Catalyst

Think Fun games are all about fun, healthy brain play.  For kids, they’re about solving challenges and having fun.  For adults they’re about brain aerobics and re-learning how to take risks.  For seniors, they’re about keeping mentally fit while connecting back to kids.

The S’Match game concept was to add a spinner to the traditional memory/matching game concept.  The spinner was to have three additional criteria which would allow players to match images in three different ways: color, category, or number.  The key to the game was the spinner and ThinkFun approached Catalyst to design and prototype a product that was easy to use and understand from a child’s perspective.  Additionally, the spinner mechanism needed to be robust enough to stand the rigors of child’s play, while still being easy and cost-effective to manufacture in high volume.

Catalyst developed initial and final concepts for the spinner including overall aesthetics, ergonomics, and mechanism/manufacturing problem solving based on customer requirements.  Support for graphics development was also provided.  In the Mechanical Design phase, Catalyst developed a 3D part database for the assembly based on the final concepts.  Initial FDM prototypes were completed to verify engineering and design before final prototype and production release.  After providing final show-quality prototype for the Toy Fair tradeshow, Catalyst went on to provide support to client’s overseas factory in determining final cost, BOM’s, material specifications, and optimization for manufacturing based on core competencies of factory.