Emma Holmes, Head of Brand at Ridley’s Games, reflects back on 15 years of the brand – and what the future holds!

Ridley’s Games is 15 this year! The game and puzzle company – based in Bath, UK – was founded in 2009 around the idea of evoking the warm nostalgia of childhood memories.

Fuelled by their passion for reinventing toys and games, the team drew inspiration from classics. Their commitment to capturing a vintage feel was so authentic that buyers mistook the products for old vintage games! A successful launch led to more product lines – including a yo-yo, harmonica, and self-inflating whoopee cushion – and the brand became a staple in independent stores and major retailers.

After years of success with the classics, it was time to try something new… Something that no one was doing at the time – making a giftable game. Avocado Smash was born! The litmus test was whether it evoked emotion, and the team still believes in that test today. The goal is for people to be as excited to gift the products as they are to receive them.

A huge milestone for Ridley’s was Avocado Smash being listed by Target; this pivotal moment helped seed – excuse the pun! – their games in the US market. Now six years old, Avocado Smash continues to exceed all expectations. It’s also become a beacon of Ridley’s commitment to sustainability with the move to a biodegradable cornstarch-based case helping to save 3,276kg of virgin plastic from entering the market so far.

In 2020, Ridley’s Games was acquired by Chronicle Books, forming the perfect partnership of innovative, gift-led brands. Chronicle Books has supported Ridley’s growth, nurtured the creative team, doubled the sales force, opened new sales channels and strengthened global distribution with sales offices in USA, Canada, UK, and Australia.

Recently, Ridley’s has focused on engaging directly with their consumers via social media, including the introduction of ‘Selfish Month’ in June 2024, and the launch of their new website. As a result, the brand has gained a new following, and with popular board game influencers talking about Ridley’s, they aim to reach an even greater audience.

To celebrate our 15th birthday and where it all started, Ridley’s has collaborated with John Lewis to bring back five classic games and toys from the original line. The range looks and feels just like the very first products, but they’re reimagined to be more sustainable and portable.

Q4 also sees the launch of ten new games and puzzles. As ever, the lines are designed to help customers create meaningful experiences by spending quality time together. Kazooing festive tunes, piecing together mini puzzles, soaring spy pigeons over London, and discovering how friends feel about pickles on their burgers are just some of the highlights…

Creativity is at the heart of everything Ridley’s does, and in this milestone year, the team would like to thank everyone who has supported them – especially those who believed in a game inside an avocado!

This article is dedicated to one of the founders of Ridley’s Games – Richard Barson – who sadly passed all too soon in 2010.

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Ridley’s Games has launched its latest slate of games and puzzles.

Having sold over 250,000 copies of its card game series Selfish, Ridley’s is launching a new series of mini-games called A Little Selfish. Available in Space and Zombie editions, A Little Selfish can be played over a smaller surface and packaged in a portable box.

Elsewhere, following the success of Saving Shakespeare in 2023, Ridley’s is bolstering its escape room series with Timescape: Cleopatra’s Curse. The game sees players work together to solve puzzles, break curses and discover hidden treasures.

Also new is Tortoise Tumble. This game sees players roll two rubber tortoises across a jigsaw-style garden to score. How and where they land decides how many points they win, and the first player to reach 500 is the Top Tortoise Tumbler.

Sticking with the animal theme, Ridley’s is also launching Disney Cat Naps and Disney Lucky Pups card games, as well as a Bird Lover’s 1000-Piece Jigsaw features illustrations of over 100 birds. This also includes a map of the eight migration flyways and interesting facts about the birds and their flight patterns.

“We were thrilled to launch our new product lines at all the Spring shows this year,” said Emma Holmes, Head of Brand at Ridley’s Games.

“It was also fantastic to see so many creators giving serious thought to their environmental impact. It’s essential to everyone at Ridley’s that our products stand the test of time to be enjoyed by people for years to come, rather than creating disposable, throwaway games. As a team, our goal is to reduce the brand’s environmental impact as much as possible by using responsibly sourced materials, replacing throwaway plastics with biodegradable or recyclable alternatives, and minimising the use of virgin plastics. Our ultimate aim is to completely eradicate virgin plastics from the range.”

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Game inventors will be able to pitch concepts to Ridley’s Games at this year’s Mojo Pitch.

Forming part of this year’s Play Creators Festival, the live Mojo Pitch event will take place on Wednesday, September 7th, 2022 at London’s Twickenham Stadium. Ridley’s Games will also be involved in the Virtual Mojo Pitch event, taking place digitally across October 12th and 13th.

Both the live and virtual Mojo Pitch events will welcome inventors, invention studios and design agencies as they pitch exciting new toy and game concepts to a range of companies, each on the lookout for new products.

“We’re so very pleased to be attending our first Mojo Pitch,” said Emma Holmes, Head of Brand for Ridley’s Games.

“We’ve worked with the Mojo Nation team for the past few years and have always been impressed with their passion and enthusiasm for the games industry, which the Ridley’s team very much shares. Under Chronicle Books’ new ownership, we’re excited to be exploring new avenues and initiatives such as Mojo Pitch, and we look forward to meeting and developing relationships with incredibly talented creators from all over the world to see what exciting direction this could take the Ridley’s brand!”

If you’re an inventor, invention house or design agency that would like book in a meeting with Ridley’s Games at this year’s Mojo Pitch, email Mojo’s Billy Langsworthy on billy@mojo-nation.com.

If you’re a company that would like to join Ridley’s Games in meeting with inventors at this year’s Mojo Pitch, email Mojo’s Adam Butler at adam@mojo-nation.com.

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Ridley’s Games is looking to bring innovation to jigsaws with its competitive puzzling brand, Jigsaw Duel.

In each two-player Jigsaw Duel game, you have a 70-piece jigsaw to complete and must race to be the first to finish them – but there’s only one final double-sided piece that fits both puzzles. The first person to grab this final piece is the winner.

“We were consistently receiving feedback from the sales team that accounts were looking for freshness in the puzzle category as the space was getting crowded,” said Emma Holmes, Head of Brand for Ridley’s Games.

“We feel very passionate about the Puzzle category at Ridley’s and as newness is key to what we do, one of our brilliant designers ‘pieced together’ this innovative idea to game-ify the puzzle format, to make it more of a competitive experience! We’ve received incredibly positive feedback from accounts and are very excited to see how this format performs.”

The first two Jigsaw Duels – Pet Pride Jigsaw Duel and House Plants Jigsaw Duel – launch in April.

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Emma Holmes has joined Chronicle Books as Head of Brand for Ridley’s Games.

Holmes was previously a Creative Director at Wild + Wolf, the former home of Ridley’s Games prior to Chronicle’s acquisition of the brand.

“Bringing her background at Wild + Wolf to this role, Emma will fulfil it with her unique combination of creative and business expertise across content and continents,” said Christine Carswell, Publisher of Chronicle Books.

“She, along with her colleagues, will surely not only grow the Ridley’s brand, but also spread even more fun and games far and wide.”

The upcoming autumn 2021 collection for Ridley’s will hit shelves around August and is set to Avocado Smash Party Edition, a new version of the firm’s bestselling game, as well as new Disney, Marvel and Star Wars lines.

Tyrrell Mahoney, President of Chronicle Books, added: “This is a very exciting time for Chronicle as we widen our reach into the games and toy market alongside our core book publishing and distribution business, and we’re confident that the Ridley’s, Games Room and Petit Collage brands will continue to be a hit within the industry – as well as delight and spark imagination amongst consumers.”

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