Dice Maestro Limited, a family-run business based near Eastleigh, Hampshire, is producing an innovative range of ethically marketed games. Their first game, Wildlife Rescue, was launched last year. In a competitive industry that has seen the manufacture of games, in whole or in part, outsourced to developing economies to deliver a lower cost position, Dice Maestro games are achieving success but are made entirely in the UK and ten percent of profits are donated to relevant charities.
“The reason a lower cost position can be achieved by outsourcing to countries such as China is that these countries typically have little enforced health and safety legislation and lower environmental standards, if they have any at all,” explains Antony Brown, co-founder of Dice Maestro. “It is pointless for governments in the West to pass legislation to regulate our manufacturers if we as consumers are prepared to buy products that are manufactured in low-cost countries precisely because they don’t have the same standards,” Antony points out. “It’s a free lunch that’s slowly giving our economy indigestion.”
Dice Maestro is also giving ten percent of the game profits to ARKive, an online multimedia library of the world’s endangered species. It was an invaluable resource for the research of the game.
“We are delighted that Dice Maestro is making this commitment to ARKive,” says Richard Edwards, director of ARKive. “Along with our other donors, this will provide funds for the ARKive project, helping us raise awareness of the world’s endangered species through our audio-visual portraits of threatened species. It is also very gratifying to know that our freely available library of facts, images and films was used by Dice Maestro in creating their game.”
Dice Maestro intend to give a percentage of profits from future titles in their range to relevant charities. “We believe that it is important for all companies, whatever their size or business, to give back to the community on which their sales depend,” says Antony.
Dice Maestro games are environmentally friendly, minimizing the amount of plastic used and maximizing the amount of recyclable materials. For example, the main components of a Dice Maestro game are specialty dice and cards – there is no board. This also means there is no bulky box. Dice Maestro games are the size of a typical hardback novel and can be played virtually anywhere.
Although important to the company, Dice Maestro sees ethical marketing as one differentiator among many. “Our games represent a new format in the games industry,” explains Antony. “Traditional board games are not appealing to ‘Generation X-box’, which demands games that have few rules for immediate play, complete within half-an-hour or so, and can be played anywhere. The days of sitting for hours at a dining room table playing a game after wading through a rule book really belong to the last century.”
The concept of Wildlife Rescue is simple. In the game players take the role of conservation officers aiming to collect endangered species for their zoos. Players have up to three throws to obtain three or more of a particular species. There are eight species in the game, all critically endangered, including the Javan rhinoceros, Amur leopard and mountain gorilla. If successful a player takes a wildlife card of that species. Each species has a different value depending on how difficult it is to obtain it in the game. Bonuses for collecting a certain set of animals and the ability steal cards from other players provide the tactical mechanism for the game.
“One hallmark of Dice Maestro games is that they are simple enough for even young children to play, but sophisticated enough for adults to enjoy,” says co-founder Carla Brown. “Our four year-old daughter enjoys rolling the six wildlife dice, even if she cannot appreciate the tactical subtleties of the game. Wildlife Rescue really is a game for all ages and a game for our times.”
For more information and to purchase online visit: www.dicemaestro.com.
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GAME FACTS
Players:
Ages: 7-Adult
Time: 30 minutes
RRP: £10.99
The game features eight Critically Endangered species from four animal groups. The species are: Amur leopard, California condor, Ceylon rose butterfly, dama gazelle, harlequin mantella frog, Javan rhinoceros, mountain gorilla and Rodrigues fruit bat.
ABOUT ARKIVE
The ARKive project is run by Wildscreen, a UK-based educational charity working globally to promote the public appreciation of biodiversity and the conservation of nature through the power of wildlife imagery. Patrons include Sir David Attenborough. A letter from ARKive and facts on endangered species are included with Wildlife Rescue.
CONTACTS
Dice Maestro Limited. Antony M. Brown, director. Tel: 023 8026 1484.
Email: amb@dicemaestro.com Web: www.dicemaestro.com
ARKive. Amy Nicholas, marketing communications manager. Tel: 0117 3285952. Fax: 0117 328 5955. Email: amy.nicholas@
