I was crazy for My Little Pony as a kid and would try to integrate them into the game on those rare occasions when my brother would let me play Robotech a round of Battletech with him (Moondancer the unicorn can beat your BattleMech, Chad. Can to. Can to. Shut up!). Fantasy horses and other pretty things still get my attention, so it’s no wonder that I wandered into the Bella Sara booth at Comicon in July.
Andre Lawless, marketing manager at Hidden City Games, filled us in on Bella Sara and what it has to offer girls between the ages of 5 and 12 who are looking for a game (and who possibly don’t have an older brother awesome enough to let the unicorn win).
Andre Lawless: Bella Sara combines trading cards with beautiful images of horses and an online world for girls. Each card has a picture of a horse, that horse has a name and personality and a saying that’s associated with it. It’s all about positive messages like “Be the hero of your own story” and “Beauty comes from within,” that are designed to reinforce positive self-image.
The game was created by a social worker in Denmark named Gitte Odder Braendgaard. Her son was interested in Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering and she realized that her daughters didn’t have a similar games to play that were designed for specifically for them. Gitte took that need, her experience working with kids, and her daughter’s love for horses and created a horse themed trading card game.
Each card has a code on it that you can take to BellaSara.com where you can activate an interactive version of the horse that you can care for and nurture and play games with online. The codes are unique so if you trade that card with another person, they can’t re-activate the horse.
The game launched in Scandanavia as Bella in September of 2005 and in the first six months of circulation, they sold 4 million cards to a 5 million population in Denmark. They’ve sold 6.5 million cards to date in Denmark. Bella Sara 2nd Series launched in the United States in March of this year at Blockbuster, Wal-Mart, Target, Toys-R-Us, hobby stores and at equestrian stores. Since the U.S. launch, we’ve sold 5 million cards.
[nms:Bella Sara,4,0]
PRG: I take it the reception has been good?
AL: It’s been really good. We come out with a new collection of cards every 3 to 4 months. Those are supported by television ad campaigns. Right now we’re on Nikelodeon, Cartoon Network and ABC Family with our current set: Northern Lights. Northern Lights is Celtic and Norse mythology influenced set.
PRG: Bella Sara seems like a fairly solitary game. Are there plans to make it more interactive on a person to person level, like Magic: The Gathering and that type of collectible card game?
AL: The website is interactive – there are a lot of activities like online coloring books and jigsaw puzzles and story books, and also games with the horse. We’re developing right now called Bella Sara Dreams Club which is a way of creating a community of Bella Sara girls around the country in stores. They can have a Bella Sara night at a hobby game store and the girls could come read stories about the featured horses, do arts and crafts projects, show off their stables, and that sort of thing. A lot of it will be about sharing dreams and aspirations because of the nature of the game.
[Since this interview, Hidden City Games has signed with Diamond Distributors to bring Bella Sara to major book retailers, including Borders and Barnes & Noble.]
Pink Raygun picked up a Bell Sara 2nd Series value set, which includes six packs of cards, to give away to one of our readers. The winner will be drawn from our email subscriber list on Friday, September 21st.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
there sould be more codes on this page so people have a sprit to get more horses