Beasts of Balance – Niantic London

Beasts of Balance is a physical/digital hybrid game by Sensible Object (now Niantic London). Artefact blocks are stacked on a connected platform. With each addition to the tower, an ecosystem and score is created in the companion app.

A Beast Artefact and family of ‘element’ artefacts for the game ‘Beasts of Balance’ were designed which would minimise tooling cost, but add the most fun and variation to the game.

Ideation through sketching was followed by CAD modelling in Rhino3D. Prototype pieces then required post-processing and assembly to enable connectivity to the hardware platform.

Since the enjoyment of balancing the artefacts was imperative, many cycles of modelling, printing and playtesting were undertaken so that the final pieces would allow for a large range of play.

The final family of artefacts represented the four elements of earth, wind, air and fire, lending mythological narrative to the game.
Only four injection moulding tools were required to produce the ten element artefacts in the family.

After a successful Kickstarter, the game has since been featured extensively in game-related and mainstream press. Beasts of Balance is currently available in the Apple Store or online retailers.

The Chameleon artefact was also designed for the More Beasts: Expansion Pack.