Journey home
Jennifer Kavanagh describes the background of the new board game to Hannah Lynn
Jennifer, where did you find your inspiration for the game? Well, the initial inspiration, of course, came from my book, The O of Home. However, the real idea came as what you might call a ‘middle of the night’ inspiration – I woke up and suddenly thought: ‘It could be made into a game’!
How did you go about turning the book into a game?
Well, I thought about the different elements that are woven into the book, the different strands of ‘home’, and how they could be used in the game: shelter, family, community, environment, inner peace. All our ideas came from the Spirit. I worked on my ideas with Andrew Connolly and some other Friends. It took a lot of brainstorming with bits of paper and dice but, finally, we came up with the idea for the game. We were also helped by a very generous donation from a Friend in my Meeting.
What difficulties did you encounter?
We worried, somewhat, about coming across as ‘preachy’, but by introducing some humour into the decision-making side of the game – in both the character and event cards – this problem was avoided.
What were your favourite games as a child? Did you draw on these in the making of Journey Home?
The games I enjoyed as a child were Cluedo, Monopoly, and Totopoly. I really see our game as the antidote to Monopoly though.
What was it about Monopoly that you didn’t like?
Greed! And one person getting so far ahead that it’s miserable for all the other players. Our game can be competitive, but it can essentially be played however you want. You can compete but you can also collaborate; it’s flexible.
Discussion is always at the centre of the game. It came out of the complexity of the notion of ‘home’, but the main thing in the planning stages was that it should be fun.
Did you and Andrew have a clear vision of your concept from the outset?
There were three things that were clear from the beginning. First, that a large percentage of the profits should go to a housing charity. Second, that all the components should be sustainable. Unfortunately, for financial reasons, we had to include some plastic instead of wood, but it’s all recyclable. And finally, that the concept should be based around truth. There were certain things about the notion of ‘home’ that I wanted to keep: the idea that you can be ‘at home’ anywhere on the board, just as you can be at home at any point in your life; the idea that your life journey is not determined by the house that you grew up in; the idea that we all start in the same place in life (the womb) before we are thrown out into the world, be it into a hostel, a flat, a caravan or a manor house.
We live in a world where new games are being created every day. We also live in an age of video games. Did you have worries about the need to design something cutting-edge and entirely new?
This game is not cutting-edge. It is traditional. I think what many people still want in a board game is the traditional.
Looking back, was it fun?
Yes. It was hard work: the whole project took us approximately two years. But it was a lot of fun, too. The other day I said to Andrew, ‘I’ve had an idea!’
His reply?
‘Oh no, not again! The last one was rather a lot of work!’
Journey Home was designed and created by Andrew Connolly and Jennifer Kavanagh. It is available online http://journeyhomegame.com and in the Quaker Centre Bookshop. £25.
