Final product overview

Over the past weeks, we’ve worked tirelessly to bring our vision to life: a modern take on the traditional sjoel game. Combining physical gameplay with a digital experience, we created an engaging, interactive installation that perfectly fits the needs of our client and their audience.

Our final product

At its core, our game revolves around defeating a monster through the well-loved mechanics of sjoelen. The player slides pucks into slots on a physical board, but unlike traditional sjoel, each slot triggers a visual effect on the screen: explosions, water, smoke, or sparks. These effects weaken the monster and bring the game to life.

To keep things exciting, the game consists of 3 levels, with each level becoming more challenging as the monster grows stronger. Players have 30 seconds per level to land as many pucks as possible and defeat their opponent. The slot strengths are inspired by the original sjoel points system, ensuring a balance of tradition and innovation.

Players can also choose between two monsters: Muncher or Cruncher, each with their own visual style, giving kids a sense of choice and ownership.

Meeting the client's needs

The Antwerp Youth Film Festival’s XL-Medialab focuses on creating innovative, interactive experiences for children. Our installation checks all the boxes:

• Multi-user/ intergenerational: The game is intuitive enough for younger children to enjoy without explanation, while still being fun and engaging for older players and parents.
• Robust and kid-friendly: The physical sjoelboard is sturdy and safe for continuous use by hundreds of visitors.
• Interactive audiovisual: The game provides real-time visual and audio feedback, making the experience immersive and clear. Kids see the direct impact of their actions as effects appear on screen and monsters react.
• Link with visual culture and film:
  • Design choices based on filmposters.
  • We created our own little movie where the kids (main characters) can defeat the monster (villain) in the story.
  • visual effects based on effect from 2d animation
• alternative controllers
  • sjoelgame

Focus on UX and design

Throughout development, our main challenge was translating strong UX and design choices into a functional product:

• Real-time feedback: Every puck triggers instant visual effects, ensuring kids are rewarded for their actions.
• Clarity through testing: By testing early and often, we refined the interface and solved confusion around level transitions and slot strength. The addition of a level screen animation and sounds made gameplay progression obvious and exciting.
• Intuitive controls: Even kids unfamiliar with the game could jump in and start playing immediately. The combination of clear visuals, easy controls, and recognizable mechanics makes the game accessible and fun.