2023 Highlights at PRELOADED

Bringing Ancient Egypt to life for the Fortnite player audience using Epic’s new platform was an incredible experience for the entire PRELOADED team, topped off by making the final cut of the UEFN launch trailer at GDC in March.

This project also provided an opportunity to reunite with Joann Fletcher, a renowned Egyptologist with whom we previously collaborated on BBC’s ‘Death in Sakara.’ Jo joined the PRELOADED team as a historical consultant, ensuring the authenticity of our recreation of the Giza Plateau during the 4th Dynasty.

Additionally, we collaborated with Dr. Robert Sherman to create a lesson plan for use in classrooms. The ‘Lives After Death’ lesson plan offers a series of exercises and challenges for history students, targeting 14-16 year olds as part of their History, Sociology, Heritage Studies, and Archaeology studies.

Learn more about this project here.

We were delighted to bring our R&D credentials to an early-stage partnership with Sky and their Sky Live platform. Our exploration of the affordances of their new camera peripheral subsequently evolved into ‘Beep Beep Bop’ – a Sky-Live launch title designed for the whole family.

‘Beep Beep Bop’ is a generative party game that gets everyone off the couch and encourages movement through a set of surreal, strange, and randomized mini-games. Not one gameplay will ever be the same!

Needless to say, our team had a lot of fun creating this experience for such a broad audience, which leaned on PRELOADED’s principles of “low threshold, high ceilings, and wide walls.

Learn more about this project here.

We love a challenge, and when Kimberly-Clark approached us to help them tackle the toilet-training crisis in the UK, we saw a significant opportunity to make a meaningful difference to families at a challenging time of child development.

Our team set out to create a product that supported existing family dynamics and helped children practice the health habits that will last them a lifetime. Supported by the lovable character Bunny, as well as the iconic Andrex Puppy, we developed a unique visual style that borrowed from the best of children’s storybook illustrations, brought to life in real-time 3D.

Excitingly, the GoTime app is an ongoing product that can evolve to meet the different needs of caregivers and children on their toilet training journey. By creating ‘Playbooks’ that children want to play but which also give the caregiver a critical role, we have ensured the best opportunity for learning, in line with the celebrations and regressions unique to every child.

Learn more about this project here.

Building on our long-standing relationship with the trailblazing team at TOCA Social, we were fortunate enough to be asked to create our fifth game for the now-global location-based play experience.

TOCA Zombies brings fast-paced gameplay to players, testing their control, accuracy, power, and positioning in a post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland. It was also aptly used for the Day of the Dead celebrations to coincide with TOCA Social’s launch in Mexico.

Learn more about this project here.

Art Fund approached us with an ambitious goal: to raise awareness and spark curiosity in a young audience about the subject of biodiversity loss in the UK.

Launched on Earth Day 2023, children were invited to explore and discover nature in museum collections across the country, bringing their chosen creature to life using their creativity and then releasing it into a large-scale collaborative artwork.

The Wild Escape was the largest-ever collaboration between museums, galleries, public spaces, and art centres, made possible by a simple and effective digital product. The result was a national – and urgent – conversation across the ages.

It was also a first for PRELOADED to see our work up on the UK’s biggest screen – the Piccadilly Lights in the heart of London.

Learn more about this project here.

Through all our hard work (and a bit of luck!), we have picked up a clutch of silverware this year.

Undoubtedly, highlights include our first Webby Award for our work with the Science Museum on ‘Wonderlab AR,’ a series of Lovie Awards for ‘Beep Beep Bop’ with Sky and ‘The Wild Escape’ with Art Fund, as well as Learning Technology Awards for both Invesco’s ‘How Not to Suck at Money’ and Dettol’s ‘Hygiene Quest’. The former project has now secured its 20th major trophy since its launch.

For the 20th anniversary of Games for Change, Matt shared the stage with James Golding, Technical Director at Epic Games, to delve into the world of Fortnite Creative 2.0 and our project ‘Wonders: Pyramid of Giza.’

James shared a glimpse into the strategy behind UEFN and what it means in democratising play – and creation – on the Fortnite platform. Matt showcased this potential with Wonders and PRELOADED’s vision to bring purposeful play and education to the world’s largest gaming community.

Link to the talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYA4nPnjLG8

At the beginning of 2023, we shared our vision for ‘The Future of the Living Room’ – an exploration of how new and emerging technologies are changing how we interact and play in the home. The livestream and associated insight report are part of our ongoing exploration of the possibility space enabled by new technology under our banner of the ‘New Play Space.’

We explored the confluence of technologies such as smart speakers, new headsets (AR, VR, MR), and IoT devices and how this changes how and where we play in the home. We touched on play patterns that bring enhanced real-time fitness coaching, extended AI assistants, added perspectives, interactions in the physical space, and so much more.

2023 saw the launch of PRELOADED’s Play Pioneers; a new co-creation initiative which is being embedded at the heart of our design practice.

Play Pioneers is focused on enabling better product design through a sustainable collaborative model, allowing us to give more control to children in the products we are making for them, earlier in the process.

Lots (lots!) more on this next year!

Let’s not forget our annual game jam – JAMLOADED – that united our hybrid and remote teams in one place for two full days!

This year’s theme was ‘Limited Space,’ and entries included a holiday packing board game, a heist-inspired escape-the-room adventure, a “rhythm and contortion” VR game, a unique body-shape camera game, and a wild physics game that blended the worlds of Star Wars and Feng Shui.

The winning game was called “FENG SQUEEZE.” You can read more about what the game is about in our dedicated blog post.

More about our JAMloaded 2023 here.

In support of men’s mental health and Movember, we asked the team to make their own moustaches using LEGO pieces. It was fascinating to see the unique inspiration from the team, which included a giant rainbow-coloured curly moustache, a ‘hands-free’ steampunk mask, and a multi-positional ‘tache. Geniuses at work!

See our LinkedIn post for more pictures: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7128779661571969024

2023 has been a very busy and remarkable year filled with amazing projects, made possible by trusting partners and an incredible team!

We can’t wait to see where ‘Play with Purpose’ takes us in 2024.