A NEW board game, invented by a Frenchman and focusing on the towns of Rhuddlan and Rhyl, is set to be launched.

The Denbighshire Adaptation Game is a tile-based strategy game for three players on theme of climate change and more specifically, flooding.

One player acts as a gamesmaster or facilitator, while the other two become respective 'guardians' of the two towns and attempt to protect them from rising floodwaters as they move around the board.

With each player's, turn the waters rise, the extent decided by the roll of the dice. There is also a climatic or human-led event players must contend with.

The players can decide to play co-operatively or not, depending on their strategy, although events can push them to play together for the ultimate goal of survival and to conserve resources.

The game, similar in format to ‘co-operation’ board games such as Pandemic and Shadow over Camelot, has been devised by Gauthier Roussilhe and it is the culmination of a project arising from a 10-week field trip he took, alongside 29 fellow-students, to Denbighshire earlier this year .

The 29-year-old, who hails from the Auvergne region of France, is a masters student in the design department at Goldsmiths, University of London's, working under a Rhyl-born tutor, Jimmy Loizeau.

He said: “I've picked the two towns because Rhyl will have to face both sea and river floods, while Rhuddlan is more likely to be protected from river floods.

"I was curious to see how two 'actors', confronted to different degrees of emergency, can co-operate.

“Indeed Rhyl has a history of getting flooded, the most recent one only dating from 2013.

"The town is one of the most vulnerable spot on the northern Welsh coastline.

“The point is the get everyone around a table and discuss which digital games are mostly inadequate for and are also inefficient energy-wise.

“I think it's more than necessary to create a conversation space for residents and officials because of the lack of awareness regarding climate change implications and also because most decisions are taken without public consultation.

“Public organisations have a duty to inform and, so far, it hasn't been successful in North Wales.”

He added: “This role of facilitator was made so councillors and flood wardens can use it as a conversation space where they can engage with citizens' concerns and understand how they approach the issue of floods and climate change.”

Gauthier is currently testing the game's template and plans to return to Rhyl as soon as possible to field test it. He is also planning to do a PhD on the topic.

He said: “I would like to try it (the game) with primary school or secondary school pupils to see how they use it.

"I want to help people create more games, so next time I come it will be to test the game but also to create a new one with Rhyl's residents.

“The game's name is really dry, but I guess it's not up to me to name it. Rhyl's inhabitants should test it and find the most suitable name.

“The game is meant to stay 'open source', but it's only a beginning. I would like to work with organisations like Natural Resources Wales to create game-making workshops where citizens can engage with climate experts and make their own games."