Nick Hayes

Education

BFA Toy Design with Honors, Otis College of Art and Design

Nick Hayes is an Arizona-born tabletop game designer and illustrator. He has been teaching at Otis since 2018 and working as a game designer in the toy industry since 2011.

At Mattel, Nick designed UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy, DOS, UNO All Wild, Blokus Puzzle, Spirits of the Wild, and many more of the games you will find on toy shelves around the world. At Spin Master, Nick was the lead designer behind the first two Paw Patrol games, Ellen’s Head Up! Party Game, and several Stratego games for Royal Jumbo. Prior to that, Nick’s 2010 indie game Utopia Engine was part of the avant garde that preceded the rise of the roll-and-write genre.

A lifelong passion for studying and playing games has formed a core belief that games should evoke an emotive experience in their players. This one design tenet serves as a beacon for how he teaches the craft of game design to others. Players experience games through the physical pieces, the artwork, the story, the rules, and through their interaction with other players. You as the designer must intuit how it all works together to color the player’s experience.