Design Challenge: For the Dora the Explorer license, we were challenged to design a whole new kind of play experience where the iPad and a physical toy would interact, offering the child a new way to engage with Dora’s world.

Solution: One of the challenges in designing the interaction between Dora’s backpack and the iPad was in the cost of the communication technique. We developed a low-cost solution using light signals sent from the iPad to the backpack that would result in the backpack rotating while sitting on top of the iPad. Players’ tokens would fall into the backpack if they guessed correctly during the game.

Favorite Moments: Watching preschoolers’ surprise and delight when the backpack rotates and banks their tokens in response to their iPad inputs during the game.

Background: While working at and with Discovery Bay Games, Marisa, Colt, and Shanon led concepting for the Nickelodeon license.