Michael and Stephen Stagliano, former Santa Clarita residents, have created a new family-fun game called “Mice and Dice.”

In an era of Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga and other individual games for handheld phones, former Santa Clarita residents, Michael and Stephen Stagliano want to counteract that culture with their new board game “Mice and Dice.”

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The twin brothers grew up playing board games with their family, they said, and want children and teens today to experience the same thing.

Michael Stagliano came up for the idea of “Mice and Dice” in 2011, and since then the brothers have tested and refined the concept, developed prototypes, played the game with family and friends and sent it to game reviewers for feedback.

Michael Stagliano said that he had been wanting to create a board game for a long time and knew that he wanted it to include dice.

“The idea for ‘Mice and Dice’ kind of hit me like a bolt of lightning,” he said.

Last week, the Staglianos created a campaign to fund “Mice and Dice” on Kickstarter.com. In five days, they have raised more than $3,400 of their $20,000 goal.

Described as a combination of Candyland, Mouse Trap and Yahtzee, “Mice and Dice” uses cards and dice, allowing players to rack up points and move across the board.

Each player picks a number before play begins, and throughout the game, if anyone rolls their number, they get to move forward.

This is one of the aspects that Stephen Stagliano emphasized, the fact that every player has a chance to play every turn.

“In most other board games, when it’s your turn, it’s your turn,” he said. “In this game, kids are paying attention all the time.”

It helps children to be more engaged in what they are playing, Michael Stagliano said.

“You need to pay attention to everybody’s roll,” he said. “It eliminates the time when you would pull out your phone.”

The Kickstarter campaign ends on April 8, and assuming they reach their goals, the brothers hope to make the game available by September for order on Amazon.com or their own website StessoGames.com.

“Stesso,” also the name of Michael Stagliano’s social sports company Stesso Sports, means “twins” in Italian.

Their end goal is to market “Mice and Dice” to board game-specific stores in Southern California.

Michael and Stephen Stagliano have set their basic goal at $20,000, but they hope to raise as much as $100,000 to upgrade game components, add pieces and cards and even create a travel edition of “Mice and Dice.”

Stephen Stagliano, who is a former teacher for the William S. Hart Union High School District at West Ranch and Saugus High Schools, plans to move back to the Santa Clarita Valley later this year.

Michael Stagliano, who is also moving back to the SCV, has starred on seasons of ABC’s “The Bachelorette” and “The Bachelor Pad” reality television shows.

Backers of the “Mice and Dice” Kickstarter campaign who pledge $5,000 or more will receive an expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles to meet the Stagliano brothers and their friends from the shows, in addition to viewing the Bachelor Mansion.

The bottomline for both brothers in creating “Mice and Dice” is getting families back to the dinner table to play games together.

“Basically, I just see kids nowadays–they’re just all about iPads and video games and selfies, and I just noticed that our culture in general is getting very self-contained or self-centered,” Stephen Stagliano said. “…I love good quality family time. That’s how we were raised.”

To learn more about “Mice and Dice,” find the Kickstarter campaign page here or visit Stesso Games online.

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