Kevin is a father of invention
Idea turned lockdown boredom into board game
The kids were very involved in the creative side of it, and had good fun doing it Kevin McMillan
An entrepreneurial Rutherglen man has turned lockdown boredom into a lockdown board game, which is now proving popular with online purchasers.
Until March, Kevin McMillan was the town’s very own Doctor Doolittle. But his popular travelling zoo business lost £60,000 through the crippling impact of coronavirus.
When the pandemic struck at Kevin’s busiest time of the year, scores of bookings were cancelled, completely wiping out the summer order book of his Animal Man and Team Dino.
A devastated Kevin had to lay off all eight members of his staff, and a third of the animals which starred in his shows – including boa constructors, smaller snakes, other reptiles and tortoises – had to be rehomed.
“Everyone was in turmoil,” recalled dad-of-three Kevin.
“We did not know quite what was going on. I was a bit emotional, having to let everyone go and find good homes for the animals. My wife, Kate, is a kids’ author, so she’d had a lot of events cancelled too.
“We were trying to keep everything relatively normal for the kids, so we started playing board games to keep their minds off it.”
Kevin then hit on the idea of creating his own game, initially by taping together a few sheets of A4, and gradually adding to the concept and design each evening.
“The kids were very involved in the creative side of it, and had good fun doing it,” continued Kevin.
“Instead of just being sketches, we made it into a proper board game.”
The family paid $200 to have their design made up by a firm in China and shipped to the UK – and that’s when the Lockdown 2020 concept took off.
“The first week, we played it every day, and the kids would play it with friends in the back garden. It’s a really cool wee game. I looked into doing this as a way forward – another avenue,” said Kevin, whose Animal Man party inquiries are now slowly beginning to pick up.
Similar to a Monopoly board, the game has 45 boxes decorated in black and yellow danger tape, each representing a day on lockdown.
As players navigate the board and land on “challenge squares”, they will collect a card that poses them a lockdown-related challenge, such as completing a number of pressups, preparing a favourite lockdown drink or snack, clapping for carers, or contacting a relative via Zoom.
Blank cards contained in the box allow players to add their own personal challenges, which will in months and years ahead rekindle memories of their own lockdown experiences.
“We passed the game around some other families, and one added a challenge of performing a somersault on the trampoline – something they’d perfected during lockdown. We don’t have a trampoline – so that made the game specific to them,” explained Kevin.
The Lockdown 2020 board game, priced at £20 including free delivery, has already netted more than 500 sales on Shopify.
After a second sample was delivered last week, the McMillans are now planning to place an order for 2000 more of their game.
“We’ve set it at quite an attractive price point and we’re hoping to get it on Amazon,” continued Kevin, whose other Animal Man show pets – including ducks, chickens, guinea pigs and rabbits – now reside in pens in his garden.
“We do not know if it will have longevity, as people may want to just move on after lockdown and forget about it. But then others will want it as a keepsake, especially in the run-up to Christmas.
“It’s more than just a game – it’s a memory box.”