When a financial analyst and a chartered accountant design a game one expects a certain degree of complication compounded by numbers and calculations. If it is a card game, more so. So when Dilish Daniel shows how Ible is played it is a pleasant, easy, time pass of a surprise.
Messages such as - ‘take all’, ‘happy’, ‘so sorry’, ‘eureka’, ‘hello baby’, ‘don’t worry’ - printed on the set of 66 playing cards are pointers to how Ible is played. It is not serious and doesn’t require poring over instructions to figure out the rules either. “My brother Joshy and I devised this game as kids. Those days we played with a deck of playing cards - it was hugely popular in our family especially when cousins came visiting from abroad. We would get very involved with the game. What made it even more popular was that it isn’t very difficult, unlike other card games, and that it was unique,” says the 31- year-old Muvattupuzha native.
Dilish is a financial analyst with a Kochi-based company, while Joshy is a Dubai-based chartered accountant.
When they played the card game, with family, it was just a game. But years, and a course in International Business Management from Canada, later, Dilish hit on the idea of making a business out of the game. “The course, definitely, gave me the idea of starting a business.” With both brothers being involved in finance and accounting, they made sure they had done proper research, which meant playing the game extensively with their friends. The feedback – that the game was engaging as well entertaining without complicated rules – was all they needed to go ahead.
KOCHI, Kerala, 14/11/2018: Ible cards designed by Dilish and Joshy Daniel. Photo: Thulasi Kakkat / The Hindu
Brainstorming with his brother, Dilish hit upon the current form – retaining the playing card format, replacing the suits of the pack with the light-hearted wordings. “They don’t have anything to do with the rules of the game...just random stuff to up the fun quotient. Often it is reflection of the frame of mind of the player. It is not a competitive game.” However, like all games, there will be a winner and some losers.
And the name? “We just wanted it to be something catchy and not too complicated.” The brothers designed the cards, down to scale and size and got the printing done in Mumbai. Besides retailing from stores such as Crossword, they have been selling via Amazon for the last two months.
The plan is to, eventually, take the game to a wider audience and overseas.
