12-year-old Aidan Purkins from Leziate creates Dino Chase board game which gets royal seal of approval

A 12-year-old passionate about dinosaurs has produced his very own board game which has had around 1,000 copies made.

Aidan Purkins, from Leziate, has turned his initial sketches and ideas into a manufactured board game “Dino Chase”.

It has been a lengthy process for Aidan and his family, who first started coming up with ideas for Dino Chase when the youngster was seven years old.

Dino Chase involves a “race to survival” for the “human” players, while they try to escape from the solo “dinosaur” player and make it safely onto the boat to escape the island.

They will face many obstacles along the way, including mud pits, volcanoes and more.

The game is suitable for family members aged five and above, takes around 20 minutes to play and can involve two to six players.

It has had positive feedback so far, and has even had the royal seal of approval after the Prince and Princess of Wales’ children have received a copy of Dino Chase after the Purkins family sent them a copy.

They have since received a letter of thanks from Kensington Palace for the game.

Aidan along with his parents Sarah and Graham and 10-year-old brother Dylan have trialled playing Dino Chases hundreds of times to make sure it plays well before its release.

Aidan, who has been interested in dinosaurs since he was two years old, said: “I’m really proud of myself to see the game out now, it has taken some time.

“It started when I was seven when I went through a game-making phase. We all played [the first version of Dino Chase] and my mum and dad suggested it would be a lot of fun if we made it.”

Aidan then got to work sketching concepts for the game and started working with a graphic designer to design the board and front cover of Dino Chase.

His dad Graham said: “Despite having no previous experience, over the past five years our family worked together to turn his creative idea into a fully developed board game.

“After countless play-tests, collaborations with a graphic designer, and sourcing a manufacturer, we recently launched Dino Chase with our first production run of 1,000 sets.”

Aidan’s mum Sarah added: “We couldn’t be prouder of him. He is a very clever boy, he looks at things and wants to make things better.

“He just loves dinosaurs and loved watching Andy’s Dino Adventures on CBeebies when he was 18 months old.”

Dino Chase is available to buy online via its website as well as on Amazon.

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