For all the times your parents said playing games wouldn’t get you anywhere, you finally have a reason to throw an “I told you so” back the other way. In a thrilling announcement for game lovers everywhere, Hasbro and Indiegogo have partnered to introduce the 2016 Next Great Game Challenge, inviting game designers in the U.S., U.K., Canada (sorry, not Quebec), France, and Germany to pitch their best ideas and turn them into game-night staples.
Starting Thursday and going through May 15, game designers (who surely have the most interesting jobs on the planet), will be able to send their notions for new face-to-face games at nextgreatgamechallenge.com. Once all the entries have been submitted, Hasbro game experts and designers will serve as a judging panel, ultimately determining a semifinal pool of 15 based on the game’s level of innovative new mechanics, visual style, and creative narrative. Then, things will get really interesting, as Hasbro will actually play each of these 15 games, then narrow the field down to five, which will be able to launch an Indiegogo campaign in an attempt to crowdfund their ideas to life.
The five finalists, Hasbro says, will get $2,000 and mentorship from both the game company and crowdfunding platform in order to garner attention, raise money, and most importantly, introduce a brand new game.
This is actually the second time that the two firms have joined forces for the good of the gaming world. Last year, Hasbro chose Irresponsibility — The Mr Toast Game, the brainchild of Dan Goodsell of Los Angeles, as the winner of their Next Great Game Challenge — his game will see its U.S. debut later in the year.
“The Next Great Game Challenge with Indiegogo is an incredible opportunity for us to further connect with the gaming community and uncover new games with amazing stories, like we did last year with winner Dan Goodsell and The Mr Toast Game,” said Brian Chapman, head of design and development at Hasbro. “We are looking for games with a unique narrative and visual style which can provide a fun opportunity for storytelling through gaming and we are excited to see the ideas from game designers around the world.”
This year’s lucky winner will be awarded $25,000, a trip to Hasbro’s headquarters, and naturally, the opportunity to bring their game to market.
“It was incredibly impressive to see how quickly Hasbro was able to discover a new game idea to bring to market through our first gaming challenge in 2015,” said Jerry Needel, senior vice president of corporate partnerships at Indiegogo. “We are very excited to continue our Enterprise Crowdfunding relationship with Hasbro and look forward to seeing what we can collectively create in this next installment.”
