Arts & Culture

The Apprentice Week 5: The Gaming World

15 February 202215 February 2022By
The Apprentice Week 5: The Gaming World

This week, Lord Sugar summoned the candidates to London’s immersive entertainment complex Samsung KX. He revealed that they would be creating their own computer game for this week’s task. To not get fired in the boardroom, the remaining 11 needed to create a game demo along with a character before pitching their concept to a panel of hugely successful games investors.

Previously: The candidates got caught underwater. For team Infinity, Alex captained the ship for the team, but his team soon sank. On the other team, Harpreet promised the earth. And Sophie and Stephany hit choppy waters as they struggled to reel in sales. Harpreet’s team netted the win in the boardroom, and Alex was gutted. Will they have their heads in the game this week?

5 am: Wake Up

With 30 minutes until the Taxi’s arrived, the candidates had to prepare themselves to head over to Samsung’s building in King’s Cross. 

“This sounds like a little bit of me.” Akeem. 

With Kings’ Cross housing one of Europe’s largest curved screen in immersive entertainment, the candidates were about to be told the upcoming task by Lord Sugar in the form of animation. 

Due to the pandemic, there was a rapid rise in video games, resulting in the gaming industry being worth seven billion pounds. For this week’s task, Lord Sugar wanted the candidates to design a new video game that they would pitch to leading professionals… And they would be the ones deciding the best concept. 

“For one of you, it will be Game Over.” Said Lord Sugar.

With team Diverse taking the win for the last two weeks, Lord Sugar wanted to mix the teams up. 

The first job of the day was to put someone in the controls. 

For team Diverse, Brittany took the role of PM, and she only had one idea she wanted to put forwards. 

“We have an idea that is knowledgeable and can bring awareness to global warming.” Said Brittney. 

Disagreeing was sub-team leader Francesca, “We need a game that will be addictive. This to me seems like a child’s game.”

“The team’s concept about global warming and saving the animals is very on-trend. They need to be careful. When people play games, they don’t want to be lectured too.” Brady. 

For team Infinity, there was only one PM. Having experience playing video games in his spare time and professionally, Akeem felt like he was in his element within this task. 

Pitching his dystopian idea, Akeem faced opposing views from Aaron, and soon team Infinity began creating a prison game. 

“Akeem has got all the skills for this task, and he started confidently about what he wanted to create. However, in two minutes, it all went out the window, and now he is following Aaron’s idea. I hope he doesn’t get swayed all the time. Otherwise, it will backfire.” Said Campbell. 

“I had a clear vision from the start, but I feel I just need to trust my gut and my instinct.” Said Akeem.

11 am: East London, A leading design agency

Each team headed off to make playable prototypes. Half of the team began making, and the other half started to build a brand. 

For their green game and to home in on Brittney’s demand to focus their game on the arctic and saving the animals. Francesca, Sophie and Akshay developed the brand of ‘Artic Saviour’.

“Their name is Artic Saviour. If they mean Arctic then they have missed the C.” Brady.

Kathryn and Aaron worked out branding names for their prison game, who, after long disagreements, chose the name ‘TIME’.

“They have come up with the name TIME, which is a bit non-descriptive and doesn’t say anything about the game.” Said Campbell. 

Over at the digital animators: Brittney, Stephany, and Nick started to bring their Arctic game to life (bring their ‘Artic’ game to life).

“We have the concept down, but I do think there could be more progression and development for the panel tomorrow to be interested.” Said Stephany. 

Next door Akeem’s team started to build a back story for their character. 

Little do they know: Kathryn has put herself as the star of the show. She was becoming a cartoon version of herself in orange overalls. 

For Francesca, she developed ‘Sam the Scientist’. (The Artic Saviour, Sam the Scientists).

1 pm: Collaborating Ideas

With both the branding and the character prototype almost finished, it was time for both teams to come together over a stressful phone call… 

For team Infinity, Kathryn and Aarons name choice worried Akeem. He mentioned how the game now needed to have an element of a countdown for the title and the game to have a link. 

Framing Amelia Stone was first time director Aaron, whist PM and gaming enthusiast Akeem focused on mapping out the rest of the game. 

On the other team, Akshay became Sam, the Scientist, and the priority for Francesca was to create a promotional video to sell their green game. 

“You have two very strong women on this team, and neither will yield to the other. And Akshay is just stuck in the middle, just following instructions.” Said Brady. 

9 pm: Promotional videos perfected.

Games signed off. Tomorrow convince the experts to invest.

7 am: The Next Day

Back at the house, it was now time for the teams to have their first look at what the branding and gaming team had achieved. 

For Brittney, it was the first time she saw what branding her sub-team had created… 

“We are supposed to be educating people, and we haven’t even spelt Arctic right.” Said Brittney.

“I’m slightly a bit confused about Sam the Scientist. He is wearing a lab coat, and he has got Ugg boots on.” Said Stephany.

Next door branding and the game prototype had a completely different reaction. 

“Yes, Yessss, Yessss.” Said Akeem 

“It makes people want to play the game. I think it is brilliant.” Said Harpreet.

9 am: Planning and Pitching

The next task was for each half of the teams to plan their pitch, whilst the other half was off to gather feedback from the public. 

Aaron and Kathryn began to gather feedback from the gaming professionals.

“It is quite simple, the only thing you can do is really hit somebody. It could entail the game could become quite boring.”

For Artic Saviour, there was an icy reception. 

“I would have spelt it slightly differently, especially if children are playing it. You would want the right spelling.” 

“Are we saying to save the animals, we have to kill the humans. It was a bit contradicting at times.”

7 pm: Pitches Done

With feedback and pitches completed, it was now crunch time for the investors. 

While the nerves got the better of team TIME, things got even worse for Artic Saviour as they learnt penguins are not even from the Arctic but, in fact, the Antarctic!

“There was a lot of things wrong with the branding, the name, the setting. I would be lying If I felt confident about going into the boardroom tomorrow.” Said Brittney.

The Boardroom

“Listen, people, when it comes to games, you are talking to someone that has made thousands of them.” Said Sugar.

Infinity and Time: “I’ve seen more action than that in the Night Garden.”

Diverse and Artic Saviour: “Artic in East End terms is an articulated lorry.” 

Infinity: “Although there were some issues with the game, the investors really liked the character. So, they invested 20 thousand each. Which made a profit of 60 thousand for further development.” Said Campbell. 

Diverse: “The investors said it is simplistic and then there is simple. This game was too simple, and because of that, they didn’t make any investments.” Said Brady. 

With Infinity taking the win, it was off to Monopoly Lifesize to experience some old school gaming. For team Diverse it was off to the café.

For Brittney, Francesca and Sophie, that was on their last life. 

“Brittney, this wasn’t very good. You want me to be impressed because you have put yourself forward in an industry you don’t know anything about.”

“Francesca, you were responsible for the name and the character. None of them were any good.”

“Sophie, you were on the branding team, so you need to take some responsibility.”

“Francesca, the advisors, told me, how could I employ someone who cannot even spell a simple name and for that reason you are FIRED.”

Next Week:

The remaining ten candidates become tour guides.