Hasbro has launched a new crowdfunding contest that will result in a $25,000 prize awarded to the winning game designer and an opportunity to work with the toy maker to get the game on store shelves.
This is the second challenge the maker of Monopoly and Connect 4 has launched with Indiegogo but this time, it is offering a more lucrative prize and widening the pool of applicants to several markets abroad. Designers from the U.K., France, Germany and most of Canada (sorry Quebec) are invited to pitch their ideas on a website Hasbro has launched. Aspiring game designers have until May 15 to submit their ideas.
Hasbro will then select 15 semi-finalists to submit prototypes and after playing with those games, select five finalists to launch campaigns on Indiegogo. That contest will run for a month starting October 13, with each of those finalists receiving $2,000 to help fund their games.
Last summer, Hasbro launched a similar contest that was only open to the U.S. market. The Rhode Island-based toy maker awarded $10,000 to Irresponsibility: The Mr Toast card game late last year. A version of that game was on display at Hasbro’s New York Toy Fair booth in February.
While Hasbro has its own internal team of gaming designers, it makes sense for the Transformers and My Little Pony manufacturer to branch out to aspiring designers that aren’t on staff. One of the toy industry’s biggest hits last year was a game called Pie Face, which was externally developed though Hasbro bought the rights to manufacture and distribute it.
Out-of-the-box thinking has helped Hasbro report strong results for “gaming” toys, the second-biggest business for the company. Sales for those toys totaled $1.28 billion in 2015, up 1% but increasing a more impressive 8% excluding currency swings. Games sales grew 11% for the critical holiday quarter.