Band makes album cover board game to fund release

Moony (second in, bottom left) said Opaque once challenged itself to become the biggest band in Liechtenstein after discovering it had fans there

A festival band has included a board game in the limited-edition launch of its new vinyl album cover to help fund its wider release.

Opaque, based in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire, released 200 vinyl records featuring the game with interactive QR codes, hidden tracks, artwork and interviews.

The band raised £3,000 through a pre-order campaign to help production costs.

Beginning To End, Opaque's fourth studio album, looks at its 25-year history and what might come next.

The band tends work in the summer and have the winter off to give members more long periods of free time

The band's singer-songwriter Moony said the game had 75 squares representing 75 years of life.

The aim was not to be the first to finish but to collect happy points on the way before rolling the dice to see how you die, he said.

"I had a feeling that maybe [Opaque] is beginning to end, but then I thought to myself... it's been beginning to end since the day we started," Moony said.

"I revisited and reworked some tracks that I wrote as a teenager, so the album's got songs written in the late 80s, early 90s and songs I wrote this and last year.

"But, trying to do this album is very expensive and I realised, my ideas were well above my budget."

The new album and board game focuses on the journey of life and how difficult paths can lead to positive outcomes

The five-piece indie alternative gypsy swing band said the pre-orders would "make all the difference to whether we can release this album on vinyl or only as a digital release".

Claiming the inclusion of the interactive board game was a world first, the band said: "In order to record, produce and tour this album we actually need around £5,000 to £6,000.

"We are not asking for charity or donations but rather for you to become one of a very exclusive group of people to own this physical piece of art and music.

"We have no label or financial backing so the ambition of making the world's first vinyl album board game rests in the hands of our fans."

Moony said the band once tried to crack Liechtenstein after finding its YouTube audience included fans in Europe's fourth-smallest country