Nerf Ultimate Championship, a VR game from Secret Location, is coming to Oculus Quest in 2022.

The game allows players to compete in head-to-head team matches within a futuristic arena filled with roaring fans. It features a wide range of blasters and will boast a suite of avatar and blaster customisation options.
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“Nerf Ultimate Championship marks an important milestone for us as the first collaboration with our new parent company Hasbro,” said Kathryn Rawson, VP Content at Secret Location.

“Everyone on the team is excited to bring those epic Nerf battles from our childhood into the immersive world of VR and to the growing Oculus Quest audience when the game launches next year.”

Scott Ozarski, Brand Manager, Global Brand Marketing for Nerf, added: “We are thrilled to partner with Secret Location to take our legacy brand Nerf to new heights through the immersion of virtual reality.

“It translates the imaginative play, high physicality and fun competition that characterises the property to an all-new and exciting medium for our fans.”

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Heayes Design’s Richard Heayes takes a look at how toys marketed to – and designed specifically for – adults are no longer just a passing trend.

In some respects, the toy industry doesn’t appear to have changed at all in the last 30 years. Classic Monopoly – check! Play-Doh extruder – check! Hot Wheels loop-the-loop – check! LEGO Fire Truck – check!

There are so many toys that have had nips and tucks, but if a child from the Eighties turned up in a reverse Life on Mars kinda thing at their local toy shop, they’d feel right at home. The ‘rinse repeat’ formula seems to be working just fine for many.

But when December 25th comes along, they may be very surprised to see what Santa brought the rest of the family. Dad unboxing a £500 LEGO Star Wars Death Star, Mum gleeful at her collection of adult colouring books and Pusheen collectables, older sibling with their £200 Kickstarter board game in the flesh, Granny unpacking the latest VR headset for some Call of Duty action.

What the hell is going on?! Kids play with toys; you lot are supposed to be getting gardening gloves and boring books, like The 100 Most Interesting AA Walks! Well, welcome to the new normal!

Grown-up toys are certainly a thing and, for many, a very lucrative thing. I am pretty sure Hornby’s recent surge is not driven by 10 year olds, and LEGO’s range of adult targeted products like the recent LEGO Art range are not just higher-priced versions of kids’ toys, but toys designed specifically for the adult market.

One could also point towards the huge growth of high-end games on crowdfunding sites like the recent relaunch of Hero Quest from Hasbro. Another recent crowdfunding item that really caught my imagination was the Spectre & Vox 3D haunted house escape game. It’s a real 3D dollhouse! Now some might see all this as a fad, but there are clear reasons why this is happening.

Let’s start with birth rate. In the States it was 3.85 births per woman during the Eighties; that’s now 1.77. Stats in the UK show in 1980 that 13% of 17 to 30 years olds went onto university education; now it’s 35%. A recent study from Loughborough University showed that 54% of young adults were living with their parents into their late Twenties.

All this shows that adults are staying younger for longer. Social media has also made it totally acceptable to share ‘play’, from daft stunts, toy experiences, and generally adults being big kids. TikTok and the newer platforms even more so. Things considered geeky are now just cool or alternative.

There are also hundreds of online adult toy and game reviewers alongside many sites dedicated to marketing toys towards teens and adults, constantly feeding their toy habit. The launch of a hot Nerf Blaster or Mandalorian collectible can get the same press as the latest tech gadgets.

Let’s also not forget we are entering a period of extreme turmoil in the job market. Toys and games have always offered an escape, so this trend is really just a new permanent segment of the toy business. Welcome to the new normal!

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I’ve recently returned from Amazon’s HQ in Seattle, where my teammate Dave and I spent three days as part of our prize for Gamely Games winning the Amazon UK Small Business of the Year award.

While there were many highlights – including meeting some of the 800,000 real human faces behind the online giant, experiencing the novelty of visiting an Amazon Go store (where cameras track what you take from the shelves and automatically charge your Amazon account) and having my mind completely blown by the complexity of a robotic fulfilment centre (with hundreds of scurrying robots moving shelves around like the most complicated sliding tile puzzle ever) – the three main thoughts that stand out from our trip are:

1. Cracking the USA is not impossible
In January we’d really been wondering whether the USA was just too big a nut for our little team to crack, and we’d been really tempted to try and license our games to a bigger company. However, shortly before we visited Seattle, Amazon.com started pulling in UK reviews – which is huge for us. No more struggling for those first 10 reviews! And in Seattle, as we chatted to Amazon people who understand the platform inside out, I really started to feel more positive.

The possibility of getting an account manager (tip – in the USA, this means being able to escalate issues with seller support) and digging into extra reports, among other things, really gave me the thing I was most needing: a fresh burst of enthusiasm. Selling games in America can feel like a brave new (and very big!) world from the UK, but our trip gave me the energy to believe that investing time into this is worth it.

2. Tech is great when it brings people together.
We spent some time hearing about the latest developments in Alexa technology, which was both terrifying and exciting. While the vision of the future where people have Alexa within their glasses or rings (no, really!) might sound bizarre, it did get me thinking about how many people already enjoy the benefits of voice technology.

Interestingly, I learnt that games are some of the most popular apps (or ‘skills’) for Amazon’s Echo (Alexa) devices, and creating a basic skill is apparently not too difficult. This got me thinking about developing a companion skill for one of our games, and how we could potentially use tech to enhance people’s experiences of connecting together.

Although we’re all about getting people to put down their screens to spend quality time together, tech itself isn’t the enemy, and it can be used for good. Working on developing this is not a top priority for us at the moment, but it does present an exciting possibility for the future.

3. The space you work in is so important
While in Seattle we visited the Amazon Spheres. Think: the Eden Project meets a lovely, light, open-plan working space! It was an amazing and unique building which Amazon employees are all free to work in. With a 4,000 square foot plant wall stretching over five floors, it certainly took office plants to the next level!

We love working in Platf9rm, our beautiful shared office space in Brighton, but seeing people working in the spheres really re-ignited my passion for changing up our workspace. We love getting out of the office as a team and often have our best ideas when we are out in the fresh air. We’ve now vowed that we’ll be getting out at least one afternoon a week to head to the beach, sea or South Downs.

Our trip to Seattle was a lot of fun and eye-opening in many different ways. Now the real work begins again, as we try and use what we’ve learnt to spread the Gamely joy in the USA and bring more people together to have fun.

Look out for an update in the future, when I’ll be able to share how we get on!

Hazel Reynolds is founder and CEO of Gamely Games, the board game firm behind Randomise, Soundiculous, The Pretender, Frozen Unicorns and Jibbergiggle. She can be contacted at hazel@gamelygames.com.

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Wizarding World Digital, a joint venture between Pottermore Ltd and Warner Bros, has partnered with Wonderbly to launch a new personalised journal called Keys and Curios.

The journal forms part of the welcome gift that Harry Potter fans receive when they subscribe to ‘Wizarding World Gold’ – a new annual paid subscription that bolsters the Official Harry Potter Fan Club experience with early access, exclusive products, and enhanced experiences.

The Keys and Curios journal incorporates a fan’s name, house traits and more to take them on a unique journey through the wizarding year.

“The Keys and Curios brings a new level of personalisation to fans of the Wizarding World,” said Tom Greene, Wizarding World Digital’s Chief Operating Officer.

“Through imagination, creativity, and technology we were able to create a truly magical journal, that is not only unique to every fan but will delight them with new interactive features such as our Enchanted keys unlocks. The team at Wonderbly were fantastic in helping to deliver this innovative experience that can be enjoyed time and time again.”

Asi Sharabi, CEO of Wonderbly, added: “As real innovators, we could not ask for a better-suited partner than Wizarding World Digital. They came to us with an exciting vision for a type of publishing product that had never been done before. It’s been an absolute pleasure to collaborate with them and bring to life this beautiful journal, for millions of Harry Potter fans around the world.”

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After 12 years spent at LEGO – working on projects including LEGO board games, the LEGO Worlds video game, the LEGO Life social app as well as the company’s first forays into AR and VR – this year saw Cephas Howard launch his own design agency and consultancy in the form of the Play.institute.

The Play institute aims to further the development of products, insights, methods and practices relating to play and offers everything from consulting to collaborations with companies on new areas of play and innovation.

We caught up with Howard to learn more about how his time at LEGO shaped his approach to design, and what the future holds with his Play.institute.

How did you get your start in the world of toy and game design? 

Aged around eight I remember asking my Dad: “Does someone get paid as a job to design LEGO sets?” And he replied, “Yes, I guess they do.” He was also an entrepreneur and had been a published children’s book author in his time.

That was a light-bulb moment for me that led to me designing toys and games at home for my brothers and friends and then opening a pop up toy shop aged 12 for two months. I sourced or created all the toys, self-funded it and more than doubled my own invested stake money even after expenses and keeping some of the toys myself of course.

Roll on a few years and after a successful stint in London in advertising and media and fluttering with some early start-ups, I was planning to start my own games company and started work on the first few titles. But instead, at the last minute, I spotted – and then couldn’t resist taking – a job at LEGO in their concept lab in Billund to design the future of play.

Initially my thinking was to learn from the masters for a couple of years then go back to my own thing. However, I ended up having a lot of fun with some amazing people and two years swiftly turned into 12 years along with a fantastic run of launches including LEGO board games, the LEGO WORLDS video game, LEGO Life social app, LEGO’s first mobile VR and AR experiences and a host of other fun things – including three kids of my own.

Talk us through your time at LEGO – how did that help shape your approach to design?

At LEGO I was able to get access to an incredible amount of historic and current information and research on kids and play as well also prototyping and hands on testing opportunities for new concepts.

The brand name opens many doors (and hearts) and I was lucky enough to meet and work with some of the best people and brands in the world: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Warner, Sony, IDEO, Take 2, SUPERCELL, Reiner Knizia, Bernie DeKoven to name a few of the external companies or characters.

You worked on a line of LEGO board games. I’m interested in what that process was like – creating games that are infused with the DNA of LEGO – and do you think with the soaring popularity of board games today, that it’s an area LEGO could (or should) dip a toe back into?

The LEGO Games line was something I pitched, designed and built up, so I have a special place for it in my heart. It combined my passions of simple fun games that anyone could play and LEGO creativity with construction bricks as a creative material – inventing the LEGO dice that symbolised and personified all that was another career highlight. We tested and developed the games with kids, we built a small internal design team that I led and were challenged assisted and inspired by great minds like Reiner Knizia and Brett J Gilbert at certain points along each development cycle, particularly on rules wording and simplicity.

And after working on LEGO games, what other parts of the business did you work in, and how did it inform you creating Play.institute?

My last role was Director for Digital Play Innovation at LEGO, where I was leading a small team developing new and creative ways to play with LEGO digitally, including the LEGO WORLDS video game with TT and Warner and our first forays into VR and AR working alongside Schell Games and Google. After that, I helped initiate LEGO Ventures (https://legoventures.com/), an investment team in the LEGO Brand group that invests in companies that fit the LEGO idea and values.

After all that, I wanted to start something of my own and also help other companies that did not have the advantages or accumulated knowledge that LEGO has, but could benefit from the experience and wisdom I had gained over the last dozen or more years understanding kids and play and pushing the play envelope, particularly in the emerging digital worlds and spaces.

I also have a desire to combine play with learning and creativity in ways that I feel are not being addressed enough or in the ways that my mind wants them to be done. Striking that balance between play and learning, and open-endedness and structure, is a line I love to tread and challenge myself with.

I am releasing a series of books where I am attempting to strike that balance between play and learning for younger kids in areas like literacy, math, art and games.

And I am equally happy to help others solve their own company challenges or identify new areas and opportunities for growth and innovation. I have worked with one man or woman individual business all the way up to some of the biggest and best-known companies in the world.

Reach out to me at cephas@play.institute to start a conversation going.

Do you think the toy space is in a good place creatively at present?
I still think there is not enough innovation and investment in new play types and play offerings. The exception for me is the Kickstarter board games space, which is booming and thriving with innovation being supported by directly speaking to the end user who can vote with their wallet. It is still particular types of games and genres that do well on Kickstarter, but it’s still an amazing boost to the category and has created incredible new opportunities for some new names to get their chance.

VC investment in physical play and toy offerings is still very scarce to non-existent. I think that the struggles of the toy stores and the closures of Toys R Us is evidence of the lack of standout novelty and appeal of physical toys versus video games, YouTube and apps with kids today.

I also think that smartphones and social media are consuming more and more of not only kids but people’s time in general, leaving less time for physical play and toys in general.

How do you fuel your own creativity?

I am still a creative child at heart. Essentially, I am still trying to do the same things I did as a kid, student and in each role or job I’ve ever had. On a daily basis I have new ideas and I try to execute the best of them to the best of my ability, and also work in a way to make some or all of them commercially viable.

I have always seen myself as a kind of commercial artist rather than a product or experience designer. I want to create art and appealing social play, but I try to do so in a way that can scale and appeal to a wider demographic than, say, a fine art painter or sculptor, while still striving to be that artist too at heart. We all wish for that total creative freedom you have as a child and I try to give that freedom to kids with and through my designs whenever I can.

I wear many hats: conceptualisation, graphic design, marketing, copywriting, illustration, art direction, game design, toy design, UI, UX, character design, world and story building, gamification, prototyping, pitching, advertising and sales and I’m always trying to add more. I believe the best way to keep growing is to keep learning and mastering new skills you can use and apply in your daily work.

Keep striving and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, you can’t innovate safely or comfortably, but it can still be fun, playful and exhilarating.

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Collabsco has unveiled its annual Connected Play Landscape; this year highlighting 262 companies, products and emerging technologies, an increase of 150% from 2018’s study.

The 2019 Connected Play Landscape spans the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robots, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Wearables, Near Field Communication (NFC), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Voice Assistants, as well as additional areas centered around how various technologies are implemented.

“Our goal is to educate, collaborate and inspire the industry and future leaders by uncovering emerging technologies, real-world consumer insights, business growth opportunities and collaborative partnerships to create experiences that ignite imagination, create a sense of wonderment and shape the future of play,” said Collabsco founder Valerie Vacante.

“The connected play landscape was designed to provide a single, consolidated view of the companies and collaborators breaking barriers through the emerging technologies and the power of play.”

Currently the highest area of growth since last year has been augmented reality (18.5%), followed by IoT (10.4%) with Robotics, Makers, EdTech and Location Based Entertainment (9.6%). Wearables (6.9%), NFC/RFID and Voice follow (6.2%) with social (3.1%) and new category with “Let’s Play” (2.7%) rounding out the landscape.

Check out this year’s Connected Play Landscape below:

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