Slaying the Dragons (From The Argus)

Slaying the Dragons

4:50pm Saturday 8th December 2012 in News By Ben Leo, reporter

Rarely do budding entrepreneurs prove the fearsome investors on Dragon’s Den wrong.

But Eastbourne inventor John Chambers has done just that.

Mr Chambers, 65, appeared on the BBC2 hit show in 2007 to present one of his word-making board games.

Like many before him, his idea was shot down and he left the den unsuccessful.

But now five years on, another one of his clever games, called Word Links, has been digitally re-created by top games developer Fat Fish Games for Apple iOS, Android and Facebook. It will also be released for download today.

The game enables players to make words with two letter cube pieces to score big multi-word points as opposed to the traditional single-lettered tiles.

Mr Chambers, a retired businessman and teacher, said: “I developed the two-letter feature during many years of research, calculating which combinations enabled the best word creations.

Business success

“I’m delighted that my word game has now been brought to life for wordy gamers to enjoy, across multiple platforms.”

This autumn Mr Chambers has been sharing the secrets of his business success with students at Eastbourne College. His three-month long “Starting a Business” lessons have been teaching A-level Business Studies students how to start up their own firm.

Jonasson Lochner, director of the Sussex-University based Fat Fish Games, said: “Word Links has been a remarkable achievement for Fat Fish Games. Versions for three platforms have been developed in just over three months with a small five-man team.

“This is in stark contrast to developers of leading word games such as Words with Friends, whose resources comparatively dwarf that of our own.”

To play Word Links for free on iPhone, Android or Facebook, visit www.wordlinksgame.com

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