Ansagrams (Big Box Edition) | Card Game from TV & Radio Personality Matt Edmondson | Card Game | Ages 12+| 3+ Players | Average Playtime 30-60 Minutes

Product Information

When I was in my twenties, I played more games. I was sent Bananagrams – which I loved – and I would often play card games with my housemates, but I’d never thought about creating my own game.

It has to be a two-word answer to be a spoonerism, so I thought what if the words swapped around. So then I had two things! Then I thought you could just give the correct answer normally – so now I had three elements. We sold out in about a week and a half. Then, the real push to do more games came when we met with John Lewis following the success of Ansagrams. They said the most dangerous thing that could be said to me: “If you have any other ideas, let us know.” Then I thought, rather than switch the letters, what about if you had to ditch the letters? That was the fourth thing sorted. Then I thought, maybe there’s one element where you have to deliberately give the wrong answer. Now I have a quiz – and it’s a quiz where you could answer one question in five different ways.

Will you be claiming the VAT back?

The ones that do it really well are the games that have a fantastic mechanic at the heart of them, like Dobble. It means the licensed versions of Dobble, like Dobble Gruffalo, give you the best of both worlds; you get a fantastic game mechanic while introducing people to Julia Donaldson, or you’re introducing Gruffalo fans to a new fantastic game like Dobble. It’s a good partnership. letters from the words "moon starer" can be rearranged to give the word "astronomer". Our quiz offers anagrams on British cities, football clubs, Christmas words and famous British landmarks.

I initially took the idea to Lesley Singleton from Playtime PR. She was the only person I knew from the board game industry because she had sent me Bananagrams. She probably had that feeling of dread when she met me of ‘Oh no, another person who thinks they have a great idea for a board game!’ Great stuff. Now you said there that self-publishing sounded hard, but fast-forward to today and you’ve launched your own games company in Format Games. What changed your mind? In the UK, word game Ansagrams is now distributed by Asmodee to a number of major and indie retailers including John Lewis and Waterstones, while Egg Slam and So Wrong It’s Right make their high street debut exclusively at John Lewis for autumn/winter 2021. All three games will launch in other global territories through Asmodee in spring/summer 2022, along with a fourth new game, Noggin, which will also be available in the UK next year. My brother-in-law Laurence hasn’t got a creative bone in his body, but he’s fantastic at logistics. He was also going through a bit of a tough time with his cleaning business. It shut down because he couldn’t send cleaners to people’s homes during the pandemic. He had nothing to do and I had nothing to do, and our skill-sets matched up. Now Matt and his brother-in-law Laurence Emmett have founded Format Games and are launching two new games this year in the form of colour-mixing card game Egg Slam and trivia title, So Wrong It’s Right.Also, through people knowing my personality because of the radio or having played my previous games, they trust that I like board games and I know what I’m doing. In that respect it’s easier. We’ve likened the experience to a couple of guys taking up busking on Monday, then being signed by a major label for a five-record deal by Friday,” said Laurence Emmett, Co-Founder of Format Games.