Games

“Through the introduction of Ms. Monopoly, we want to recognise and celebrate the many contributions women have made to our society and continue to make on a daily basis,” said Hasbro’s Jen Boswinkel.

Following on from Moose Toys UK being named Toy Designer of the Year for Scruff-a-Luvs at last week’s Play Creators Awards, we caught up with Austin-Smith to learn more about his approach to design, and what the future holds for the Scruffs brand.

This year’s Play Creators Festival took place earlier this week, uniting the toy and game design world for two days of conferences, awards and pitching.

A tactile, programmable game console, the Arcade Coder ‘empowers every kid to become a confident game designer’.

“The consumer robotics sector is an inherently challenging space – especially for a start-up,” said Reach Robotics founder Silas Adekunle.

Spin Master scooped R&D Team of the Year, So Sound was named Invention Studio/Design Agency of the Year and TOMY’s Alpesh Patel won the Design Icon category.

“The acquisition of eOne adds beloved story-led global family brands that deliver strong operating returns to Hasbro’s portfolio and provides a pipeline of new brand creation driven by family-oriented storytelling,” said Brian Goldner, Hasbro chairman and chief executive officer.

The range is made up of toy ducks decked out like iconic characters from brands including DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings and Ghostbusters.

Billy and Phil spoke about the toy and game design scene and unpacked some of what Mojo Nation is up to this year.

We caught up with Yard to learn more about his route into the world of toy design, what advice he’d give those starting out, and what the development process was like for his new Tech Deck Sk8 Container Pro.