A healthier, more sustainable future for children
Our mission is to empower children to take ownership of their future, by building an extended reality playground, designed to improve children’s health and wellbeing.
We launched Fish Bladder Games to pursue our passion for change in order to help children remove their perceived barriers and gain confidence, by improving their physical and mental wellbeing. We have witnessed first hand the positive impact that increased levels of physical activity, particularly, has upon people’s overall outlook both during our time in the British Army, and whilst working in the fitness industry, and we want to ensure that this opportunity is extended to younger demographics using a solution built specifically for them.
Physical and mental wellbeing
As former fitness entrepreneurs, we wanted to take action to help children enjoy the positive results of looking after their physical and mental wellbeing.
We see an opportunity to intervene early in a child’s life using a medium that they are engaging with in enormous numbers to achieve genuine real-world impact.
The Team
We are team of two former British Army Officers (CEO & COO) and a CTO with 30+ years experience in the gaming industry. We are effective leaders, organisers and decision makers, whilst also being extremely creative. Click on our faces to see us on LinkedIn
Jon Reynolds CEO
Former British Army Captain who created a digital-health solution now in 85 schools. 12+ years fitness entrepreneurship, including extensive work with children, and father of two.
Jonathan Oates MBE COO
Former British Army Major with 16+ years leadership and management experience. MBE awarded for strategy and implementation. MBA, published author, and father of two.
Mark Ripley CTO
Games Industry veteran of 30+ years with board level experience and management expertise. Project work completed in AR, VR and using ML – more recently in pose detection for mobile.
Why?
In 2018, Jon Reynolds successfully launched a digital health programme, Classroom Movers, to help primary aged children complete short bursts of activity in the moments before learning. Observing the positive impact the playful activities were having on children’s motivation to be active, demonstrated children’s love of play even when the physical activity taking place was at higher intensities. Using his new experience in digital health and his past in developing behaviour change programmes, in 2020 he began to look at a scalable solution to get children more active using the most compelling and playful of activities – video games.
Jon Reynolds & Jonathan Oates MBE joined forces again in 2021 to, and having served together in the British Military knew they’d make a great team. As fathers themselves, they’d observed how their own children engaged with video games, and whilst their children enjoy being active (happy brain chemicals are released when doing physical activity – endorphins), given the chance they’d rather be gaming.
“Our journey started by thinking of how much more exciting physical activity would be If it were turned into a video game. Video games that require movement to play aren’t new, but from our research, none of them are as compelling as the most popular children’s video games. Based on extensive experience working with young people, Jon R knew a solution had to be developed on a child’s terms with an exciting story, freedom of action, social interaction and recognition & reward as the framework for play.” – Jon & Jon, Founders.
We began to investigate how we could use games as a way of getting children everywhere to be more active, and whilst we have their undivided attention, involve them in a process of learning about sustainability, healthy eating and how to look after their mental health and wellbeing.
We’re aligned to the UN’s Mission for a more sustainable future for all, including children.
We will intervene early in a child’s life to help them learn about the importance of remaining healthy, ensuring that they develop positive habits that last a lifetime.
Our narrative will help children learn about sustainability and the critical role that they play in managing consumption and production patterns.
We believe every child should be equipped to look after their health and wellbeing. If you believe the same, let’s talk. If you’d like to own a piece of Fish Bladder Games, please read more about our equity crowdfunding campaign.