Play Creators Festival

The deadline to get your nominations in is Friday, May 21st 2021.

September’s Virtual Play Creators Festival will mirror the digital format of last year’s event, with two weeks of activity including a week-long virtual conference, a digital awards and a three-day Mojo Pitch event.

“We’re hopeful that this year’s event can be a welcome return to in-person networking, learning and pitching, and we can’t wait to bring the industry’s creative community together later this year,” said Billy Langsworthy, co-founder of Mojo Nation.

A celebration of the toy and game industry’s design talent, among the big winners this year are Spin Master, Big Potato and Seven Towns, while Heayes Design’s Richard Heayes scooped the Design Icon accolade.

How important is great artwork in selling toys and games? What’s the key to thriving as a freelance artist in the play space? Why does the romantic idea of ‘the starving artist’ do more harm than good? All this, and more, is covered in this Art of Play panel session.

This panel, featuring well-known game designers Dan Klitsner of KID Group and Rob Daviau of Restoration Games, and Shail Mehta, CEO and Founder of The Last Gameboard, will discuss how they envision game design finally crossing the physical-digital divide to create enhanced gameplay and new experiences, and help grow a worldwide community of tabletop fans.

How have toy firms adapted to lockdown? Are there any changes to daily working life that look set to stay once we’re past the pandemic? And as certain categories soar during the lockdown, has this changed their strategy when it comes to product acquisition? All this and more is covered in our ‘Toys in Troubled Times’ panel session.

If you could only take one toy, one game and one of your own inventions to a desert island, what would you take and why? That’s the question that WordWhizz Deej Johnson is posing to Sally Jacobs, founder and inventor at Bean, in this Desert Island Picks interview.

How do IP owners and licensing agents take ‘left field’ brands into the world of toys and games? This session delves into some of the challenges involved and looks at the key to successfully giving these kinds of brands the toy treatment.

This session – featuring Shane Hartley, Art Director at Ravensburger North America and Jake Breish, Graphic Designer at Ravensburger North America – delves into the incredible art direction behind the company’s smash-hit board game series, Villainous.