During the demo of our Whack-a-Worm game that the Children’s Museum, the children found a lot of fun hitting the worms with the hammers really hard, which eventually led to the hammers breaking. Even though they enjoyed hitting the worms, we were surprised that the children didn’t spend as much time at the game as we thought they would. We think this was mostly because we were in the Garage, which had a lot of other games and machines that were distracting. Another surprise was the children kept hitting worms that already went down since there’s no lights or noise to indicate that the worm went down, so we need to add reactions to make that clearer.

Learning from these observations, we want to capture and keep the visitors’ attention more by adding patterns in the ways the worms go up and down, instead of them being random. For example, we can either make a set pattern that doesn’t depend on which worms the children hit, or we can make certain worms react to other worms being hit, which would make the game more collaborative. Also, we want to add a reaction in the form of light, sound, score, or a mixture of those three when a worm is hit to give the children some sort of reward. This visit to the museum didn’t really change our vision of our final project. We just want to add more aspects to our game to make it more robust and fun to play.

 In terms of the engineering analysis, we discovered numerous technical limitations. The springs were not stiff enough to consistently push up the worms all the way, and the servos they were attached to were not mounted securely. The worm casings were too tight for the worms to go up as far as we would like them to. Also, the power from the battery pack kept shutting off, and the switch on top of the worms slowly started to sink into the foam and eventually became hard for the hammers to hit. The hammers also fell apart at the end due to excessive force put on by the children. The first element to fail was the servo arm. It slid to the side as it was pushing up the worm, getting stuck between the worm and the casing. This resulted in the worm not going up and down anymore, so we had to constantly push it back into place. Operational details that have not been noticed before also became apparent at the museum demo. For example, we realized the table was too tall for the children to come up and play with our game. So, we switched to the floor and more kids came up to play. Also, we realized that standing next to our project was intimidating for the kids, but at the same time we need to be close to monitor the game. A potential solution we had was to play the game ourselves while we waited for kids, but we didn’t want to constantly play it since that meant a higher chance of the game failing.  

For our revision plan, we don’t need to modify the fundamental experience. We think the experience itself is fun, engaging and intuitive. However, we need to solve our technical limitations. We will need to make stronger hammers, add another shield board to support a 5th worm, add lights/sound/scoreboard to announce when a worm is hit, and replace springs with stronger springs. We also need to figure out a new power source. If we still have time after doing all this, we will rethink the worm and casing material to make them interact smoother and sturdier. The new capability we are adding is moving the switch from the top to the bottom of the worms. This allows the arduino to sense when the worm is hit down instead of just whether a switch is pressed on top. We would also like to add some sort of scorekeeping mechanism. To do this, we will need to learn how to program and wire the LED display. 

To begin this redesign process, we will make a new single worm-casing combo. We will test the spring to make sure it pushes the worm high enough, and at the same time we will ensure the casing doesn’t block the worm from going up. Next, we will put the switch under the worm and make sure it is always triggered when the worm is pushed down. Then, we will test the combo and continuously hit it for at least five minutes or until something breaks. After testing the single worm-casing combo to ensure sturdiness, we will replace all worm-casing combos and run the whole game to ensure the power source works continuously and the experience is engaging. Also, we will need to test the scorekeeping or light/sound reactions to ensure clarity. So overall, we will need to replace springs, attach servos better, add reactions or scorekeeping, make new hammers, add another shield board to support fifth worm, find a new power source, and move the switches to the bottom of the worms. We need to be diligent in testing the single worm-casing combo because spending too much time testing a single combo will limit the time we have to test the game as a whole and evaluate the total experience. We’ll need to buy new springs from Amazon or McMaster and potentially buy new material for casing and worms.

Video demo of game at museum