Mårten Brüggemann
Play Designer
What I do
I’m a Play Designer at Toca Boca. I create children’s apps for your iPhones, iPads and other smart devices, including the recently-released world-building and construction play app, Toca Blocks.
What I love about my job
I love coming up with ideas for new toy concepts and improving them to become the best that they can be. Toca Boca has a huge following so there’s a big responsibility in delivering something that our fans will enjoy, but we also get so much support from fans, which helps to push me forward. I also love the idea of creating games that stimulate kids’ imaginations and help shape how they see the world and refer to it.
What’s difficult about my job
I have the rewarding challenge of coming up with fun new ideas for how kids can interact with the toys using touch-screen phones. For things to be fun they need to feel fresh but also be easy to understand. However, different users have had different experiences with the phones so it’s difficult to know how each person will react to the ideas I develop.
What skills I need
I work with a team of very skilled developers. Together we create the apps based on the ideas I come up with. The most important thing is communicating the ultimate goal of the app experience to the team before we start, along with how the slightest detail has an impact on the entire user experience.
Where to start
I had an interest in videogames as a young kid, and spent a lot of time playing games on my Nintendo! This interest soon evolved into me drawing my own videogame ideas on paper. I think this is where I started thinking about the games I played in a different way. I wasn’t only playing them, I was also analysing the different parts and ideas of the game, such as what made them fun. I then found some pretty easy-to-use computer programs which allowed me to create my own computer games all by myself.
