Play Creators Awards 2023 finalists revealed

Mojo Nation has detailed the finalists for this year’s Play Creators Awards.

The Play Creators Awards celebrates designers and inventors in the toy and game community that have excelled over the last 12 months.

This year’s Play Creators Awards will take place on Tuesday, June 27th at London’s Under the Bridge venue within Stamford Bridge Stadium.

As nominated by their peers, the finalists are:

Toy Designer of the Year – sponsored by Jazwares
• Dominic Yard – Tech Deck Berrics Skatepark (Spin Master)
• Fuse & Hot Wheels Design Team – Hot Wheels City Ultimate Robo T-Rex Hauler (Mattel)
• Lauren Johnson & Shane Rogers (MindWare) – Gearjits Gumball Marble Coaster (MindWare)
• Lorena Montalvo and Olivia DeLuca (TOMY) – Bebé Fuerte (TOMY)
• Make It Real Advanced Design Team – Mini-Pottery Wheel Studio (Make It Real)
• Making Things Studio – Mouse in the House (Character Options)
• Moose Toys Design Team – Cookeez Makery (Moose Toys)
• Moose Toys Design Team – Magic Mixies Magic Lamp (Moose Toys)
• Seven Towns – Pocket Money Piggies (BOTI)

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Game Designer of the Year (Kids/Family Games) – sponsored by Playtime PR
• Big Ideas, Tricky & Sublevel Studios – Wibble Wobble Where? (Fuel For Fun/Flair)
• Guido Hoffmann & Jens-Peter Schliemann – Piazza Rabazza (Zoch)
• Just Playing Games – Clue: Escape & Solve Mystery Series (Hasbro)
• KID Group – Freefall (ThinkFun)
• Kim Vandenbroucke – Pigs on Trampolines (PlayMonster)
• Mark Langley – Decypher (The Happy Puzzle Company)
• Tara Taehyun Kim (Mattel) – Magic 8 Ball: Magical Encounters™ Board Game (Mattel)
• The Fantastic Factory, Making Things Studio & Toy Vision – Easy Peasy Lemon Squeaky (Flair)
• TOMY Global R&D – Screwball Scramble: Level Up (TOMY)

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Game Designer of the Year (Party Games) – sponsored by Board Game Club
• Barry McLaughlin & Jason Lautenschleger – Okay Genius (PlayMonster)
• Big Potato Games – Cards Vs Gravity (Big Potato Games)
• Ceri Price & Natalie Podd – Tug (Confident Games)
• Hunch Studios – Tell Me Without Telling Me (Spin Master)
• John D. Clair – Ready Set Bet (AEG)
• Karen North – Hit Send (Hot House Games)
• Karli C. Skelton – Draw It, See It, Say It (Ridley’s Games)
• Kazunari Yonemitsu, TOMY R&D & TOMY Global R&D – The Game of Saying Huh? (TOMY)
• Prospero Hall – Nuck Tats (Funko Games)

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R&D Team of the Year – sponsored by The Toy Association
• Big Potato Games
• Eolo Toys
• Golden Bear
• Hasbro SPARK R&D
• Hot Wheels Skate Team
• Make It Real Design Team
• Moose Toys
• Prospero Hall (Funko Games)
• Spin Master
• TOMY

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Inventor Relations Exec of the Year – sponsored by The Toy Association
• Adam Hocherman – Fat Brain Toys
• Alex Prieto – Eolo Toys/ToyZone
• Allison Gabbey – Fisher-Price
• Angus Walker – Hasbro
• Daryl Andrews – Maestro Media
• David Winter – Jazwares
• Heath Saber – Moose Toys
• Josh West – ThinkFun
• Lee Allentuck – Melissa & Doug/The Last Gameboard/Blue Marble
• Rich Mazel – Spin Master

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Invention Studio/Design Agency of the Year – sponsored by Hasbro
• Bang Zoom
• Fun-damental Invention
• Fuse
• Just Playing Games
• Making Things Studio
• Open 2 Design
• So Sound
• Tantrum Innovation
• ToyZone
• Triclops Studio

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Toy Designer of the Year (Licensed/IP-Driven Product) – sponsored by design_lead_play_
• Bang Zoom – Dancing Bluey (Moose Toys)
• Bill Miekina (Mattel) – WWE Elite Series (Mattel)
• Gurdeep Bains (YuMe Toys) – Disney 100 Surprise Capsules (YuMe Toys)
• Mattel’s Jurassic World Action Figures Design Team – Jurassic World Dominion Action Figures (Mattel)
• Moose Toys Design Team – Bluey Ultimate Lights & Sounds Playhouse (Moose Toys)
• Paper Engine R&D Team – Build Your Own Wallace & Gromit Rocket (Paper Engine)
• Tantrum Innovation – TMNT Mutant Mayhem Ninja Kick Cycle (Playmates Toys)
• TOMY R&D & Fat Brain Toys – Toomies Peppa’s Activity House (TOMY)
• Wow! Stuff – Nano Pods (Wow! Stuff)

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Game Designer of the Year (Licensed/IP-Driven Product) – sponsored by Wynne-Jones IP
• Big Potato Games & Aardman – Obey the Clay (Big Potato Games)
• Christian Fiore & Knut Happel – Minecraft: Heroes of the Village (Ravensburger)
• Erica Bouyouris (Spin Master) – Dumb Ways to Die (Spin Master)
• Jay Little, Ryan Miller & Marcus Ross – The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game (Ravensburger)
• Kristian Karlberg & Kenny Zetterberg – Dungeons & Dragons: The Yawning Portal (Hasbro)
• Lauren Wallace (Ridley’s Games) – Marvel Selfish (Ridley’s Games)
• Prospero Hall – Disney Animated (Funko Games)
• Prospero Hall – Scream: The Game (Funko Games)
• Prospero Hall – Star Trek: Cryptic (Funko Games)

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Play Innovator of the Year – sponsored by ToyZone
• Catapult Concepts – Puzl It (Hasbro)
• Fuse – 10 Bone Bowling (Big Potato Games)
• Jordan Goddard (Indy Toy Lab) – The Night Hunter (University Games)
• Karen Harel, Kevin Voorhees, Kurtis Wong, Bari Cohen, Ty Eason (Spin Master) – Rubik’s Phantom (Spin Master)
• Moose Toys Design Team – Mama Surprise (Moose Toys)
• Moose Toys Design Team – My Puppy’s Home (Moose Toys)
• Heather Weeks & Ric Scott (Educational Insights) – PYXEL: A Coder’s Best Friend (Educational Insights)
• Tantrum Innovation – Mystery Key Treasure Challenge (Goliath)
• Wilder Toys – The Audio Game (Wilder Toys)

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Unsung Hero
• Celyn Mitchell – Form Design
• Eleanor Black – Fuse
• Em Dobson – Big Potato Games
• Gurdeep Bains – YuMe Toys
• Harriet Steeds – Ridley’s Games
• Jazmine Sines – So Sound
• Jeff Arnold – Sponge Creative
• Jodie Broaders – Fuse
• Sardiaa Leney – Hasbro

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Artist of the Year
• Amanda Jenson – MindWare
• Amy Atkins – So Sound
• Austyn Romero – Ridley’s Games
• Barbara Perez – ToyZone
• Dustin Foust – Indy Toy Lab
• Elin Nystrom – So Sound
• Robin Sowden Garcia – Big Potato Games
• Tristam Rossin – Bright Light Games
• Vincent Dutrait – Freelance Illustrator

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Rising Star – sponsored by Ridley’s Games
• Annabelle Hillard – Seven Towns
• Ben Powell – So Sound
• Emma Costa Lascelles – TOMY
• Jordan Goddard & Mandy Goddard – Indy Toy Lab
• Liat Waks, Naama Weiss & Uri Streigold – Inventors of Spin Master’s Games HQ
• Olivia DeLuca – TOMY
• Phoebe Mason – PlayMonster UK
• Sophie Lazenby – Fuse
• Tom McKendrick – Crated With Love

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Icon Award – sponsored by Moose Toys
The winner of this award will be announced on the night.

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Winners will be announced at the live Play Creators Awards on Tuesday, June 27th at Under the Bridge within London’s Stamford Bridge Stadium.

To book your ticket to this year’s Play Creators Awards, click here.

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