The regular frustration of having to sort the Connect 4 tokens after a quick match was enough to get Australian engineer Aaron Titelius in the inventing mood.
And while he was fixing one thing, he thought, why not improve the whole gameplay for everyone, whatever their ability?
Therein lies the idea for TorKings, the new accessible Connect 4 based game.
(Please note, the video below does not feature audio description.)
The tokens are tactile, easily distinguishable through touch, and the game can be easily mapped by hand, not by sight.
“It’s a turbo charged version of Connect 4, which sorts your tokens for you, you can join the board games together and play in teams,” Aaron said.
A 5mm gap between each side means once the game is over and the tokens are released, they are fed back to the side the player put them in, even though they look like they’re on top of each other.
Photo: The TorKings game with orange and white tokens.
The game is also Australian made, being produced out of a plastics factory in Western Australia.
“Our manufacturing capacity is at a fraction of what it used to be, so we wanted to support those still in business,” he said.
Creative freedom and local production meant Aaron was also able to tweak his game to become more inclusive.
Photo: Australian inventor of TorKings Aaron Titelius.
“You design up rather than design down,” he said.
“It doesn’t cost anymore to do that, so why not be inclusive?”
While the tokens are perfectly tactile, they are also choke proof, and are white and orange to offer better contrast.
This is Aaron’s first foray into game design, and as TorKings hits the market, he is already working on more unique accessible games.
The TorKings game is available online or you can trial the product in store at Vision Stores across Australia.
It retails for $65.
Check out other accessible games:
Tactile Rubix Cube
What is it? In this version, in addition to colours, each of the sides has unique tactile markings (circles, triangles, dots, etc.) so it can be solved by touch only.
Cost: $53
Large Print Scrabble
What is it? This Scrabble comes with large print tiles, while the playing board has tactile dots on the premium letter squares and tactile dashes on the premium word squares.
Cost: $100