THE STORY OF ABOUT TIME BOARD GAMES
It all started as a bit of fun with some old chronology books in a north London flat in 2001. Then came the prototypes and finally About Time was born. The inventors - veterinary scientist Iain McGill, journalist Joe Gill, designer Michele Rosaus and e-entrepreneur Matt Gould wanted to be sure that it was a truly entertaining, balanced and beautiful product, with elements of luck, knowledge and high stakes to satisfy the vital components of all great board games. In 2006 writer and researcher Ollie Goodall joined the team and since 2013, investor and entrepreneur Simon Collis has taken a key role in charting the course of About Time.
The original About Time Board Game featured on BBC2’s Dragons' Den Christmas special in 2007. Although the Dragons turned down the chance to plough £50,000 into the company, the inventors were confident they’d created a winner, so they formed Circa Circa and launched the game successfully into the market after winning over the board game teams at Hamleys and Borders.
In 2008 Circa worked with the Guardian and launched The Guardian Edition of About Time in the newspaper itself.
For 2009 About Time launched two new editions and went global! A German edition of About Time was created in partnership with the highly respected DIE ZEIT newspaper, and in the US, a new American edition was created and distributed through Barnes & Noble.
2010 saw the launch of the Populist Edition of About Time in the UK, and a large re-order of the DIE ZEIT Edition from Germany.
In 2011 two new versions of About Time were launched in the UK. Firstly the Friends & Family Edition with the 'goldilocks' questions - neither too old or too new, nor too hard nor too easy, nor too celebrity nor too sleazy. As if that wasn’t enough, we made it a hat-trick of top quality newspaper partnerships with The Daily Telegraph Edition of About Time joining the earlier Guardian and DIE ZEIT offerings.
Entrepreneur and investor Simon Collis joined Circa in 2013, and oversaw a windfall licensing agreement with Hollywood. About Time has continued to sell well, gracing the shelves of John Lewis and Waterstones, amongst others, while doing brisk business all year round via our on-line store.
As stocks run low of our latest best ever Friends & Family Edition of About Time, Circa have released stocks of Classic About Time Editions and Card Packs to ensure that anyone who wants a copy of About Time for Chrismtas 2016 can still get one!
Seasons Greetings to All
The Circa Team x
Christmas 2016
For more information about About Time board games please contact iain@playabouttime.com