Given the relatively unknown nature of exactly what might be entered, we’ve tried to cover all the bases of what we’re trying to achieve… we felt we needed judges…

-          …who are good at making physical-objecty things

-          …who understand what it takes to invent a great game

-          …who understand the social contexts in which these games might be played , shared and talked about.

Nowadays, of course, nothing’s really cut and dried in terms of what people do.  Some of the people who came to mind as being perfect were at least one, if not two, or maybe even three of those things.

I tried thinking about it in terms of a Venn diagram (with circles representing ‘making’, ‘social’ and ‘games’) to see it would help in forming the panel.  Which it kinda did:

The first thing worth saying about the above is that everyone’s got a least a firm interest in all three areas.  I then tried to pull them in directions for where they’d sit more than the others…

…which is hugely presumptuous of me, and I just hope they agree to at least some extent…

So Adrian and Holly are different in the nature of their gamesmithery, but both felt like the most naturally ‘gamey’ people.  Katy’s a socially-commsish-gamester hybrid (it’s like the games bit is her secret superhero identity).  Mark’s understanding of the different ways people influence each other will, I think, be crucial in thinking about which games will work in that competitive, social context.

I couldn’t really work out where to move Russell beyond the central ‘generalist’ role… I guess it depends what day it is for him.  It was Russell who suggested Tom, as someone who bestrode the games & design worlds.

From a ‘makery’ perspective, Robert was going to help us with a 3D printing element of the pocketgame project that unfortunately fell by the wayside (this time…)… but he’s now our resident object-designer fella.  Meanwhile, Mark from Cadbury is the Chief Intellectual Property Counsel (yeah, get THAT for a job title), and so when it comes to making the pocketgames will make sure we can do it without any legal hiccups.