Wreathies: Agency in Play
A game built to measure how choice shapes learning.
role
Product Designer & Developer
Timeline
June - Sept 2025
Organization
Davis Media Lab
Tools
solution preview
📍 Currently in testing at the Museum of Science and Curiosity at Sacramento.
Start screen.
Gameplay screen.
Pilot data from ~25 participants indicates meaningful autonomy gain for the High-Choice version (+0.8 on 1–5).
context
agency in games
Many digital learning games limit player agency, but offering choice can increase autonomy and support learning. This project, led by the Davis Media Lab, explores how agency and autonomy influence children’s gameplay experiences.
The goal
Create a game with varying agency levels and measure autonomy levels.
my role
As the sole product designer and developer, I designed the gameplay and visuals, built the Unity prototypes, conducted testing with the research team, and iterated based on feedback.
secondary research
understanding the Landscape
To scope the space, I surveyed U.S. education game research, spoke with a Common Sense Media director, and played a range of learning games. Through my research, I discovered three recurring core principles for a successful game.
Research-Backed Design Principles
ideation
To capture themes of growth and creativity, we explored nature-focused ideas such as gardening and flower cultivation. We ultimately chose a flower shop concept because it clearly mapped to our three principles:
Meaningful Agency:
Players arrange flowers.
Goals & Feedback
Clear requests with validation.
player objective
To make wreaths matching customer orders.
Early paper sketch of the concept.
Now it was time to see if our concept landed, so we headed to play at a preschool.
Testing Round 1 at a preschool
concept validation
At a local preschool, we tested a whiteboard-and-magnets prototype with seven children and asked what they liked, wished for, and wondered about the game.
✅ session goal Completed
Our testing setup.
participant quote
“I like the colors of the flowers and putting them together.”
takeaways
satisfying clicks
Magnetic clicks of flowers drew kids in.
Pride in Making
Children were proud of their work.
needed More instruction
A few stalled without clearer steps.
Knowing the core concept worked, it was time to define the game parameters.
Zeroing In on the details
flower fraction game
We chose fractions as the core concept since the wreath functions as an intuitive whole. The setup allows difficulty to scale cleanly across rounds and gives us flexibility in how we structure versions.
Early digital game rendition.
With the concept and measurable skill locked in, it was time to build the game in Unity.
Development
first time working in unity
Coding the game revealed several challenges that shaped the final design and taught me how to work within tight constraints.
three Challenges & How I Solved Them
Collider Bugs
I replaced segment-based hit areas with one larger wreath hit zone to reduce missed drops and improve usability.
script reference errors
I cleaned up prefabs and inspector references to reduce runtime errors and stabilize gameplay.
I cut nonessential features to focus on a simple core loop to ensure the experience would be delivered on time.
Exploring Agency
What Happens When Kids Choose?
To isolate the effect of agency, we created three game versions that differed only in the end-of-round step: choosing the next client and/or the bow.
three versions of the same game
most agency
Choose client and bow.
Medium agency
Choose bow only.
least agency
Choose neither client nor bow.
Bow selection screen present in two versions.
Now that we had a plan for testing agency, our next step was to see if kids were engaged.
Testing Round 2 at the museum
Are Players Engaged?
key changes
added hobby objects
An object next to each customer, making selection a more conscious choice.
manual onboarding
Children go at their own pace with arrow navigation.
added reference pictures
Pictures of completed wreaths appear as a guide for the first five rounds.
participant quote
“The intro is too slow, I want to skip and start playing.”
Characters with hobby objects.
After this test confirmed kids were engaged, I turned my focus to how the game felt to play.
Testing Round 3 at the lab
polishing the Experience
Back at the lab, four older children played the game and answered targeted prompts (e.g., “What sound would make this step feel more satisfying?”) to collect specific UX feedback.
key changes
last two levels scratched to reduce fatigue
Because children were getting tired and the final two levels weren’t truly adding learning value, I removed them.
progress bar added
To help children see their progress, I added a progress bar showing how many levels were completed and how many remained.
more sound effects
To keep the experience engaging, I added small sound cues so every action felt noticed and the momentum continued.
final design
First round gameplay.
Intro sequence.
Early Results
Preliminary Data
The researchers logged autonomy scores from ~25 kids on a 1–5 scale (1 = game is in charge, 5 = I’m in charge). Kids who played the High-Choice (HC) version felt more autonomous than the No-Choice (NC) version across all three questions:
Most in charge: HC 3.83 vs. NC 3.00
Leader in the game: HC 3.42 vs. NC 2.64
Got to make choices: HC 4.08 vs. NC 3.17
Overall, the High-Choice version boosts perceived autonomy by ~0.84 points on average (on a 5-point scale). (Early read only; demographics and full data entry still in progress.)
looking back
Lessons Learned
Balancing Everyone's Needs
This project taught me how to balance competing needs. To succeed, the game had to produce meaningful data, keep kids eager to play, and stay scoped realistically for me as a beginner coder.
My strength lies in design
Although I am grateful for the experience of building the game from scratch, it confirmed I do my best work in user experience design and plan to keep my focus there. Building the game deepened my respect for developers and made me a clearer communicator.
Playing At the Museum!
What the Kids said
One child went "he looks like me!" to one of the characters, which is exactly why I made the characters diverse, so that the kids could see themselves in the game. Since the kids participated in a research study, we called them "junior scientists" and one child asked if his stuffed animal could also be a junior scientist!
up next…
Girl Scouts Site Redesign
