Toys

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.

As the firm’s Director of Product Acquisition and Inventor Relations for games, Thompson boasts far-reaching connections in the global inventor community and is an expert in game sourcing.

We caught up with Marco van Haaften, international marketing director at Cartamundi, to learn more about the firm’s Make My Game platform, as well as how Cartamundi’s new Design Centers are providing exciting opportunities for developers.