|  Angela says, "
Over the course of the day, we saw that different games appealed to different people. We
started to think about what would be the "perfect" game. For the members of our
families, it had to be a word game as we have a lot of crossword and Scrabble fans.
The features we wanted were:
we could play with all the family
everybody could play
in competition at the same time
we could play on our
own
we could play on a
train, plane, bus, back of the car, etc
we would need no
booster packs to be purchased to expand the game
and finally that it
would last for generations.”
After trying out several ideas they came up with
"Blank". This is a game that's simple to learn but the challenges last for
generations, says Angela. “The basic idea is to make up as many words as possible
while racing against the clock. At any one time, only two rows of three letters are
revealed and everyone has to make words by filling the "blanks" - a little bit
like being in competition with everyone to complete a half finished crossword. It can be
played by any number of people - you can even play it on your own!”
They made the
first game themselves, using bits of paper,
and spent a lot of time playing it to work out the rules. Andy had at one time worked in
product development for James Dyson, the designer of innovative vacuum cleaners, and he
was able to design the device needed for the game.
Within a few months all their friends and family were
hooked. At that stage they started to think about putting the game into production.
They applied for patents for the game (which have now been granted). This, explains
Angela, is a fairly simple low cost process if you do a lot of the work yourself. They
searched for existing patents at the Patent Office and when they were confident that their
ideas were unique ideas they went through the application process.
Four years later and they have a winning game. Says Angela
said "We launched "Blank" last year at the Cambridge Board Game Olympics
where it created a sensation. We even had bright seven year olds doing well in one of our
competitions. Last August, I was totally thrilled when a grandmother told me she was using
the game to help her grandson with his spelling during the school holidays. Lots of people
have commented on how the game keeps the kids away from the TV and computer games. “
For Angela and Andy, “Blank” has become a
full time job. “We reviewed what a
lot of inventors had done before us and concluded that approaching manufacturers would
take a tremendous amount of time. Instead we decided to manufacture ourselves, and have
given up our jobs to do this”.
They use a number of suppliers to help them make the
game. The first prototypes were produced with help from the Innovative Manufacturing
Centre at Nottingham University. When everything worked as they wanted,
they started to select suppliers to help them manufacture. At present, they use companies
based in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Staffordshire.
Priced at
£29.95, “Blank” is sold mainly through mail order (telephone 07876 307430) or
on the internet at www.blankgame.co.uk. Further
details on stockists can be seen on the internet site.
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