Project Objective: Build a smartphone application that entertains the 2-5-year-old child for a 5-10 minute time frame. The target audience is parents with young children and is a paid app with no advertising or in-app purchase functionality.
Game Designer
In early 2010, when Eggroll Games was formed, the Apple App Store was still an underdeveloped platform. The expertise of our newly formed collective was concentrated in education, so a natural starting point was the education and entertainment of young children. WTAT is the first produced game that I designed with the goal to amuse the pre-K child. As a new parent, I understood the value of using both hands.
- Wrote a game concept document
- Wrote dialogue
- Compiled a look book
Producer
From a production standpoint, this application was straightforward. The production process was truncated, lasting eight weeks. Eggroll had a small production staff of developers but no artists. I sourced outside talent for art and voice-over work for the application. The game design document and game flow were solidified before production and did not alter much during the process.
- Sourced Art and Voice talent
- Worked with an artist in asset creation
- Worked with the dev team to execute on the design document
- Published on iOS and Google Play
- Produced marketing materials and worked with app reviews and educational blogs to feature this game.
Game Play Mock-up
The origination of this game comes from real-life experience. One afternoon while at a theme park, I noticed a smallish child standing in front of a line of closed-door stalls, and I imagined they were considering whose toes belonged to their care giver. The kiddo eventually squatted down to get a better look, and “Whose Toes are Those” - an animal matching game - was born.
Early in the design process, the changing room was swapped out for a more delightful environment. I had envisioned a game show like "Narrator" with a cheerful, upbeat voice, and it was a logical choice to recontextualize the mechanic in a game show environment. The design concept and inspiration was the energy and spectacle of televised game shows from ’60-’70s filmed in front of a live audience.