The Toddler’s Role in Game Design: Case Study on Giggle Ghosts

Our feature this week is written by Susy Christiansen who runs Busy Bee Studios, a production company that produces family-friendly mobile apps and other digital content. Susy talks about their latest creation, Giggle Ghosts, and how their toddlers were a primary influence in designing the game. 

Our two 4-year-olds had an enormous impact on how we designed our latest app, Giggle Ghosts. Our experience is also a strong argument that focus group testing should be an integral part of any developer’s process.

I’m sure I’m not the only parent who has small kids who love games like Angry Birds, Where’s My Water, and others that are really geared towards older kids and grown-ups. What I found was that my two preschoolers would go to these kinds of titles often, but were just not capable of going past that first or second level.

Seeing how these kinds of games have such a pull for preschoolers, we set out to make a simple Halloween-themed game for the 2-5 set that had a similar approach to gameplay. We weren’t worried too much about the learning aspects of the game at first – we just wanted a fun little holiday app. What we started with was this concept: a bouncing game, where ghosts fly out from the left side of the screen at random intervals and speeds, and you bounce them by tooting the chimneys with a burst of musical hot air. The goal is to bounce them safely across the screen without letting any fall:

When we tested our first version with the 4-year-olds, it was clear that the rules of the game were just too random. The ghosts were coming out too frequently, they were too unpredictable in where they would fall, and there were not enough ‘rules’ for the kids to predict the ghost’s behavior and thus play along. The game needed more structure to be engaging to a preschooler.

Our next 3-4 versions of Giggle Ghosts were all about changing the game physics. What we ended up with after several more trial-and-error tests was a much pared-down version of the original concept. First, there was one ghost at a time to allow the kids to focus on the goal. Second, the ghosts’ trajectories were now defined, not random – so each ghost that now appeared in the game had a very clear path for one of the 5 chimneys. We fine-tuned the timing and feel for the chimney bursts, and after all that, had a gameplay that the kids liked and were happily playing.

Once we had streamlined the gameplay, we could take advantage of the slower and more deliberate ghost appearances by adding in an educational focus: we added a goal to count each rescued ghost, 5 per level, and added numbers that appear once each ghost is rescued:

So now Giggle Ghosts was now a counting game, and the kids enjoyed the added counting aspect, repeating the numbers out loud on their own along with the voice-over.

By this time we had a good handle on the physics and gameplay, and the but there was still something missing – while the kids enjoyed the levels, they didn’t seem overly excited about working their way to the end of the game, and we needed something to keep them motivated. In our first app Zoo Train, we learned that a reward system is a huge contributor to replay; in that app we have a sticker collection that accumulates as you complete different games. Here, we thought that it would be enough to count the ghosts up to reach the goal number, but again through observation we realized there needed to be a much bigger reward than simply saving the ghosts. Enter the ghost party!

We added a segment after each level, where, once you rescue the 5 ghosts, you drag them to a house where the ghost party is about to get started. Once placed, you go back to collect and save 5 more ghosts. We also included the house in an intro sequence to setup the story that the ghosts need to get to the party. After each level, you drag 5 more ghosts, getting closer and closer to filling the house, until you complete Level 4 and finally get them all. There is a quick visual and aural count of all 20 ghosts, after which the lights turn on, the party music starts, and you can play with all the interactive surprises at the party:

That was the big coup here – the incentive of the party made all the difference to the kids, and where before they were OK with playing it, now they were arguing over who got to play Giggle Ghosts first. We made sure there was plenty of interactivity in the party house, and have more additions to the party already planned. Updating the ghost party with future interactive elements was also an added benefit in that it’s an easy way for us to keep the app fresh and current for our users.

We have always relied heavily on kid-testing with our other apps – Zoo Train was pretty much custom-built to the kids’ likings and tastes, and our upcoming Bug Games underwent similar changes because of their reactions to each piece of content – but by far Giggle Ghosts underwent the most dramatic changes because of the unspoken opinions of two toddlers.

The last note is a quick bit of advice in testing with kids: always refrain from the urge to ‘show them’ how it should be played. The point is that they will show you how the game should be played; if you give them any prompting, you’ll be watering down your test data. (This is why formal focus testing is often conducted by third parties, behind one-way mirrors.) All you need to do is simply hand them the device, sit back, watch and learn.