University of Sussex students have been offered the chance to pitch to investors after winning a national toy design competition with an idea literally off the top of their heads.
Product Design students from the university wowed industry experts with their idea for Reel Danger - a fishing roulette game where the loser gets sprayed with water.
The team of eight first and second-year students came first in the Mojo Nation Student Design Challenge featuring 150 students from universities across the UK.
It is the third time in a row that University of Sussex students have won the competition.
Student Gabriel Robson said the team developed the idea for the new game in just 90 minutes after taking inspiration from a team member’s fishing hat before making a prototype from materials found in the cafe at the Design Museum in London where the event was being held.
Gabriel said: “Our product design course is all about generation of ideas and how to complete a task as efficiently as possible. For the competition, we had a brief to complete in 90 minutes with no budget or materials meaning we had to have a great idea and be resourceful.
“It was great to hear the feedback from industry experts as they all understood the process we went though and were very impressed with what we completed in such as short amount of time.
“They very much liked our product and said it would be a viable game. They have invited us back next September to pitch out idea to investors and possible take our game idea further forwards.”
Diane Simpson-Little, senior teaching fellow in Product Design at the University of Sussex, said: “I was extremely impressed with the way the students worked as a team and quickly put into practice their design thinking skills, in such a short space of time not only did they come up with really strong product ideas, but they also created a genuinely unique proposition for their brands.
“Overall the whole day was a fantastic experience for the students, with inspirational presentations and a chance to be mentored by professional toy designers but the icing on the cake had to be winning the award for best game.”
Billy Langsworthy, co-founder of Mojo Nation, said: “A huge congratulations to the University of Sussex for scooping the game award.
“It’s the third time in a row that a team from Sussex has emerged victorious in one of our design challenges, so Diane is clearly doing something very right.
“We’re also delighted that the idea was genuinely met with such enthusiasm by our professional designers – hopefully the team will be back at one of our events pitching the idea to toy companies soon.”