Santtu Winter, a local young entrepreneur, has launched a small business to build and sell an outdoor tossing game called Palikka.

Based on several Scandinavian lawn games like Kubb and Molkky, Palikka is an outdoor tossing game perfect for barbecues, picnics or a day at Golden Gardens.

"I'm a civil engineer by day, a game creator by night," Winter joked.

Winter said the idea to create his small business was born after he was introduced to a similar game called "Molkky" by his Finnish parents. He came up with his own rules and twists to the game and the game quickly became popular among his friends and co-workers.

Winter said people frequently ask about the game whenever he plays it with his friends and he just sold his 50th and 51st Palikka set last weekend.

A Palikka set consists of thirteen wooden pins and a tossing log. Twelve of the pins are numbered one through twelve and the thirteenth pin - the wild pin - is blank.

"A Palikka set is like a deck of cards, you can play many different games with it," Winter explained.

Palikka Classic goes as follows:

The pins are placed all in a random order in a tight group, with all numbers facing forward.

The first player stands about 10 feet (or three large steps) away from the pins and tosses the tossing log underhand to knock over some pins.

Winter said there are two ways to toss the log - hotdog-style or hamburger-style - depending on how the player holds the log.

If more than one pin is knocked over, the player gets the number of points equal to the number of pins that are knocked over. If only one pin is knocked over, the player scores the number of points that is written on the pin. If the wild pin is the only pin knocked over, the player receives the same number of points that were earned by the previous player's toss.

After a player has tossed and counted the points, the pins are put back where they fell and it's the next
player's turn.

The first player to reach exactly 50 points wins.

Winter said the ideal number of players is four and warned that the game can get pretty competitive.

"We had a lunch tournament at work and people took it pretty seriously," he said. "Palikka has more strategy [than other tossing games] yet it's very approachable and is easy to travel with."

Winter said he plays Palikka once a week with his wife and friends and will host a few public Palikka events this summer.

The first event will take place August 6th at Green Lake Park. Winter will also be at Crown Hill's Finland Summer Festival on August 27th to introduce Palikka.

Wooden, handcrafted Palikka sets are sold for $35 and available at www.palikkagame.com.

The website also features rules for various games and info on how to get your own Palikka set.