How Our 4-Year-Old and 6-Year-Old Helped Design BrushQuest

We thought we'd solved the tooth-brushing problem. We'd made a two-minute timer. Then our kids used it for about ten seconds.

When we first started building BrushQuest, the idea seemed pretty simple.

We already knew what we were trying to solve: the nightly battle of getting our children to brush their teeth.

So we thought we'd start with the obvious thing.

A two-minute brushing timer.

Simple. Fun. Something to look at while you brush.

We showed it to our 4-year-old and 6-year-old.

They were interested.

For about ten seconds.

Then they were bored.

And before long, we'd somehow ended up right back where we started.

Tantrums. Complaints. "I don't want to brush my teeth."

The timer hadn't solved anything.

So we asked them

Instead of trying to come up with another solution ourselves, we decided to ask the people we were actually making it for.

What would make brushing your teeth more fun?

We didn't give them a list of features to choose from.

We didn't tell them what we thought the game should be.

We just listened.

And the ideas started coming.

"What if we could change our character?"

Okay.

That sounded like a good idea.

"What about a knight with a toothbrush?"

Of course there should be a knight with a toothbrush.

Then came the idea that really started to change the direction of the game.

"There should be rare stickers to collect!"

And almost immediately:

"Where are the animal stickers?"

We hadn't even finished discussing rare stickers.

Apparently, we were already behind schedule on the animals.

They weren't just testing it

From that point on, our children became a surprisingly important part of building BrushQuest.

We'd make something.

They'd try it.

They'd tell us what they liked, what they didn't like, and — most importantly — what they thought was missing.

Sometimes the feedback was very specific.

Sometimes it was simply:

"That's boring."

Which, as feedback goes, is actually pretty useful.

We quickly learned that a timer on its own wasn't enough.

The two minutes needed to feel like they were doing something.

There needed to be something to look forward to.

Something to discover.

Something to collect.

Something that made them want to come back tomorrow.

And then something changed

As we added the things they'd asked for, the reaction started to change.

The timer became an adventure.

The characters became something they could choose and change.

The stickers gave them something to discover.

The stars gave them something to earn.

And suddenly, brushing their teeth wasn't just something they were being told to do.

They wanted to know what they'd unlock next.

"What sticker did you get?"

This has probably been one of our favourite parts of watching BrushQuest develop.

Our children now look forward to brushing their teeth because there's something waiting for them on the other side of those two minutes.

And when they unlock something new, they compare.

They show each other.

They get excited about the stickers they've found.

They talk about which ones they have and which ones they still want.

That's the experience we were trying to create from the beginning.

Not another timer that tells a child how long they've been brushing.

Something that makes the routine itself more exciting.

We didn't design it for them. They helped design it with us.

There's a difference.

We made the original game.

They told us why it wasn't good enough.

Then we listened.

We didn't dictate what the characters should be, what should be collectible, or what rewards would make the experience exciting.

We asked questions, showed them things, watched them play and took their feedback seriously.

And some of the best parts of BrushQuest came directly from those conversations.

The collectable stickers.

The rare stickers.

The ability to change characters.

The stars.

The knight with a toothbrush.

And, apparently, a rather important collection of animal stickers.

From ten seconds to something they look forward to

That's probably the biggest lesson we've taken from building BrushQuest.

We started with what we thought children needed.

A timer.

What we ended up building came from asking them what they wanted.

Today, those two minutes have become part of their daily routine.

They brush.

They play.

They unlock.

And then they compare what they've found.

It's a long way from those first ten seconds.

And honestly, we're pretty glad the timer was boring.

Because if it hadn't been, we might never have asked:

"Okay... what would actually make this fun?"