Orchard Toys’ Heather Yates, Rowena Isotta-Day and Alice Morley discuss development of their new Bluey games

Heather, Rowena, Alice – it’s great to catch up. Before we dive into the new Bluey range, what made this brand an exciting one to design for?
Rowena Isotta-Day, Designer & Illustrator, Orchard Toys: I first became aware of Bluey during lockdown in late 2020, while at home with my two young children. Since then, as a family, we’ve been hooked! We love the balance of fun, humorous stories with the more challenging aspects of a busy family life. When the chance to work on games based upon the series arose, I jumped at it!

What made it a neat fit for Orchard Toys?
Heather Yates, Designer & Illustrator, Orchard Toys: Bluey is a great brand! It’s the same target audience as we have for Orchard Toys so we get it – and the Bluey characters all have a huge appeal to both children and parents. There are so many important themes and relatable moments in Bluey, which families identify with. It’s all done with a sense of humour too. We spent a lot of time making sure we were up to date with the Bluey episodes and really enjoyed doing so. It’s a big treat to be working with such an engaging set of characters.

Let’s dig into the range. There’s a Bluey reimagining of Orchard’s classic Shopping List game. Can you talk me through some of the ways in which you tweaked this to suit the Bluey brand?
Alice Morely, Designer & Illustrator, Orchard Toys: Shopping List is our all-time best seller and a great hit with young children, particularly the collecting element and roleplay of a ‘for real life’ everyday activity. The episode ‘Kids’ brings a lot of humour into the experience of children and their parents going to a supermarket, which I’m sure is very relatable.

I made sure to look at the episode in detail and find food items that you would be able to spot. A few of the character’s favourite foods are in there too, which I hope big fans of the show will be able to recognise. Eagle eyed gamers will notice that Bingo’s name has been changed on her shopping list to Snowdrop, reflecting the persona she adopted in the episode.

Looks great. The Grannies episode gets its own game here too. How does it play?
Rowena: This episode is a family favourite of ours, with my two children regularly quoting “Oops I’ve slipped on my beans!” I’d challenge anyone to watch Bluey and Bingo assuming their roles as Rita and Janet not to laugh out loud at some point during this episode! I chose to incorporate key items such as Janet’s granny glasses and the comical ride-in car the sisters travel in, as a nod to the episodes drawn upon. The idea being that players pick items from the ‘sandbox’ to progress towards the finish and get flossing!

Another golden moment from the Grannies episode features Janet having a “nana nap” – for those who don’t know this is an almost instantaneous micro nap an old person may have! I wanted to use this card to make the player pretend to fall asleep snoring mid game and miss a turn. For added fun, players are encouraged to say: “Just having a nana nap!” in a funny voice, capturing the spirit of the episode and the characters. What better way to make players miss a go?!

Absolutely, I’m sold! Fancy Restaurant is the final game in the line-up. Can you talk us through the process behind ‘game-ifying’ this episode of the show?
Heather: This is a great episode to work with and it perfectly lends itself to a game! I love the idea of kids trying to create something yummy for their parents and ending up with a huge pile of inedible food! Then the parents have to pretend it’s delicious. I’ve certainly been that parent, trying to keep a straight face as the food gets weirder – I can imagine my son doing this when he was little!

I wanted to replicate the way Bluey keeps appearing at the table with more and more food, so included a 3D table for the various plates to be piled onto. We also decided to have stand up characters of Chilli and Bandit who sit at the table awaiting their meals. These 3D elements mean the whole thing works as a playset as well as a game, for lots of added fun!

Children love food and matching and yucky combinations, so the game was an ideal way to combine all three. Half the food cards have Bingo on the back, who works as the chef. The cards pair with the other half of the cards, with Bluey on the back as the waiter, just like in the episode. Kids love playing out their favourite TV episodes in real life, so they will love delivering the plates to the table and watching them pile up high! I can imagine parents playing the game with their children, and pretending to find combinations like strawberries and sardines the most delicious thing ever!

We’ve spoken about Grannies and Fancy Restaurant informing these games. What helped steer the episodes and moments you decided to build games around?
Heather: We look for key themes or stand out moments that would perfectly merge with the kind of gameplay that we know kids love. We look for times in the episodes that children will remember or relate to, humorous moments or strong visual images. When a key moment in one of the shows matches up with a fun gameplay, it’s a really satisfying moment!

For these games, there were clear themes – like funny food combinations delivered to parents and good times with grandparents. These are both perfect examples of themes or situations that our core audience would relate to. We used our expertise to translate these into engaging gameplays to make fun and friendly end products.

Does the process of designing a licensed game inspire any thoughts around your core non-licensed ranges?
Heather: It certainly makes us think a little differently. With the characters in licensed products, we need to stick to using a more defined artwork style, and make sure any games we create are in keeping with the story and background of those characters. Sometimes we will be brainstorming an idea for licensed games, but realise the idea we’ve had isn’t quite the right fit, but could work with a different set of characters in our own range. So the licensed products are often a springboard for creating further games for our core lines.

Rowena: Yes, in tailoring the games to specific episodes, I was thinking about new game mechanics and how to use them. As with any brief there are numerous ideas presented in the early stages as part of the brainstorming process. I am sure some of these ideas will be developed further down the line and used in our own range in the future.

Alice: Sometimes we’ll have lots of other ideas that didn’t progress further or maybe didn’t quite work, but we can look back on them and see game mechanics that might work for our core range. Quite often, it’s more the opposite and I’ll make note of what’s done well in our core range and see if any gameplay or specific elements would fit or would enhance an initial idea for a licensed product.

Finally, what fuels your creativity?
Rowena: My children, just watching them giggle and acting out parts from the shows instantly cherry picks those golden moments for me!

Heather: We’re always on the look out for ideas, from all parts of everyday life – films, books, TV or things we see online. Sometimes a funny title will trigger an idea – such as Llamas in Pyjamas, or Smelly Wellies. Or maybe a theme that’s popular with children… Food is always a hit, so things like Crazy Chefs or Tummy Ache.

We also try to make sure we’re covering key educational elements, so will try to do that while making the game appealing and interesting to play – and of course fun! Sometimes ideas pop up at unexpected moments (in the shower or on the train) so we all make sure to keep a notepad handy wherever we are!

Alice: For me, it’s a combination of things. It could be seeing an existing game and thinking how we could do something similar but put our educational spin on it. Sometimes it develops from a name or researching what the latest toy trend or popular animal is. Often it’s designing something with my interests in mind and thinking about how I can adapt this to a younger audience. Ideas also seem to randomly come up the most when I’m not at my desk – like on a walk for example.

Thanks again guys. And congrats on the line-up. As a card-carrying Bluey fan I’m looking forward to giving them a go!

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