Thanks for joining me chaps, particularly since it’s an early start! Phil, you’ve been interviewed before at Mojo Nation. We’ve come to know you as the co-founder of Book of Beasties, but for those not in the know, what is that?

The main one being?
Phil: The main one being the mental-wellness card game which is used in thousands of schools and social care and foster care; numerous different places. That now supports well over 250,000 children.

So a quarter of a million children?
Phil: Yes, since we launched. I’m one of the co-founders along with my wife Nadia. We now lead the company with Craig and our illustrator Anthony, who does all the pretty pictures.

And Craig, we’ve not spoken before. Hello; thank you for joining us…
Craig: My pleasure!

Tell me: what’s your background? How did you come to be involved with this?
Craig: My background is mental wellbeing, from education through to corporate. So I started about 15, may be 20 years ago in this quest to get businesses to take the wellbeing of their staff seriously. So I was the guy who was originally knocking on doors and then being chased down the road by the dogs and the people with pitchforks and everything else.

Ah! Now you’ve said that, I remember you!
Craig: Yes! Yes; you remember the face?!

I remember the dogs! I’m thinking back 20 years and figuring attitudes toward mental health were very different then, so your role would’ve been difficult…
Craig: Yes, it was really difficult back then. But I managed to make two businesses out of it. I worked in education with schools, universities and so on, with students. I’m probably more well known for the corporate strategy side, though.

So how do people introduce you, Craig? How are you referred to?
Craig: I run LightHouse Mentoring; I’m referred to as a sort of sustainable wellbeing expert.

A sustainable wellbeing expert…
Craig: Yes… With the idea being that whatever you put into a company, you should be able to use in the long term. So we don’t do any sticking-plaster solutions; what I’d call “well-washing”, which is quite topical at the moment.

Well-washing being when companies make largely cosmetic changes to mental wellbeing? They create the illusion of improving mental health?
Craig: Right. So we don’t go in and say, “We’re just going to give you a course and then we’re going disappear.” Because we actually want know what it is that’s causing the issue. That way you can better invest your resources and time into sorting that particular issue.

I also work for the Institute of Directors, as their Wellbeing Ambassador. That gives me an awful lot of time to talk to directors of companies; from card games and people that manufacture to people in the service industry; people for whom there’s this huge diversity as well. So that gives me a really great forum to be able to have these conversations.

Great overview, Craig; thank you. Interesting to hear about this notion of “well-washing”… And in terms of Book of Beasties what’s the difference between the new edition of the card game and the original?
Phil: There’s quite a few layers to that. So we obviously identified the need for something that wasn’t just a wellbeing resource because there are already lots out there. But we wanted to really look at how a child learns; how they engage with the things they’re into… What makes them want to use a thing? Or keep using a thing?

And applying that…
Phil: Right. Tapping into that, you realize that’s how children learn. For example, playful education – or playful learning – is growing in popularity at the moment. And you can see why, because it really just engages the child in the topic that it’s trying to address. And so this is kind of what we wanted to do when we first set out: make something to do with mental health, which is a heavy topic, but make it truly appealing – and fun.

Yes. And to that point, Phil, the words ‘educational’ and ‘mental health’ would seem, to a lot of toy and game companies, like the kiss of death. So you’ve got to find a sweet spot between being commercially appealing and beneficial to the user…
Phil: And this is why, when we launched, we had an ambition to go into the Business to Consumer market. But what we wanted to do first was understand the needs – from education onwards. So how would it work in a school, for example? We felt that once we figured that out, we could progress it through to being used in a home environment. Because if it doesn’t work there, then it won’t work here.

Hence the idea for what is, in effect, a home edition?
Phil: Yes, we first titled it the Mental Wellness Card Game because it’s very on the nose, it’s exactly what it is. And we placed it in schools and observed, and we identified the ways the gameplay could be better and how the communication could improve; in the sectors and schools over to social care and foster care… Then into, as you mentioned, the home edition. But then the question: how do we entice that audience?

The parent audience? Because you’re not selling to the child; you’re selling to the adult…
Phil: Exactly. So how do we make it appealing to them? And often that’s about the language that’s used. So when we talk about mental wellbeing, it can often be quite scary. And so we initially called it the Mental Wellness Card Game: Home Edition. That name wasn’t well received!

No…
Phil: So we went back and did some focus groups around the good words to use. And ‘happy’ comes up a lot when we interview the children. So it made sense to call it the Happy Heads Card Game. Then, beyond the title, there’s the simplification of the gameplay as well. Because I think, in a school, it’s very much left to the children to play and the teachers to observe a lot of the time…
Whereas at home we want to encourage the involvement of the parent or the carer as well. So it’s about focusing on that; the improvement of the bond between the adult and the child. So simplifying that gameplay, and making it fit in any kind of family game night without it being too ‘out there’.

Out there?
Phil: Out there in as much as you might want to play this as you would Monopoly, say, or Twister. You don’t want everything to grind to a halt saying: “Now we’ve gotta play this thing about emotions!”

Gawd, no!
Phil: So no, it’s just a game. And it so happens that this topic is interwoven throughout the kind of activities you do within the game. It makes it a much more natural approach, and I think that’s been the biggest difference between the two versions.

And Craig, in terms of achieving that balance and making the difference stick, where does your research and knowledge start to taper into something more commercial?
Craig: For me personally, I think those are the two key words: research and knowledge… Because I do see a lot of projects, but I don’t get involved with many. What I always struggle with is that there’s an awful lot of really good people trying to do really good things, but they’ve just come up with an idea in their basement, and they spark, they create, they’re around for a while – and then they’re not there anymore.

Because the idea doesn’t really work? It doesn’t pan out?
Craig: Right. And people work really, really hard on these ideas – and these ideas are perfectly valid. But someone’s created it based on personal experience or based on what they found worked for their child, or what seemed to work for this, that and the other.

Right. It’s based on their perception of one experience. It’s not grounded in any methodical research…
Craig: Exactly. And the defining differentiator with Book of Beasties was the fact that they take what they think works and they give it to academics and they say, “We think this will work. But go and break it.”

Not “Go and prove it…”
Craig: No; definitely not. Definitely “Go and break it.” Which is the real start of hard-edge research. So when you’re going into hard-edge research, you’re always trying to disprove rather than prove, because then the bias changes. So Beasties gives the work to academics to break, and the academics really work with it. They don’t just sit there and play the game between themselves; they take it to different focus groups – school children, end users; different demographics, different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Real flaw-finding playtesting; proper research.
Craig: So it’s not just, you know, we’re gonna take it here and only here and keep going back to the same children all the time. And then they come back with, “Well, this looked good. This was good. That wasn’t it, though; that really fell on its face.” Anyway, Beasties takes that and refines their product, and they give it back to the academics and they say, “Go break it again!” And this process of break and fix is what really stood out to me about Beasties before I came on board… Because it takes a lot of moxie to put your ideas in front of academics and tell them to break it.

Yes. Because it’s too often thought of as their baby.
Craig: Right. It’s the thing you’ve created from nothing, and you’re putting it in front of people who don’t know you, don’t like you; people who don’t care about you at all…

Alright Craig; easy! Phil’s still on the call… Sorry, Phil – I didn’t know he was gonna turn…
Craig: Ha! No! I mean academics can’t afford to like him, because if they do, it might bias the research.

This is absolutely true. And you used the word ‘moxie’ there, Craig… Ten out of ten; love it. And is cajones is coming up soon?
Craig: Hang on, I’ve got a script… Yeah!

Perfect! But you said something else there that fascinates me because it does take a lot to say, “This is what I have, I want you to break it, then I’ll fix it, then you break it, then I’ll fix it.” But it’s necessary to do that with a commercial game. Is that what you were looking to do with the game, Phil? Were you looking to break it and fix it, break it and fix it?
Phil: Well, there’s always the intention to create a perfect product from the get go. But then I think, with Book of Beasties, it was a necessity. We’re tackling a heavy, important topic, so it needed to work. And it was definitely always the intention to bring in academia, so when Craig and I met, it was the perfect solution because we could do that more rigorously.

And just for context, when did you meet?
Phil: I think… How long ago was that, Craig? It feels like it was just over a year ago…

Craig: Maybe for you. It feels far longer to me!

Ha!
Craig: No! It was June.
Phil: Anyway, I always note that before we made it a game – which we’d never done before – it was about doing the research into developing games. And I bought your and Billy’s book, Deej; right back at the beginning of Beasties, to make sure that I was fully clued up on what to do. And everywhere I looked, I saw big developers saying that the important thing is playtest, playtest, playtest. I can’t overstate that enough.

Quite so! Because that’s where you realize what’s broken. And to Craig’s point earlier, I think the advantage of this is that if YOU’RE the person saying, “I want you to break this”, it does rather sidestep the issue of ego. Because any brutal feedback you get is at your request. So I’ve always felt that’s the most stress-free way to get feedback. Ask, in effect, for possible one-star reviews. So tell me: what’s the biggest challenge you faced in terms of your working together?
Phil: Craig’s just gonna say “Phil”, isn’t he?

Ha! He does seem to have it in for you!
Craig: Ha! No, no, no! Phil, you go first. Then I’ll modify my answer depending on yours!

Phil: Ha! Well, originally the approach the founding team took was play centric; very entertainment centric. We wanted to maximize the enjoyment factor. Then we figured that there’s a massive gap there for the educational and the wellbeing factor. I guess when you’re dealing with academics, people like Craig, you know you’re going to butt heads and discuss sacrificing some elements. But you know what? That’s a challenge; a healthy challenge – so I think the biggest challenge would be merging the impact with the enjoyment factor.

Craig?
Craig: I’d say it’s been going from a sort of fun, card-based, thing – as Phil said, basically around entertainment – and streamlining to work out exactly where we need to go, what we need to do in terms of the research and so on. And then breaking it, because some schools are hammered, every single week by at least 500 products, from people bringing them games, tools and apps.

Oh, jeez!
Craig: And an app seems cost efficient because it can go in lots and lots of different places. But you can’t physically hold an app. It’s not a tactile thing – and not everyone’s got a phone or a laptop. So how do you get those into socioeconomically deprived areas? I knew if we were going to put something in front of a school, we’d need to have a differentiator to everybody else. And that differentiator for us is that we’ve gone through this process and we can absolutely say it works.

And at what point does something like this get taken upstairs, Craig? At what point does improving mental wellbeing become a primary syllabus focus of, say, a government?
Craig: I think this is actually endemic of the wider problem. So I go back to my approach to corporate wellbeing. There’s still really only three rules on corporate wellbeing within the workplace… But what we’ve had for so long is an overworked, underpaid workforce in the teaching industry that’s had edict after edict bestowed upon them from on high by Ofsted, by governments, asking them to do more and more in exactly the same amount of time.

And you’re talking about the UK here, but I’m assuming this is true elsewhere?
Craig: Right. A lot of the time you spend in school, you’re learning to regurgitate facts rather than actually learning to be a child. We put children through SATS, say; through exams… We measure 11-year-olds on their ability to do maths and English against a national standard. But if you think about it, that standard is actually there to measure the teachers rather than the students.

So we want children to be to be able to say that the Battle of Hastings was in 1066, but we don’t seem to want to see them grow the emotional intelligence to know that you don’t shout at your peers; you don’t say something rude in public. So how do you fulfill that need without having a resource to enable you to fulfill that need? For me, this is where Beasties has really come into its own.

How so?
Craig: In that if you’ve got a copy of Beasties in the classroom or whatever, you know, it’s kosher; you know, it’s real, you know, it does what it needs to do. So you’re not afraid to use it. You’re not afraid to put it out there in case Ofsted come along and say, “Hang on a minute. What are you using that for?”

In fact, Beasties, the school edition, comes with Ofsted-compliant lesson plans. So you can actually use it as part of that interjection. And again, it’s the whole process that I use with everything: identify the problem, find a solution, break the solution, find a solution to the broken solution, break the solution, keep going, keep going, keep going.

I’m curious, Craig – in terms of mental wellbeing, how did the pandemic impact children?
Craig: The school children that went through the pandemic years? The statistics are all over the place there… So many children are facing some form of mental-wellbeing issue because they weren’t able to get out with their peers. What have they lost in terms of their social-interaction skills? Who knows! Maybe they didn’t have a brother or sister at home, and had no one else at their own age to interact with…

Plus, if they came from a socioeconomically deprived background, they didn’t have a laptop to get on and talk to X, Y, and Z. And if you’re in a minority group of any kind, where are your peers? Who are you talking to? Where are you getting support? So these children are now moving up through our educational system with this gap that’s come about. Obviously, some of that was already there before the pandemic – but post pandemic, it’s really something.

Gosh, I can only imagine. And I was taken with something you said there too because I’ve long held the view that we’d all be a lot better off teaching emotional intelligence at an early age rather than ‘1066 and all that’… Because learning about basic psychological needs, and emotional needs – and how to meet them in a healthy way – would seem to be much more important than many of the things we see on the syllabus. And yet very few schools seem to recognise that…
Craig: Yes. Again, this – for me – is a wider issue than just our school sector. We again go into the wellbeing in the workplace and we’re very much in that old style… You turn up, we own you until five o’clock, and then you go home. That type of thing. And, you know, you speak to people all over the country who run businesses and it’s like, “Well, I’m not the health service! My job is not to emotionally cajole individuals through the workplace.”

Which isn’t wrong!
Craig: No; that’s a perfectly acceptable argument. They’re a business; they’re there to earn money. And the school system we have is very much set up to churn out people who fit THAT mold. So, effectively, you come through these little production centres and it’s about making you productive and moving you into an economy and a sort of capitalist-based society… To better force through that capitalist agenda. How are you going to contribute to that agenda? What we need is people who are going come in, do X,Y or Z, then go home.

So very much when from the very beginning where we’re measuring maths, English, science – whatever – it might be from kids who are coming out of playschool… And you’re coming through on all these things. Now, there are institutions that have decided to change and look in different ways; places like forest schools and Steiner schools and things on those sorts of lines that advocate being a kid or playing over academic achievement right – until they move into secondary school.

And of course, there’s always going to be this trade off because you’ve only got a finite number of hours at school. So if you’re saying to a teacher with 40 kids in their class, “You’ve got to teach all these kids about emotional intelligence. Oh, and by the way, they need to know this, this, this and this… And we’re gonna send somebody into your school once every four years who can just dump all this stuff on top of you and ruin your entire career!”

Ha! It feels that way.
Craig: This sort of moves into the Happy Heads edition of Beasties as well, because when I came on board and we started to emphasize this break it, fix it, break it, fix it approach, it was to identify the need. With the school edition, the need is relatively obvious. It’s within the school system… This is how we can help. But as teachers have always pointed out, they’re not parents.. We’ve all heard the line, “We’re not a parent substitute. We’re here to teach things.” So you then get into this question: whose responsibility is it to teach these soft skills?

Now, if you go down the educational route, educators will say it’s the family’s responsibility to teach these skills. But of course, we’ve got families now who don’t have any time because they’re working, they’re meeting the other needs of their children, their house, their mortgages… All sorts of challenges. And often both parents then go into work, which meets the amount of time they get to actually interact with their children to impart this knowledge has been reduced as well.

And that presumes they have the knowledge to impart…
Craig: Another problem in itself; absolutely. So you’ve got this double whammy on kids where the educational system is “educating” in a certain way, because that’s the way it’s set up. And then home has changed to the way it was. And it’s not just here in the UK. It’s in other countries too. And effectively, this is why this is the next obvious stage for the Happy Heads. Because what we then intended to do with it was say, “Okay, you’re doing X in school, but how can we meet the needs of the overstretched family unit? And what can we do to make them want to do this?”

We also don’t want to be preaching to parents or teachers, of course, because we understand everyone’s under huge pressure, and that they’re doing their best. And no one should, you know, be pointing a finger here. We don’t want to be saying, “If you don’t play our game, you’re a terrible person.”

Oh, I don’t know; it’d make an interesting commercial!
Phil: Ha! Yeah, good sizzle!

Craig: Ha! And that’s where Happy Heads was birthed, with the intention of reconnecting the family unit; reconnecting to allow, and again, you know, Phil talked about it earlier on. I can remember when I was a kid every Friday night, we played Monopoly, and my dad would be there, my mum, my brother… Although, you know, we wouldn’t really play Monopoly. We’d play ‘Who Can Cheat the Best?’, but, you know, that’s how everyone plays Monopoly, isn’t it?

Ha! I can’t confess; I never did! Played a very honest game…
Craig: You never, bought an extra set so you can your own Get Out of Jail Free cards?

I feel like we’re learning a lot about you here, Craig, I really do…
Craig: Well, anyway, the point was that that’s when we communicated; that’s when we talked about the issues. That’s because it flowed because you were in that place. You were in that zone. You were connected to your family. Mobile phones weren’t a thing, we didn’t have a TV on all the time. And you know, that’s the great thing about the Happy Heads game: it’s reconnecting those family units… It’s designed to engage the adults with the children as well as the children with the adults.

Lovely!
Craig: Sorry, I’ve been wittering on…

No, not at all. It was a very insightful answer… A bit depressing at times, but insightful!
Craig: This is why people don’t invite me to much.

Phil: There was an element I wanted to clarify, though, because obviously we work with lots of schools and individuals within an educational setting. But it’s not about the individuals whatsoever. It’s obviously a systemic concern rather than individuals within the facilities. There are people in there that are really fighting the good fight to do exactly what’s best for the child. And it’s these people that we’ve connected with and learned from…

That’s where we’ve received a lot of that information, which we’ve then taken through to the Happy Heads card games, that family focused one, because a lot of these people are family members as well. And once they get to know, they become Book of Beastie champions… So this is where we gather in that initial information. So we were talking about the education system very in a very blanket way there, but there are people in there that are absolute heroes.

I absolutely agree with you. And I think it’s true of our National Health Service as well. I think there are almost exclusively great, empathic, caring people working really hard at the front line… Every time I’ve ever spoken to a doctor or a nurse, they’re absolutely doing their best for me in that moment. And yet, you take a couple of steps back from the front line and you think, “What the hell is wrong with this organisation?” Because the politics, the admin and the communication let down those people. And I think it’s exactly the same with our schools. But anyway! Look… Gosh, we started out talking about a card game and it’s turned into a very deep conversation that, you know, nobody’s ever going to read…

Craig & Phil: Ha!

…but if, if they did, what a treat; they won’t know what they’re missing! Let’s get it back on track. Phil, what’s next for Beasties?
Phil: Well, Happy Heads is family focussed, so Business to Consumer is our next step. We feel we’ve achieved the right amount to be able to go out into families and create something that goes out there and stays out there, rather than having our kind of aftercare services that we provide to the professional side. So that’s going to be a huge focus for us.

We also have a lot of other things in the pipeline; stuff we alluded to last time we spoke to you guys. Some of that we’ve already sent out to be tested and broken; that’s been done and we’re fixing it.

Adam Butler will make sure there’s a link to that article when I say “here”. And Craig?
Craig: I don’t wanna give too much away! It’s all very much on the drawing board at the moment. We don’t want to put anything out there until we’ve broken it, fixed it, broken it, fixed it. The other big one is America, though. We’re just starting to tie up some distributor deals in the States. We also have plans to look towards Europe and Asia. Ultimately Beasties is engaging so many different stakeholders in so many different places. All of a sudden, people are starting to realize this is a really important thing, and starting to look for something that’s not a gimmick.

Phil: The other thing to highlight is some of the relationships we’re building – not just with customers and clients. We also have people asking us to create resources for them. Our approach to this, using our development methods, is to create small universes with characters; this whole kind of microcosm… These little experiences for children and young people to engage with and benefit from that.

And, out of interest, can you say who those people are? Purely for example? We’ve just started working with the likes of the Metropolitan Police, Brentford Football Club, Tottenham Hotspur, so getting into the Premier League there! These big organizations are recognizing the importance of supporting the youth they work with. So it’s about nurturing that, and making more people aware of what we’re bringing to the table and how we make a difference.

Brilliant. Let’s wrap this up with some sensible admin! Phil, if people think they can help, or want to find out more, what’s the best way to reach out to you guys?
Phil: Through the contact form on the website is great; bookofbeasties.com. We’re always happy to chat.

Well, listen, gents, mental health is always a – well, mental wellbeing we’re being encouraged to say, aren’t we? As if that’s not just another wrong tree up which to bark… In any case, mental wellbeing is always a fascinating area for me to explore, so thank you for joining me. Fantastic chat.

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The post Create it, break it, fix it: Phil Tottman and Craig Fearn discuss the powerful process behind Book of Beasties appeared first on Mojo Nation.

At Book of Beasties, we hold the overall wellbeing of the children and young people – who will use and hopefully benefit from our innovations – at the forefront of our minds and development processes.

One of our most significant challenges is to determine not just what is entertaining, but also what focuses the end user’s attention on the core topic at hand – which in our case is mental health – and how we can perfectly balance an enjoyment vs impact ratio.

Gary Pope, Co-Founder of marketing agency Kids Industries, responded to my question with: “If an experience is playful for the individual, then it will be educational for the individual.”

‍It got us thinking more about ‘Ethical Innovation’ or design for the benefit of society. As play has such a huge influence in terms of the development of a young person, then the pressure is truly on the creator to ensure a playful experience always shares a defined positive message.

An Advocacy Brief from the LEGO Foundation and Unicef states: “Scientific research over the past 30 years has taught us that the most important period of human development is from birth to eight years old. During these years, the development of cognitive skills, emotional well-being, social competence and sound physical and mental health builds a strong foundation for success well into the adult years.”

‍This highlights the responsibility that comes with developing content for children. It’s not just about creating something enjoyable and entertaining, but cultivating an experience that could influence that child for the rest of their life.

Back to my question, and play expert, toy designer and advisor to Book of Beasties, Yesim Kunter, commented: “Working on learning (educational) platforms taught me that ‘educating’ and play do not go well together as there is an underestimation of the players’ capacity to learn while playing… Design of the products should lead to suggestions rather than dictating their thought process.”

If this is true and there is a potential lack of understanding or a misjudgement of how a ‘player’ learns while playing, then this could possibly explain why playful learning hasn’t been more widely adopted so far.

With the learning content that is featured in Book of Beasties’ materials (which includes the discussion of mental wellness issues, how to identify them and exercises to practice that may help) we set the scene with a character (or Beastie) and a narrative, then base the playful experience off of that. This, as Yesim says, hints towards the educational elements and allows the child to naturally engage with it (without it being explicit).

The therapy of play, whether that is directive (guided play) or non-directive (free play), is largely about helping a child learn about ‘the self’ whilst exploring adaptive skills which offer insight into a child’s own consciousness, emotions and thought. This self-understanding can even be leveraged into positive changes in behaviour.

Pope went on to say: “Everything starts (and ends) with insight. Not just data points btw [sic]; truly, deeply, unquestionably understanding for whom we are designing that experience. Their developmental stage, engagement preferences, societal context, familial circumstances.”

‍Keeping this in mind throughout any development process is imperative due to the potential suggestive power a product, resource or experience could have on the end user. Through play, the child will tell us more about themselves, their likes and dislikes, situations, wants and needs – and it is the job of a creator, educator and innovator to listen and take note.

Katherine Mengardon, who is a play and creativity education consultant and a published author, added: “The biggest challenges are in keeping things as simple as possible, but also really keeping the user, the child, at the heart of the experience. And the only way to do that is to let them explode [sic] every idea we might have and show us the way.”

‍I then went on to ask: “What are the key successes and/or failings in developing playful learning experiences for children (and adults), and why?”

Jo Redfern, the Global Brand Director of the BAFTA-winning children’s content creator Sutikki, responded: “If you can create something that inspires wonder, that motivates curiosity or encourages expansive thinking then children will learn. It’s as much about how it’s delivered as the content itself.”

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The post Ethical innovation: Creating for children is not child’s play appeared first on Mojo Nation.

Children’s mental wellness game developer, Book of Beasties, has committed to providing all schools in the UK with free remote-learning mental health support.

The London-based start-up is aiming to reach over six million primary aged children by donating its remote wellness kit and access to accompanying CPD training to the 20,000 plus primary schools in the UK.

This new incentive is part of the Playful Minds campaign, which is calling on the Government to increase funding for playful mental health provision for schools and parents.

“With this incentive we hope to highlight the dire need for better mental health support in schools and put pressure on those who can make a difference to do so,” said Phil Tottman, CEO and co-founder of Book of Beasties.

“We are a small company, but our primary focus is to improve the wellbeing of children nationwide, especially following such an adverse year. If that means giving away our resources so people can benefit from them then so be it. We couldn’t be more honoured to be helping in such a way.”

Any schools or parents who are interested in receiving a copy of the Remote Wellness Kit are welcome to contact Book of Beasties on info@bookofbeasties.com.

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The post Book of Beasties to provide mental wellness support to over 20,000 UK schools as part of Playful Minds campaign appeared first on Mojo Nation.

Book of Beasties is an award-winning mental wellness card game, which aims to raise emotional literacy, teach resilience and empathy and encourage open conversations about mental health and wellness.

With expansions on the way and a collaboration with play expert Yesim Kunter in full swing, we caught up with both Phil Tottman, CEO and founder of Book of Beasties, and Yesim, to find out more about the company’s approach to game design.

Phil! Great to reconnect; we actually used to work at the same publishing house, you on Mobile Entertainment and me on ToyNews. So was the seed of Book of Beasties bubbling away back then?
PT: It was actually around that time that I was struggling with own mental health. In 2013, when I started at Intent Media, I was doing lots of different things at the same time and it became a bit much. I had a form of breakdown, and that led to me making some questionable choices and life decisions and I ended up being homeless. I used to sleep in my car opposite the office.

After I left that job, I went to another journalism job in London and stayed there for a short while, but I wasn’t feeling great. So I left and revaluated my life; I wanted to look at why I’d got to where I was, why I made certain decisions and how I didn’t see this thing coming. I realised I hadn’t been managing my emotions properly.

Myself and a friend – Tom Dryland – who then became my co-founder, along with my wife – Nadia De Kuyper – who is my other co-founder, had experiences of mental ill health and were looking at where we could make an impact. I hadn’t been introduced to the idea of wellbeing, or even to my own emotions, as a child and I didn’t have that knowledge as an adult; that possibly led to my issues happening.

We had lots of friends who were teachers and we asked them what kinds of provisions they had on mental health, and there was very little; this was three or four years ago. There wasn’t much there that was evidence-based, or child-led, and it just wasn’t playful. Instead, it was designed for teachers to deliver to children, to get children to talk about their emotions. Thick books, black and white pages; it wouldn’t inspire me to talk about my feelings, let alone a child!

And Book of Beasties came from this need to talk about these issues in a more engaging way?
PT: Absolutely. We thought we could create a physical game. At that time, Fortnite was blowing up, so we wanted to do something that didn’t involve a screen and instead do a physical card game that could bring children into the moment. We wanted it to be narrative-driven, playful and something that would immerse them in the world of mental health and address these topics in a way that feels more comfortable.

We didn’t know much about play back then, but one of the first things we wanted to do was to get psychologist involvement and endorsement. It turns out there was a world of research into the benefits of play. That was awesome and confirmed we were on the right path.

To back-pedal a little, we should delve into game itself. For anyone that hasn’t played it yet, what’s the game about?
PT: The idea of Book of Beasties is to help as many beasties as possible, and each beastie represents a manifestation of anxiety or depression or a collection of emotions that fall into that spectrum.

You help the beasties by using special items and each item translates into a wellness exercise or a topic of discussion. We themed the games around sessions; there are ten different types of beasties and three different versions of each type, so there are loads of activities and opportunities for discussions.

The game itself is around matching symbols, so it’s simple and aimed at kids aged six to 12.

Brill – and what were those first steps of development like? I imagine it’s the sort of game that goes through a lot of playtesting to check it’s helping children open up?
PT: Yes, we developed the game and started trialling it with children, under the supervision of teachers and psychologists. It worked better than we ever thought. It had the children opening up, willing to address topics that they hadn’t spoken about before and the game was even getting them engaged with things like yoga. We aspired to raise emotional literacy and encourage conversation around mental health, and it was doing that.

How did you get the balance right between achieving those aims, while also creating a game that’s engaging and genuinely fun to play?
PT: As soon as someone says to you “how do you feel?”, you immediately put up barriers, even if you don’t mean to. If that’s how you start a conversation with a child, it’s not going to work. That’s why we prioritised the game side of it. We looked at what we would be willing to interact with as a child and prioritised the game and the fun stuff. We introduced activities that we thought would make for an enjoyable experience for a child.

For example, we introduced deep breathing into the game. It’s a common wellbeing tactic that adults use, but children aren’t so keen on it because it’s boring! So, in the game, we have paper boat races that sees children use deep breaths to blow a boat across a table.

When we were trialling the game, we asked the kids if they liked it, and they told us to change this, change that; pretty much all the rules were changed by the kids. The rules in the game now are not our rules, they’re the kids’ rules! They pretty much designed it!

At the time, we thought if it’s fun to do, then a child will remember it, but we soon got to a point where we really needed psychologist input. But the fun element came first.

And delving into that psychologist side of things, who did you turn to?
PT: We partnered up with two psychologists from a charity called Action for Happiness, and then we partnered with the University of West London. They came in and started doing rigorous testing and a pilot study, which was super successful.

Where does Book of Beasties sit? Do you see it in the games aisle or strictly in schools?
PT: It was – and still is – a school resource aimed at Special Education Needs (SEN) Co-ordinators within schools, but we have seen a small uptake of our resources being used in the home environment.

You can’t help but get lost in the world of the game and so I think we will see an increase in the game being played within both the home and the school market.

Recently we found out that the game was also being used at Great Ormond Street Hospital by patients who were isolated. It went down really well and the kids loved it, so off the back of that, we’ve officially partnered with Great Ormond Street Hospital. There’s also a social care organisation called Change Grow Live; they use the game too. So it can be slotted into lots of different scenarios.

And Yesim, let’s bring you in now; how did you come across Book of Beasties?
YK: It was an unlucky situation that turned into a lucky one! During lockdown, the Kew Gardens area created a Facebook group. Phil posted about Book of Beasties on there, I saw it and thought it was amazing and wanted to be a part of it.

I’ve always been interested in mental health, but also in genuinely understanding children, how they play and how they understand themselves. And also how all that translates into learning.

Looking at the wider toy and game space, are we getting closer to these sorts of products becoming mass market?
YK: Mass market companies have always tried to put some kind of emotions into their products, because it’s so important for kids. But it’s very hard to properly translate those kinds of ideas into a toy, especially for a global market. It needs to come from a place of understanding the age group and how they relate to each other and themselves. Truly defining what the end result is and what your aims are with these kinds of products is where it becomes difficult to budget for it within some bigger companies.

But, within the last five years, with creative toys becoming really popular, emotions have become super important again, and with Covid, you can’t escape discussions around this and mental health. It really is the most important subject now.

Mattel recently did a study into empathy and doll play with Cardiff University and it’s amazing how by adding research into the mix it helps people recognise that play is important.

Are parents pushing this too? I imagine younger families are more open when it comes to discussions around mental health than previous generations.
YK: Yes, you’re right. Covid just accelerated this; it has been boiling up anyway. Most of us are more connected to our own selves, and interested in understanding who we really are. 15 years ago, you might not be asking those questions of yourself but now, everybody is asking those questions. It has become a natural way of connecting with your child, so of course those questions will be asked.

Colouring books for adults has been a big thing for about six years now. It didn’t come out of nowhere; people were realising they needed some kind of creative outlet. There’s so much stress going on that people need these kinds of bubbles to keep yourself sane, happy and connected.

PT: Mental health used to be a taboo subject. Before, you’d think it was a bad thing, whereas now we see it as something that everyone has and everyone has to maintain, like your physical health. Parents are now willing to accept this and know that playing a metal wellness game with their child, it doesn’t mean their child is unwell or broken, it means they’re learning.

Schools are also becoming more open to the use of play. In the UK, the traditional method of education is memory-based. You teach children how to remember things, and then they’re tested on it, and that’s how we determine intelligence. I feel like that will go out of fashion as time goes on because playful methods of learning are far more effective and people are starting to realise that now.

Is it a cultural thing? If we look over at our Scandinavian friends, it seems playful learning has been embraced and is working well…
YK: Yes, Scandinavia is doing really well with this; they totally understand that free play is important. Recess time is shrinking across the whole world – aside from Scandinavia – and that’s sad. We’re right to be envious of them! I would be, especially coming from a country that’s all about memorisation learning. I think memorisation is a great skill to have, but it doesn’t mean that you know how to learn. Playful learning is the only way to go.

Great design, impressive hair and now playful learning; I’ve got lots to be envious of when it comes to Scandinavians! And Phil, looking ahead, what’s the future got in-store for Book of Beasties?
PT: We’ve been in talks with Asmodee recently, looking at potentially reaching out to retailers. I certainly see opportunities in the more commercial market.

Yesim and I are also working together on a project for younger years. We’re working with the University of Surrey on a board game for younger years that promotes healthy sleeping habits, mindfulness and wellness. There’s nothing out there like it, and it’s shaping up to be amazing. And that’s aimed at the home, so it’s a more commercial prospect.

And will you return to the world of Book of Beasties? I imagine there’s enough in there in terms of characters and locations to turn it into a fully-fledged brand across multiple categories outside of games.
PT: 100%. Everything we create follows a narratives and we’ve got comics on our site that takes children fully into our immersive world. We are at the beginning of growing this massive universe. Pokémon has created an incredible world and that’s what we’re aspiring towards with Beasties. We have 10 expansions to the game planned, and we plan to release one a year from next year onwards. It’s going to grow and grow and grow.

Before I let you go, the game has been around for a few years now, so you have met people that have engaged with Beasties and had real effective change happen as a result?
PT: The teachers that use it are incredible, wonderful people. They took a chance on us and on a new type of learning and they were open-minded.

The pilot study saw a small group of children use the game and we interviewed the kids and their parents before and after. The parents of one of the boys in the group told us they hoped the game would increase their son’s emotional intelligence and understanding of others, but they said they were not prepared for such a dramatic transformation in their son. That was incredible to hear, especially coming from a parent.

Another example was a child who had severe behavioural issues where he refused to learn and wouldn’t interact with his teachers or his fellow students. He would get fed up and leave the class. They asked if we could go in and introduce the game to him. We sat down with him and had him talking to us about the game for around an hour. He spoke about the characters and rocket ships and then started opening up to us. He told us that he doesn’t speak to his classmates because he thought they didn’t like him. He said he felt lonely and felt judged by his teachers.

His learning mentor had never seen him open up like that; he even did yoga with us! Since then, he’s used the game as part of his daily routine, and that’s really heart-warming.

Great stuff; and before I let you go, could you talk us through your new Playful Minds initiative? It sounds brill.
PT: Yes, Playful Minds is our campaign that Yesim is the ambassador of. We’re calling on the government to increase funding for mental health provisions in schools, with a focus on playful mental health provisions.

We’re on Twitter @PlayfulMinds or go to https://www.bookofbeasties.com/playful-minds to sign up and get our manifesto.

Brill; thanks again Phil and Yesim. And good luck with the new campaigns and products.
PT: Thank you! And one more thing, we are actually looking for a publisher for the game at the moment, so if anyone wanted to reach out to have a chat, we’re at info@bookofbeasties.com.

Perfect! Let’s hope you get some interest. Speak soon.

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Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity has partnered with children’s wellness start-up Book of Beasties to raise vital funds in support of GOSH’s dedicated play team.

Book of Beasties is a multi-award winning children’s mental wellness resource developer and creator of the Book of Beasties card game that aims to raise emotional literacy, teach resilience, empathy and encourage open conversations about mental health and wellness.

This partnership will see the launch of a resource platform on the Book of Beasties’ website that is dedicated to GOSH Charity, with new features including creative and playful wellbeing resources.

The company will donate £1 per month from each subscriber to its “Wellness Champion Platform” supporting the Hospital’s specialist Play Team, who support children and young people during their treatment at the hospital. In return, subscribers will receive access to regularly published reading materials, mindfulness and wellbeing activities, webinars and more.

In early 2019, prior to the pandemic, Book of Beasties visited the psychology team at GOSH to introduce the game and donate a number of copies for the hospital’s patients.

“We couldn’t be more honoured and excited to become an official partner of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity,” said Phil Tottman, CEO and co-creator of Book of Beasties.

“We were delighted to offer our Book of Beasties game to the Play team at GOSH, we think it is more important now than ever before to promote good mental health amongst children and young people.

“We hope our dedicated platform will give more people access to our Beasties and their wellness message, whilst donating to support the GOSH Play Team to help them continue their amazing work.”

Chris Carter, Head of Partnership Development at GOSH Charity, added: “We are really pleased to be partnering with Book of Beasties to raise funds for the hospital’s team of play specialists, while simultaneously raising awareness about the mental health and well-being of children. We’re excited to work closely with Book of Beasties to develop and grow this partnership.”

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Book of Beasties: The Mental Wellness Card Game has achieved Good Toy Guide status following weeks of testing by Dr Amanda Gummer’s Good Toy Guide testers.

The game was deemed to be “a great way to encourage children to talk about their mental wellbeing and express their own feelings.”

The report went on to say: ”Our testers found that the game got children talking and sharing their emotions and it also particularly helped one of the children with autism to work on his anxieties.”

“This is such a considerable achievement for our team and for playful mental health education as a whole,” said Phil Tottman, CEO and co-founder of Book of Beasties.

“It displays that this method of learning can be, and is, impactful and greatly needed by the children that need it most.”

Find out more about Book of Beasties over at https://www.bookofbeasties.com.

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