Wham! A snowball hits, and you’re left scrambling to find a “dodge” card to play in defense.

This is not your typical snow war. This is “Snowball Fight,” a board game created by Michael Rogers, who graduated from Iowa State in management and information systems in 1995, and Jim Sixta, who did graduate work at Iowa State in the mid-1990s.

The game uses illustrated circular game cards, a blue die and a scorecard to wage the snowball wars. The cards are broken up into offensive and defensive moves, such as the offensive “Rapid Fire” or “Sneak Attack” cards, which can be defended with a “Bad Aim” or “Powder Ball (Great throw! Lousy snowball)” card.

Rogers created the game’s concept before Sixta started working with him in 1999. Their company, S&S Innovations, was started in the spring of 2001. Since then, the pair has been testing the game with various age groups.

“We did testing with college students. It’s geared more for the kids — it’s a snowball fight, [but] we had good feedback from everybody,” Sixta says.

“Snowball Fight” is designed for ages eight and up, but Sixta says it also has appeal with people of all different ages.

“It’s so easy for adults; it would be a fun game for a group of people to play,” says Mary Ehrhardt, corporate sales representative at Borders Books & Music, 1200 Duff Ave.

Borders keeps a copy of the game in its coffee shop area for patrons to try out. So far, Ehrhardt says, people seem to enjoy playing the game.

Ehrhardt says Sixta and Rogers came to Borders to do a demonstration last fall during the game’s introduction to the Ames area, where it was well-received.

“We love to do demonstrations,” Sixta says. “One of the perks of this job is that kids love to play this game.”

To help promote their product, Sixta and Rogers appeared at the demonstration wearing “Snowball Fight” shirts, mittens and yellow scarves. Ehrhardt says both men were very charismatic and funny to talk to, and easily drew a crowd in the store during their demonstration.

“Typically when we’re doing a demo, any kids in the store generally gravitate toward us,” Sixta says. “It’s just a blast. We have a great time with it. It’s what makes this job worth coming to every day.”

Sixta says his time at Iowa State has helped to shape the pair’s current business ventures.

“You’d be surprised at some of the things you wouldn’t think would apply when you’re [in college]. You learn communication, and how to deal with people, customer service,” Sixta says. “It was definitely instrumental. The skills we learned at college definitely apply.”

Sixta says the classwork college students do is also applicable now in his career.

“[You learn] personal interaction, how to handle a project. A lot of the things we do here are the same as most companies … you’re doing everything from talking with manufacturers to setting up customer surveys,” Sixta says.

There has been discussion of using the game as a learning device for younger children, Sixta says, since playing the game encourages creativity and involves some simple math, such as subtraction.

“We really designed it as a family card game,” Sixta says. “Our goal when we designed this was to get approval from official organizations, and we definitely received that.”

Sixta and Rogers have received six different awards for their work, including the National Parenting Center Seal of Approval. Sixta says it is an honor to receive these kinds of awards, since award committees evaluate thousands of products before choosing winners.

Sixta and Rogers are releasing their second game in February.

“We’re in the midst of the our second game, ‘Wacky Water,'” Sixta says. “It’s another card game — basically, it’s a water fight.”

The game will be released at the American International Toy Fair, held in New York on Feb. 15-18. Most of the games consumers will see in stores will be at this show, since the Toy Fair is the “granddaddy” of all the toy shows, Sixta says.

“We took ‘Wacky Water’ to an entire elementary school one day,” Sixta says. “We just have a great time. Kids really have a great time playing.”