About us

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 are we working 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 are also working with teenagers from the Mary Seacole Trust (a UK charity) as we develop the game.

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.

Still needed: sensitivity readers and cultural consultants

Although we have some cultural breadth in our core team, we know that we cannot cover everything alone. We’ll be hiring some cultural consultants and sensitivity readers to make sure that we get certain characters right. Is the illustration right? Should they be included in the first place?

In particular, we are looking for people to help us on these cultures and identities:

• Africa: historic characters from Angola, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Zulu (time period ranges between 1100-1900)
• Asia: Japan, Mongolia, the Punjab, Thailand (time period ranges between 900 and 1875)
• Black North American: fictional and historic characters connected to slavery (time period 1800-1930)
• Central and South American: fictional and historic characters from Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, Venezuela (time period ranges between 1475 and 1850)
• Disability advocates, particularly wheelchair users
• Indigenous North American: historic character (time period 1800)
• LGBT+, particularly transwomen
• Middle East, fictional characters from the area previous covered by Persia (time period between 800-1000)
• Religious voices, particularly Muslim and Skih

We will give you credit for your help by putting your name alongside ours in the rulebook/box and having your name on the website.

We are committed to paying you or giving to charity in your name. Please tell us what your rates are. If you are able to take payment after the game has funded on Kickstarter then that would really help, although of course we know that not everyone will be in that position.

The amount of work needed varies. Some of these are for characters who are already well known, where we need to be certain that the presentation is correct (such as Scheherezade from 1001 Nights), and so may be a single conversation. Others are significantly more complex or involve multiple characters.

Please email dissentgames@gmail.com to express your interest – we’d love to hear from you!

Reviewers

Do you have a blog or a channel? We would love for you to review the game when we have some prototypes! Please email dissentgames@gmail.com and we can talk about it.

Other help

Anything you can offer!

Are you looking at this and thinking: “that’s great, but what about x”? If so, please contact us and ask about it! Perhaps you could help us playtest? Perhaps you have some advice about design, or manufacturing?

We will give you credit for your help by putting your name alongside ours in the rulebook/box and having your name on the website.

Please email dissentgames@gmail.com with any suggestions!