Wonderland

Mattel's $300 3D printer for Kids

Remember that Autodesk-Mattel announcement of nearly a year ago? The fruit has ripened, rather beautifully.

Here's Mattel's ThingMaker, a $300 toymaking desktop factory. The first kid-centric 3D printer to properly make it to market.

Though it's named Mattel's ThingMaker, the product looks to have a pretty straightforward, Autodesk-centric genealogy. The machine seems to be a variant of traditional desktop filament 3DP (with a nice moulded casing); Autodesk has lots of recent machine-building XP via Autodesk's Ember. The app is the grandchild of Modibot and Modio, which was bought by Autodesk last year. Looks like a pretty easy-to-broker deal, then, that ;-)

Hasbro's Easy-Bake Oven was launched in the 60s, and is still super popular, despite only making cake and cookies (OK maybe that's the popularity). This machine, however - and especially its future descendants - will be able to bake all kinds of interesting and on-demand toys. Can't wait to see where this goes.

Knights & Bikes

OK. Some background on this one. If you don't know Rex, he's a genius game-designing artist, He Who Created Tearaway, and was instrumental to the creation of (or maybe created it, I dunno, but teams are good) Little Big Planet. And Moo: Moo has worked on all kinds of games, and when I got to work with him for a few months, he's one of those guys who is a never-ending stream of Really Amazing Game Suggestions. Creative, smart, knowledgeable. And Kenny! He wears silver boiler suits.

 

In Knights and Bikes, you will play as Nessa and Demelza on their quest for the truth behind the medieval legends of Penfurzy, an island on the fast track to financial ruin and literal destruction. Recruit a party of creatures from all walks of life, enlist and inspire deflated islanders, and embark on an adventure to find the hero the island so desperately needs.

Female-y protagonists. The company is called Foam Sword! It has bmxes in it and silliness. I love it.

This game is going to break the $1m kickstarter barrier, or it bloody well SHOULD. Back it already. 

 

Fabulous Beasts

It is the week for amazing games on Kickstarter, at least from my POV because friends are displaying their ridiculous talent this week ;-D

First up: Fabulous Beasts. Many have watched this project come to life, as Alex and the team have lugged the box-of-parts everywhere: to houses, to conferences, to pitches. They playtested it into bits and back up to pieces again. And now it's ready to be Made Real.

Digital-physical stuff is three times as hard as single-type stuff because you have to figure out the hardware, the game, and the bridge software, and you're also probably having to figure out marketing, your customer database and fundraising too. 

So look at this.

 

What an achievement.

A fantastic looking game, a fantastic looking set of objects, and a solid plan to execute. I can't wait to own this, Poesy's going to love it. 

Fabulous Beasts on Kickstarter.