As part of their strategy, Jumbo occasionally buys successful games from a foreign territory to distribute to their European market. They feared the American design of the board game How To Rob a Bank was too flashy, dark and well… too serious for their European target audience.
We asked Jumbo how our collaboration could be ultimately successful. In their mind this would be when highly demanding, early adopters embrace the game and its execution so enthusiastically that they share their views with their online community. This would indicate an opportunity to promote to a broader audience…
Realizing they needed to stand out between the abundance of games on a toy store’s shelf, we decided to go for a graphic approach with fun and saturated base colors. We needed to appeal to families with children and at the same time stay true to the original idea of robbing a bank. We chose to approach it from the robber’s point of view by requiring players to look at the blue prints of a bank.
The box becomes a part of the game itself by turning into the bank building.
The manual is designed to unfold as a blueprint floor plan instead of a normal booklet, and is set up in four different languages: English, Dutch, German & French.
For in-house reel purposes we made a video to showcase our design skills. This video was accidentally picked up by influential gamers and created a buzz of its own. How To Rob a Bank became Jumbo’s best selling game in its genre that year.
Online reviews are the bread and butter for board game developers to promote their games. This is a selection of reviews specifically about the game’s re-design:
