Iron Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design · 2020
Save The Turtle Puzzle
- A' Design Award 2020 Iron Winner in Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Zagazoo Busy Bag
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 21,865
- Verification code 3535B33FA5 · Verify this award
About Save The Turtle Puzzle
“Save The Turtle” introduces to 4 -to 8 years old children the harmful impact of plastic on the sea and sea creatures simply and entertainingly through a maze puzzle. Children play different quizzes and win by moving the sea turtle through the path until it reaches a safe place. Repeating and solving multiple quizzes encourages children to change their behavior towards the use of plastic and reinforces the idea.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- "Save The Turtle" explains to children aging 4-8 how harmful plastic is for sea turtles, (as they mistake it for food and die) through a maze puzzle game. In each quiz, they have to save the turtle from the harmful plastic (visualized as a bottle and plastic bag) and take it to a safe place. Doing more and more quizzes strengthens the idea in their minds that plastic is harmful.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The maze part consists of 4 square pieces and a frame, so in total it is 220 mm x 220 mm x 5 mm. It comes along with a booklet (170 x 140 mm) and small wooden pieces: 2 turtles, 2 bottles and 2 plastic bags, each is 10 mm x 10 mm x 3 mm. The packaging is a pouch 280 x 250 mm.
- Tags
- save turtle, sustainable, ecosystem, eco-friendly, edutainment, out of home play, busy bag, environment
- Production Technology
- The puzzle is made of durable MDF wood accompanied with a printable booklet. Ideally, the game should be 100% eco-friendly or 100% recyclable. This was not fully realizable/or feasible at that time, but it is plastic-free.
- Design Challenge
- Solving a maze from a booklet is not a very simple task for a 4 or 5 years-old child, as the 4 maze pieces look very similar to each other. Stickers with different sea elements like a star, bubbles, etc. were put on the pieces of the maze to make it more identifiable. The game includes two different levels that make the game more challenging and suitable for a broader age bracket.
- Project Duration
- The project started in April 2019 in Cairo, Egypt and launched in August 2019 in Cairo. The product was available for sale on Zagazoo's social media platforms starting August 2019. Ever since it has become one of the most selling products.
- Operation Flow
- The game starts with an explanation of how plastic is harming the sea turtles. The child can start with any quiz (out of 24 quizzes) and tries to imitate the puzzle quiz seen in the booklet by putting the 4 wooden puzzle pieces in the right place. Then he/she solves the maze quiz by taking the sea turtle to a safe place, where the plant is and avoids the plastic bottle and bag.
- Research
- Children will not change their behavioral patterns, if they do not understand and memorize the reasons for this change. Establishing a new piece of information in the brain of a child could be done through repetition, but education and repetition should not be boring. That's why learning combined with play is a perfect tool. The team conducted the research before and after the game was prototyped. It was clear that children memorized how dangerous plastic is for sea turtles and spread awareness to adults.
- Inspiration
- Awareness campaigns about human activities that are harming the sea and sea creatures are growing stronger than ever before.
It has become everybody's responsibility to save the environment through sensible and responsible actions. How about children? Are they even aware of the problem, or is it about time that they start to take part in this movement? - Image Credits
- Image #1 : Photographer Marina Zaghloul / Illustrator Christine Zaghloul / Save the Turtle, 2019
Colors of Save The Turtle Puzzle
Design Interview about Save The Turtle Puzzle
The puzzle aims to educate children about the harmful impact of our human waste, especially plastic on other creatures such as sea turtles in a playful way they understand. Zagazoo Team therefore wanted to present this important idea and global situation in a fun and playful way that children understand, since it’s tackling two topics many children love and definitely relate to: animals and sea/ocean. Solving a puzzle multiple times helps reinforcing the knowledge through repetition.
The main focus was to create a flexible maze puzzle, that can have “endless” layouts yet easy for children to assemble, play with and learn from. We wanted children to understand this environmental topic through play and pass it on to others. Zagazoo wants children to become more environmentally aware. Save The turtle” helps children to have an/a better understanding of this important environmental issue and therefore be able to change their everyday behavior towards using plastic and dealing with waste in general.
This design is just the beginning to raise awareness about the harms of plastic and human waste. Zagazoo Busy Bags wants the game to be a method of educating children globally about the environmental problems the earth is facing.
The game can also be developed to be played by older age groups and in different ways.
The game can also be developed to be played by older age groups and in different ways.
It is hard to tell, but it took around 10-15 days to have the design ready and another 10-15 days to have it produced.
Zagazoo pursuit to design this particular concept, because it was among a set of games that introduced to children different concepts about the sea/marine life and the other reason is that we, as a team, deeply believe in the cause and message the game is delivering. Introducing the marine life without tackling the environmental problems wasn’t possible. The design is an exclusive idea by Zagazoo Busy Bags and is aimed to educate children and change their behavior towards the environment.
So far, Zagazoo would care to keep the creative copyrights for itself, because of the exclusivity of the idea. But exploring other options in the production can always be a question, since there is always something to iterate and improve.
Zagazoo specializes in edutainment games and activities, so Save The Turtle is an example of the kind of work that is produced by Zagazoo.
Zagazoo co-founders (Christine and Marina Zaghloul) worked on the design together to come up with a design that is easy to produce with a laser cutter and package in a portable pouch. The square pieces needed to be identifiable for the smaller children, too. It was hard to find an inspiration in existing toys/games, because they are manufactured differently.
Children age 4-9.
Raising awareness about environmental topics through a maze puzzle is not a common game/toy concept especially for preschoolers and children. So, the purpose is not only to tease the brain and make the children think about a maze solution, but rather to keep them aware and informed about an existing environmental problem.Regarding the design itself it’s also different, because it combines the maze and puzzle concept together in one game which gives the game extra mystery and complexity. Adding to that the game has 2 levels which makes it more challenging and suitable for a wide age group.
The name "Save The Turtle" indicates the function the children need to be doing in order to win, they need to save the sea turtle from the harmful plastics. Solving the maze puzzle is about taking the sea turtle to a safe place away from the plastics (Level 1) and finding the path that leads the sea turtle to a safe place without passing by the plastic bottle/bag (Level 2).
This design was mostly designed on Adobe Illustrator.
The design has a unique message to deliver, is space saving and based on a simple module/grid that gives multiple solutions and quizzes.
The design was done in-house and the wooden pieces were produced in a small local workshop and the booklet in a print house.
The technology that was mostly used is the laser cutter. It was used to produce multiple prototypes to find out the best and most economic outcome with as little waste as possible.
Data was mostly collected after the first prototype was produced. The team was then able to test the game with children and to collect insights about their familiarity with the topic and how they got along playing Save The Turtle. After getting the first feedback through the testing, the team modified the colors and product design by adding more elements that make the game more understandable and functional.
One of the main challenges was creating an economic design and finding the suitable supplier that can manufacture the product and produce the first prototype.
Another challenge was to create a smart solution to make the puzzle packable and portable with the least space consumption (after all it needs to fit in a small pouch). Creating a game/toy that is based on geometric modules can be visually boring to younger children, so it was a duty to make the product as appealing as possible. The final challenge was to make each puzzle piece distinctive from the other, so that younger children (age 4+) would be able to assemble the pieces, too. This was achieved by simply putting stickers, to make each puzzle piece unique.
Another challenge was to create a smart solution to make the puzzle packable and portable with the least space consumption (after all it needs to fit in a small pouch). Creating a game/toy that is based on geometric modules can be visually boring to younger children, so it was a duty to make the product as appealing as possible. The final challenge was to make each puzzle piece distinctive from the other, so that younger children (age 4+) would be able to assemble the pieces, too. This was achieved by simply putting stickers, to make each puzzle piece unique.
Zagazoo wanted to prove to itself and to future customers that it can create valuable and international-standard games/toys and to gain a global recognition from international entities.
Zagazoo learned to keep on improving its designs even after the first batch is out, each time there is a new finding or feature to add. Listening to the customer's feedback is key.
Zagazoo will always be keen to adapt new, available and affordable technologies. This design was done using minimal resources and local workshop with few tools.
Grand Interview about Save The Turtle Puzzle
Repetition is key when it comes to learning a message. We wanted to create a creative tool to repeat a single message. Creating a dynamic puzzle was our answer for that problem. The first step was to acknowledge that play is children's best learning method. The second step was how we could creatively link a message with a game, that isn't only fun, but that can be played multiple times.
Children’s attitudes and bravery to express what is right or wrong is certainly an inspiration to adults. As adults we can often think our actions don’t matter, but seening children sticking to a right/wise decision can generally help us and guide us.
The educational message had to be playful, memorable and creative for children to play. If the core environmental message is wrapped in play, then children will be the ones seeking it. By involving playing in the mixture, we guarantee a balance between both aspects.
Testing revealed that it was hard for children, especially younger ones to identify the pieces of the puzzle, as they all looked blue with white lines; we therefore added more visual clues through the stars and bubbles.
Repeating is a key aspect in this game, so after coming up with a module, it was easy to replicate it & create many puzzle variants. The variants are following the same pattern, yet present a different challenge each time.
The game is designed of natural wood leftovers compressed and cut to create the different shapes.It is challenging to be cost efficient and environmentally friendly at the same time.
The levels target the different age groups. In the first level less parameters were at hand, while in the second level more obstacles had to be put into consideration. However the main message of the game is the same: to save a turtle from the harmful plastic in the sea.
By telling the story of the turtle in the beginning. Children need to know why the turtle is at risk and what we can do to rescue it. We had to do several workshops to test the game with children from different ages and backgrounds to make sure they understand the game and its purpose.
This toy had great testimonies, sales and was replicated on different scales for different entities and organisations. The fact that many children would play it on repeat without losing the main message was a good indicator.
We hope many other toys and industries try to help addressing bigger issues in our world through play. We hope for a world where children find educational games exciting. We are ambitious to create more games and toys that make an impact.