Ex-City worker devises wildlife and eco board game
A former City trader wants to help parents reclaim their children from screens with the launch of a board game all about animals and saving the planet.
Planet B Race, a fun and fast family board game with a wildlife and environment protection theme, is the brainchild of Bishop’s Stortford resident Clint Williams.
The 60-year-old, who was also an independent headhunter in financial markets, has come up with his brand Altogether, which he hopes to establish as a recognised player in the educational technology sector.
As well as exploring the potential for licensing agreements and merchandising opportunities, his ultimate aim is to establish and help fund a charity called RACE (Raising Awareness in Children of the Environment).
“Many months of research, design and rigorous play testing have resulted in the release of our first offering, Planet B Race,” said Clint, who lives in Denny Court with wife Justine. They have three sons – Oliver, 31, Jack, 28, and Hugh, 25 – and are grandparents to three-year-old Louie.
“This double-sided game is one product of a suite we hope to be enlarging soon, centred around educating the next generation whilst they’re having fun offline.”
Planet B Race is a double-sided game for two to four players from the age of four to 104.
On the ‘senior’ side of the board, players vie for control of the board by scoring points from cards drawn at the same time as collecting a set and completing a circuit of the board.
The multi-discipline mechanics mean that choices made and decisions taken altogether affect the outcome. There is also an element of dice-rolling luck, so that each time the game is played a different scenario unfolds.
And on the other side of the board is a ‘junior’ game. Players race around the board from start to finish, but move back and forth according to landing on green or red squares, which represent good and bad things impacting the environment. It also involves a multiple choice, colour-coded quiz which tests players’ knowledge about animals and their habitat, bodies, diet and threats.
Clint, who, along with his three sons, plays for Bishop’s Stortford Cricket Club, attended the world’s largest board game fair, Spiel, in Essen, Germany, last October and was able to get good feedback on the prototype. He was also able to pick the brains of respected reviewer Tom Vasel from popular gaming podcast The Dice Tower.
“As an entrepreneur, I’m always looking at new opportunities and ways to do things better,” said Clint.
“As a parent, grandfather and country boy at heart, I’m passionate about looking after the countryside and the present green issues.
“My inspiration originally came from the likes of Carl Hiaasen, the investigative journalist and hilarious author, the respected conservationist Rachel Carson and, more recently David Wallace-Wells as well as the brilliant Sir David Attenborough, of course.”
Clint, who is one of six siblings and attended the Waterside prep school in Stortford before going to grammar school in Newport, has collaborated with a number of people on the project. They include talented Hertfordshire illustrator Milli-Jane and Stansted-based website developers TJ Technology.
The coronavirus crisis means Clint is trying to get his altogether brand off the ground in difficult circumstances, but he has taken up the offer of an extension to his Kickstarter fundraising campaign, which now runs until Saturday (April 4). Go to www.alfamail.org to find out more and for the link to the Kickstarter page.
Clint would also like to hear from people who would be interested in becoming investors and trustees of his charity – conservationists and people with previous experience on boards, for example.