Playmaker Pinball is a dynamic, challenging, fast-paced, one to two player game inspired by pinball.
The single player game has kids design & place their own obstacles on increasingly difficult pinball levels to exercise their skills in spatial reasoning, basic physics, and iterative problem solving.
Our two player mode (which is formed by putting two playmakers back to back) has kids add/move obstacles to try to defend their side from intruding pinballs, all while encouraging socialization, strategic thinking, and competitive fun!
Watch the video to see how the game is played and keep scrolling for more process details!
Playmaker originated when my capstone group talked to teachers about trends in child development and learned that post pandemic, kids are struggling more than ever with problem solving and socialization. Parents we talked to reiterated these concerns and placed a notably high emphasis on having educational toys at home. Most importantly, we talked to kids and the biggest common thread was that they loved play that was dynamic and engaging.
To further understand our target market, we synthesized the data from our interviews and play sessions to create profiles for our users (kids). We decided to focus on making a product targeted towards Little Visionaries (shown right), but that would also have enough enticing elements to pull in other groups. After many ideation sessions, we came up with a modified version of pinball that was both fun and educational.
After initial prototyping, we constructed a set of functional Playmaker boards in the Product Realization Lab that included 3D printed obstacles and a laser cut acrylic board. We took the prototype to the families we had interviewed, a local toy store, and a middle school engineering class to begin as many rounds of playtesting as possible. Through feedback we honed the rules and mechanics until gameplay was filled with laughter, “aha” moments, and unbridled excitement.
