Messy Monsters: a game that gets the whole family involved in household chores
During the Make-a-Ton, students from different fields of study joined forces to come up with ways to empower parents in raising their children. Messy Monsters is one of the innovative solutions that emerged: a digital game to involve the whole family in household chores, so that the burden does not fall on one person. Discover Messy Monsters and meet Jade, Klaartje, and Victor, the creative minds behind this invention.
What challenge does Messy Monsters aim to address?
"How can we support families in distributing their time fairly and mindfully across work, caregiving, household chores, and leisure?" That was the challenge presented by Marijke Moyson of Gezinsbond, together with Tech Lane, to the team of Jade, Klaartje, and Victor.
In many families, tasks are unevenly divided: one family member has to keep track of a thousand things at once and carries all the frustrations. Many parents later say they wish they had involved their children in helping out sooner. This invention now makes that possible.
How does Messy Monsters work?
Messy Monsters is a game designed to involve the whole family in household chores; this way, the burden does not fall on one person. The app is made for families with children aged 6 to 10 and can be installed on your TV, where it stays active in the living room all the time.
Household chores become a kind of game: you know you have a task to do when a little monster appears on the screen. As a parent, you can add tasks, assign them to a person, a place, and add a deadline. Each task then appears as a playful little monster in a virtual house on the screen. Children are invited to explore the house with a remote control. When they click on a monster, they see a short story about why it is there. For example: "Messy Mason had a party in Niels' room. Mummy and Niels, can you tidy up the room together by tomorrow?" When the task is completed, the monster disappears and is 'defeated'.
Children earn coins for each task they complete. They can use these coins to upgrade their avatar or buy improvements for the virtual house. This creates a collective goal: working together to keep the house clean and fun. The interactive visualizations and imaginative stories not only make tasks more appealing but also encourage discussion. In addition, the app provides a clear overview of all completed tasks, as many tasks go unnoticed. It ensures greater mutual respect and appreciation within the family.
The minds behind Messy Monsters
Smart solutions require smart thinkers. Meet the three whizz students who came up with Messy Monsters:
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Jade, an industrial design student at Ghent University
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Klaartje, an applied psychology student at Arteveldehogeschool
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Victor, an industrial design student at Ghent University
The inventors at work
Discover all the solutions that came out of the Make-a-Ton
Also, a shout-out to all the other students. Together, they created prototypes to help people raise their children with confidence. From ‘Folia,’ a tree that brings your community into your living space, to ‘TinyToyTransformers,’ a mobile playground for children aged 0 to 3. Please note that these solutions are only ideas converted into an initial prototype for testing. They are not (yet) available for use. In the next phase, Comon brings partners together in a 'Microlab'. There, a diverse team of people from Ghent will work on further developing, testing, and implementing one of the solutions from the Make-a-Ton into a fully functioning prototype.
