We’re a team of women based in the UK. We have different backgrounds, skills, and heritages.
Core team
Ella
Ella has a background in illustration, graphic design and VR. In 2019, she was an artist in residence at Wired Sussex learning VR/AR and immersive technology. Ella has previously worked as a designer for a number of stationery companies and publishers including Bloomsbury Publishing. She is interested in 3D printing, 3D modelling and anything design and craft related. Ella is always interested in new concepts and ideas and this board game is an exciting new way to learn new techniques and work with others.
Jess
Jess is an accidental game designer. In 2019 she created Disarm the Base, about finding and disarming war planes. She used to be a political campaigner, and before that a civil servant, and is currently Chair of the political pressure group Unlock Democracy. She also wrangles two small children and needs more sleep. She promises that by the time Library Labyrinth comes out she will have read all the books referenced.
Mill
Having worked in theatre since 2005, Mill turned her hand to escape room design in 2015, and later branched out into more immersive gaming, including live theatre and VR aspects in her work. She’s always been an avid board gamer, and was employed at the beginning of 2020 as Assistant Manager at the brand new RanSacked Board Game Lounge and Escape Rooms in Worthing. Of course, then the pandemic hit a month after they first opened, so whilst on furlough, her focus shifted back towards game design and delving deeper into the mechanics. Having been friends with Jess for 25 years, she jumped on the opportunity to work with her on Library Labyrinth!
Samantha
Having just graduated in 2020 into a pandemic, Samantha was introduced as an art designer for the team in 2020. Mostly as a hobby, she hopes that her artwork is able to bring life and character into brilliant women from fiction and non-fiction alike. Coming from a background of loving games, Samantha was enthusiastic for the opportunity to work on a board game herself and can’t wait to see how it develops.
How we work
We are a team working collaboratively: there isn’t one person hiring the rest of us. This is a creative project, rather than a commercially viable one. At least 10% of the pre-wage profit will go to charities, meaning that once the manufacturing and logistical costs have been accounted for, the 10% goes to charity before we receive anything for our work. We’re self-publishing Library Labyrinth through Dissent Campaigns & Games, which is run on a day-to-day by Jess. It’s a company limited by guarantee rather than by shares, and so is set up specifically not to make a profit. The directors of Dissent Campaigns & Games (the people who oversee our finances and legal stuff) are Oliver Robertson and Judith Haigh.
Associates
Who did we work with?
We have a lot of people to thank! Some of these people are sensitivity readers and cultural consultants, while others have answered questions about school lesson plans, social media, or proof-reading. We also spent some time at the start of the process with teenagers from the Mary Seacole Trust (a UK charity).
People to thank: Amy Ip, Anne Jones, Peach Morris, Sam Standen, David Wells, Oliver Robertson, Alexi McCreedy, Hacchan Zoromeya, Sepi Madamba, Mercy Fowler, and everyone at the Mary Secole Trust.
10% of the profit will go to charities or campaigning organisations
This game is about raising up women, and so we want some of the money we make from it to go to organisations doing that. In all honesty, we don’t expect to make very much of a profit, and certainly not enough to cover the work we’ve been putting into the project! But 10% of what we do make will be given to women’s charities or campaigning organisations, and the remainder shared fairly between all the people who’ve worked on Library Labyrinth.
If you’d like to recommend a charity or campaigning organisation we could make a donation to, please do drop us a line.
Library Labyrinth 