Following the review of more than 500 entries from game designers nationwide, Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) announced the top five finalists in its search for the next big face-to-face party game. The challenge, which launched late-August with crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, was narrowed down to five finalists by a team of Hasbro game experts and designers.
The five finalists are:
- HEXES!!:HEXES!! is a card game of witches, warlocks and wacky wizardry, created by Rochester Institute of Technology students Douglas Mansell, Norman Greenberg, Sam Sternklar and Tom Smith. The goal is to stay in the game while following the rules on all the hexes your opponents sling at you, which could be something like keeping your hand raised at all times while reciting facts about cats. The combination of hexes is what makes for hilarious moments with friends and family!
- Irresponsibility: The Mr Toast Card Game:Irresponsibility is a fast paced, family friendly card game, created by Dan Goodsell from Los Angeles, CA featuring the comic character Mr Toast and his friends. In the game, you try to shirk responsibility by having fun being irresponsible, while also trying to stop your opponents by saddling them with more responsibility.
- Warning!Signs:Warning!Signs is a party game, created by Jack Reda from Herndon, VA, that is all about making fun of the weird signs we’ve seen while traveling. Players pretend they are tourists in a strange land and don’t speak the language. To win the game, you have to make up the “best” or most outrageous captions for what different signs could mean in the strange land.
- Touchy Feely:Created by Kevin and Kory Jordan from Marietta, GA, Touchy Feely is the “lights out party game” played completely in the dark. Once the lights go out, or the blindfold goes on, you have to complete tasks worth different point values before the lights come back on. But watch out because your opponents can try to sabotage your tasks in the dark!
- SUNK!:
Created by Scott Ruth, Bill Bellan and Scott Jackson from Massachusetts, SUNK! is a game requiring a steady hand, impenetrable concentration, and sharp wits combined with an appetite for suspense and intense laughter. You’ll need to add the required amount of water to a cup without causing it to sink. Sounds simple, right? Not when your opponents are trying to break your concentration with taunting and heckling, causing you to pour excessive water into the cup!
Brian Chapman, head of design and development at Hasbro, commented:
“We were very impressed with the creative and fun party game ideas we received from the gaming community and narrowing the concepts down to five finalists was no easy task. We look forward to seeing how the finalists’ crowdfunding campaigns progress and how the community responds to these amazing game ideas.”
Jerry Needel, senior vice president corporate partnerships at Indiegogo, added:
“Hasbro’s commitment to help these passionate inventors bring their innovative game idea to life has resulted in a really impressive quality and quantity of idea submissions. It’s really exciting to see the Indiegogo community being tapped by Hasbro to both help source and validate the next big idea for party games.”
Hasbro and Indiegogo held mentoring calls with each finalist to provide expertise and support for building the crowdfunding campaigns, which launched Friday on Indiegogo and will run until December 1, 2015.
The grand prize winner will be chosen by Hasbro in early December based on the concept’s gameplay mechanics, theme, potential for ‘fun-ness’ and viability. The winner must also generate at least 100 unique contributors to its campaign. The grand prize winner will receive $10,000 and a trip to Hasbro headquarters to meet with and work with the game development team to help make his or her party game a reality.
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