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Monday, August 28, 2017

In the Beginning...

3D model of Medieval Challengers a game designed and created by ITD Games
©2107 Imagine That! Design, all rights reserved


You may ask yourself, what is this challenge all about? To answer this question we have to go back a ways to 1994 at the Fashion Institute of Technology where Traci Van Wagoner and Kurt Keller first met in toy design school.

The idea for this game was inspired by a class assignment, but the concept was too big for a school assignment, so we kept it for ourselves. On the sidelines of school and then in our own design studio, we took this idea of a coin toss and ran with it. 
MC Towers Prototype by ITD Games
© Imagine That! Design, all rights reserved


We found th Pog makers we used to create our first prototypes of Medieval ChallengersAfter graduating in 1996, we banded together and started Imagine That! Design where we started inventing toys and games to show and hopefully sell to the BIG Boys. At the time Pogs was hot, so we developed a version of Medieval Challengers where the winner of each challenge gets to keep the chips they win, thereby collecting the best armies and becoming the best Challenger. We even used Pog makers to make our initial prototypes.



A couple years later in 1998 we redesigned it as a 3D action game, similar to Weapons and Warriors for the BIG Boys.  This is sketch and an early version of the prototype. We had lots of interested, but no purchase.
MC 3D Action Game prototype by ITD Games
© Imagine That! Design, all rights reserved
MC 3D Action Game Sketch by ITD Games
© Imagine That! Design, all rights reserved

In 2000 we once again redesigned the game as a 4 player tabletop version to show to the top 5, 4, 3, 2 BIG Boys — Hasbro and Mattel.

MC 4 Player Game prototype by ITD Games
© Imagine That! Design, all rights reserved


This brings us a long stretch of 2000 to 20017 which Imagine That! Design switched directions (needed money), so we worked on other people’s stuff. Over this time we helped develop and design dozens of games and toys for a variety of clients. During this time period the game industry shifted as well. The indie market took off and Kickstarter blasted onto the scene changing everything. We also started this wonderful tradition of game night with our nephews.

After playing numerous different games with our nephews and needing some new games to play, we pulled out our old prototype of Medieval Challengers. Reaction: WOW! This is a good game. You know what, we can really make this happen.

This brings us to June 2017. We opened the Medieval Challengers box and started designing for ourselves again. We found some old AI and PSD files that still work and the challenge began. 

The journey is underway to making this a reality, so stay tuned and follow us on the interwebs to stay on top of the adventure as it unfolds.  Happy gaming!

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