Good Planet
Interactive Table Game Design
2019.11 - 2020.4
An interactive multiplayer table game designed to teach kids environmental awareness through play, located at the Good Planet Foundation in Paris.
Every week, children aged 6–12 visit the center for workshops on sustainability. To support their learning about food waste and recycling, as a team of three, we created a cooperative game experience using two digital tables, combining educational goals with fast-paced, joyful play.
Part 1
Understanding the space, and how kids learn through play
Role
Design Research
Period
2 Weeks
2.Kid-Centered Learning Model
We developed a game-based learning framework combining three key values:
Education: goal setting, motivation, and comprehension
Art: visuals, sound, and experiential emotion
Gaming: interaction, engagement, and feedback loops
This model follows a motivational sequence often used in early childhood learning:
"Must do → Know how to do → Want to do"
We studied children's attention span, emotional triggers, and learning through narrative to design a game no longer than 15 minutes, balancing excitement and comprehension.
Part 2
Turning insights into an engaging, collaborative game experience
Role
Experience Designer
Period
2 Weeks
1.Experience Flow
We designed the experience to follow the full emotional and cognitive journey of a child, from arrival to departure:
From pre-visit preparation → to in-game immersion → to post-game reflection → and at-home extension.
To better understand their perspective, we placed ourselves in the mindset of 6–12-year-olds and interviewed Good Planet educators. This helped us identify key behavioral and emotional challenges to address.
👀 Key design considerations:
Minimizing wait time during team formation to avoid early disengagement
Reducing frustration during role selection, especially for eager or competitive players
Fostering smooth turn-taking and collaboration, ensuring every child has a meaningful role and moment to contribute
These insights shaped the pacing, mechanics, and structure of the game to better support group harmony, motivation, and learning flow.
2.Concept design
To help children visualize the concept of environmental pollution, we created a "Trash Monster" character — a tangible enemy they could confront and fight against.
We envisioned the game as a 10–15 minute Earth-saving mission for 6–8 players, divided into two cooperative teams:
One team becomes the "Warrior Squad", entering the Imaginary World to battle pollution monsters and clean up waste.
The other team acts as "Supporters", watching the battle on the Earth, and answering environmental questions to unlock hints and help the warrior team succeed.
This structure encourages collaboration, role rotation, and a shared sense of purpose through fast-paced, mission-based play.
3.Modeling & Prototyping
For the Warrior Team, we divided one interactive table into 4 individual game zones.
Set in an imaginary world, each of the four players has their own unique gameplay view and mission.
While they can independently fight off monsters in their assigned area, they are also encouraged to help each other using cooperative skills like teleportation, creating a balance between solo action and team strategy.
