yellow”), and players move that hand or foot to a circle of the matching color. In a two-player game, no two players can share the same circle; rules differ for more players. The limited number of circles forces players into awkward or unstable positions, often causing someone to fall. A player is eliminated when they fall or when their elbow or knee touches the mat.