Concept: Washing Machine

User Experience:

When you first check into the Give Kids the World Village, you’re given a bar of soap (or scrub brush). You are told that this bar of soap is very important in helping out the Washing Machine. You are told to hold onto it, and help out the Washing Machine in the Castle of Miracles when you have time.

You enter the Castle, and next to the Wishing Well, find a giant Washing Machine! You walk up to the Washing Machine, and the Soap Suds appear through the glass on the inside of the Washing Machine. They greet you and say:

“Hello (child’s name)! We run this Washing Machine and Dryer. We get freshly created pillows which are nice and fluffy. However, they have the capacity to hold both dreams and nightmares in them. We take these pillows and scrub them clean of the nightmares so that everyone can have a pleasant night’s sleep. We’ve been working extra hard.. but we can always use some more help. Can you help us out? We see that you have a bar of soap! If you scrub it up against the pillows, it will help us get rid of the nightmares, and then everyone can have sweet dreams! Please help us!”

“OK”! you answer. The Soap Suds let you know that they are going to start sending pillows into the machine. They ask you to scrub the pillows that float by through the glass window of the Washing Machine. The Soap Suds move out of the way, and pillows begin to float by. Taking your bar of soap, you press it to the glass, and begin to scrub. As you scrub each pillow, its colors become more vibrant and brighter, and the pillows become covered in Soap Suds. Once you scrub each pillow enough, it begins to simmer and glow. When you have cleaned all the pillows in the machine, the Soap Suds appear on the screen again and say:

“Thank you so much! Oh dear, the pillows seem to be filled with bubbles now, and this water is filled with soap. We don’t want people’s heads getting filled with bubbles! We want them filled with dreams! Use the water hoses on the side to help us clean off the pillows with water. We need those pillows rinsed out! Please help us!”

You then pick up one of the water hoses on the side of the Washing Machine. You aim it at the pillows on the screen and fire. You see a stream of water spray into the Washing Machine in front of your hose. As you spray off each pillow, the bubbles around it come off, and the pillow begins to float to the top of the machine. Once all the pillows are at the top of the machines, the Soap Suds appear on the screen again and say:

“Oh thank you so much! But, now the pillows are all wet! We can’t have people sleeping on wet pillows! Their dreams might become too soggy! We’ll place them in the Dryer. Can you please pull the lever to let the sun’s rays in, and then turn the wheel to make sure that our Dryer absorbs the nice warm rays that the sun is shining down?”

Before your eyes, you see all the water drain out of the Washing Machine, and the pillows fall to the bottom of the machine. At the same time, you see the water and the pillows pass through a clear tube into the Dryer. You walk over to the Dryer and you pull the lever. The sun appears up above. You turn the wheel and the Dryer starts to rumble, as the rays shine down onto the Dryer, drying all the pillows. You hear a “ding” and the Dryer stops rumbling. You hear the voices of the Soap Suds one last time as they say:

“Oh thank you so much for helping us out! The pillows are now all clean and filled with nothing but sweet dreams. Because you helped us out, we have a little present for you. Here is one of the pillows you helped us clean, and it will give you nothing but sweet dreams. It is in the Dryer. Please open the door and take it. We hope that you like it!”

You go over to the side of the Dryer and open the door. You look inside and find a clean pillow. You take the pillow out and close the door. You are then free to take the pillow back with you. The soap (or brush) is a gift as well.

Location Treatment:

The location will be themed similar to a laundry room. There will be a “Washing Machine” that is designed to look as if it were from the future, but still a Washing Machine from the outside. Inside will be a computer with speakers and a large touch screen monitor in which only a circular portion of the screen can be seen, while the rest is covered by the Washing Machine’s facade. There will also be two water hoses attached to the front of the Washing Machine for the rinsing game. These water hoses should have emitters that can be detected by the touch screen, as well as accelerometers in order to indicate the direction of the water hose. There will be flashing lights and dials on the Washing Machine as well to indicate that the child is performing these actions correctly.

To the right of the Washing Machine is a Dryer. The front will be a solid chamber with two flashing lights when it is “operating”. There is also a lever and a wheel on the front. On the top there will be four triangular panels that protrude, along with a cylinder to represent the sun ray absorber. These should be able to rise up mechanically based on lever operation. There will be a door to the Dryer on the side that will dispense the pillow when the game is complete. Inside the Dryer is a mechanism for dispensing the pillows so that only one is shown at a time. Once the door closes, another pillow should drop into place. There should also be a “trap door” in order to refill the pillows after each day, without being visible to a guest.

There will also be a round dome above that contains the “sun”. In reality this should only be a color changing light trapped around a refracting dome that will enclose it and make it seem larger than it actually is. There will also be a box around this that will “hide” the sun when someone is not operating the Dryer, as well as keep the light from being seen. The lever makes this box slide apart, as well as turn on the light for the sun. The wheel activates the rumbling portion of the Dryer, which will be blasted out of speakers inside the Dryer, and possibly make use of shakers inside the machine. It should also undo the lock to the door on the side of the Dryer.

The soap will have an RFID tag inside of it. The computer should also have an RFID reader that will make the touch screen activate when the child is close enough.

The entire structure is able to be moved easily, as it essentially three different, separate structures. It can also be moved outside with the dome area removed in order to use the real sun instead of the artificial one.

Game Design:

Part 1: Scrubbing

There is a circular touch screen on the Washing Machine. Displayed on this touch screen there will be pillows floating around. Each of these pillows will be filled with both dreams and nightmares. The objective is to “clean” the pillows of nightmares. To do this, kids will have to use their bar of soap to “scrub” the pillows. The pillows will initially be a rather dirty and drab color with art showing that the pillow is filled with both types. When a child rubs the bar of soap over a pillow, a scrubbing sound should be played as well as suds appearing over the pillow. It is important that the bar of soap is physically against the screen so the touch screen registers. The pillow should become brighter and you should see “nightmares” being released form the pillows into the wash where they moan and disappear. It should take the soap rubbing up against the pillow 3 times in order to make it clean.

Part 2: Rinsing

The pillows will be all covered in suds. Guests must take a water hose and aim it at the pillows. Each time they fire the water at a pillow, there is a splash sound and a water graphic splashes over the pillows and a little bit of the suds will come off. Children will continue to do this until the pillows are completely free of suds.

Part 3: Drying

In the Dryer guests must first pull the lever for the sun dome to open. Once this occurs the sun’s rays will shine. The children must then use the wheels to help guide the rays into the Dryer. Once the rays are aimed at a pillow it will begin drying (rumbling) until it is completely dry.

Each of these games will have a sound and/or visual clue to notify a child when a pillow is done being scrubbed, rinsed, or dried, in order to make the child know when he or she is done and can move onto the next pillow or game. The number of pillows in both the scrubbing and rinsing stages will also be the same. Each game will take around a minute to complete

If a child is unable to complete a part of the game, the “Soap Suds” will finish the task themselves and tell the child that without their help they couldn’t have done the job. In no way will not completing one part of the game prevent a child from receiving a pillow.