Each of our games was meant to be a simple, engaging toy which could appeal to as broad an audience as possible. We tried to favor games based around creative activities for a few simple reasons:

• They're appropriate for all ages
• They're interesting for as long as necessary, without being so engrossing that it's difficult to pull a child away
• Games where our guest makes something new give an immediate sense of empowerment and ownership

Coloring Book

The magic coloring book was our first prototyped game. The idea is simple: paint a flat image with the colors of your choosing, then watch it come to life! This game is our most reliable producer of "wow" moments, and the one which holds people's attention the longest in the hospital. Usually, it's played for 20 minutes—exactly the average wait time we observed on our visits to the room.

Freeform

We knew we wanted to have a toy that our guests could use to create some their very own drawings, but didn't want to give a pen tool, because it seemed that would make it too easy to write or draw things which are offensive. So we made Freeform, a toy which lets you play with shapes and colors.

Search & Find

This game was suggested to us by the steering committee, because some of them had enjoyed doing similar activities with their own kids. We thought it was a great idea, so we prototyped it up! It's fun to watch 5-year-old kids find everything in the pictures in a fraction of the time it takes their parents.