Flight of Pollen game for environment

Jil Hemming with the design for her latest interactive game Flight of Pollen.

Game lovers will fly, creep and crawl their way around a new environmentally-inspired board game designed and illustrated by eco-conscious Otaki women.

Flight of Pollen, the second board game designed by Jil Hemming and illustrated by wildlife painter Cushla McGaughey, aims to blend education with interactive fun.

The game, which will launch in September, was inspired by Ms Hemming's time working at the Lindale Honey Shop, where customers were fascinated to watch the natural honey making process.

"I was working part-time at the shop, where there was a Perspex box with a live beehive, and both the customers and I watched in delight as the queen laid her eggs, the brood was capped off and new bees emerged.

"People were so interested that they asked many questions and eventually, I became an expert.

"So I set myself some challenges."

In the midst of the success with her first board game, Cloak of Protection, the Kakariki Games founder began the design process for Flight of Pollen.

Now she is working towards covering the print costs for the creation, including a PledgeMe campaign where people can pre-purchase their copy.

"People who pledge will be able to come and pick up their game at the launch, or have it posted later that month."

Ms Hemming was confident locals would support her latest project, after Cloak of Protection sold 2500 copies following its launch in January 2012.

Ms Hemming says her aim is to develop environmental games that are rich learning systems.

"An experiment at the University of Cambridge asked 109 British children to identify creatures depicted on a series of flashcards.

"Ten were common British plants and wildlife, while the other 10 were Pokemon characters.

"At age four, children could identify about one third of the wildlife and a few Pokemon.
"At age eight, children could identify half the wildlife and most of the Pokemon."

Her way of helping to turn that around, she said, was to make environmental games that are engaging.

"I wanted to make a cooperative game, a board game with moving pieces, and an environmental game that reflected our biodiversity."

Flight of Pollen took three years to evolve into its current format, where players move from plant to plant, drinking nectar and carrying pollen.

"The honey bee is still there, but so are other pollinators such as birds, bat, insects, gecko, wind and 14 native plants."

Played over four chapters, the game is for ages 10 and up and includes pollinators as discs and flowers as tiles that, when ripe, turn over into seeds and berries.

"Seeds move by wind and water, berries move by being eaten, and so the ground is cleared." Ms Hemming said the game was "a great way to participate in this largely unseen but vital world".

"But first, we have to raise the money to print."

To order a copy, visit www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/5232-flight-of-pollen