Wundr: Turning Passive Screen Time into Active Co-Creation

An AI-powered design suite empowering parents and children to co-create personalized, educational 2D RPGs from study materials.

Role Design Engineer

Event UofTHacks 13

Team Team of 4

Disciplines 0→1 Concept, Generative AI, UX

⚡ Key Outcome

Built a working generative AI workflow and multi-modal creative studio that bridges the homework-play gap, transforming children from passive media consumers into active game creators.

01 Context

Background & Opportunity

The theme of UofTHacks13 was identity. While brainstorming, we identified a concerning trend: the average middle school child spends 5+ hours online every day. The fundamental friction is not the time spent, but the passive nature of that consumption. Most children’s apps capture attention without inspiring creative agency.

Wundr is an AI-powered design tool that gives children autonomy, allowing them to turn schoolwork alongside their parents into custom playable RPG worlds.

02 Problem

The "IKEA Effect" & Complexity Barrier

The "IKEA effect" reveals that people value products significantly more if they helped create them. If a child designs their own game rather than playing a pre-made one, their emotional investment in the educational content multiplies.

1. Engine Complexity: Game engines like Unity or Godot have steep learning curves inaccessible to 7-year-olds.

2. The Parent Gap: Parents struggle to turn static study worksheets into engaging family activities.

03 Process

The 3-Booth Creative Journey

To eliminate "blank page syndrome," we structured the child's workflow into three guided interactive booths with speech-to-text input:

1. The Character Designer

A dual-input canvas captures child sketches and handwriting, transforming scribbles into animated walking pixel sprites.

2. The World Designer

Descriptive natural language prompts generate custom 2D tilemaps with themed assets (beaches, castles, space).

3. The Sound Designer

Translates emotional descriptors into curated ambient chiptune audio tracks to complete sensory immersion.

04 Solution

The Parent Portal & Battle Challenges

For parents, the workflow is effortless: paste study notes (math, history, vocabulary) into the Parent Portal. An adaptive age-difficulty selector parses the content into in-game "Battle Challenges" that players must answer to progress through the story.

05 Outcome

Conclusion & Reflections

Wundr demonstrated how generative AI can convert passive screen time into collaborative, creative learning. By lowering creation friction to a child's natural vocabulary, we unlocked a new medium for family co-creation.