Crazy Machine

  We're creative engineers figuring out how to capture laughter and multiply it. Our ideas range from purely physical games to high-tech integrations of the digital and physical worlds. 

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Reactions to our cube-stacking game

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Mixup!

Get Mixup! on the App Store. See screenshots and ratings, and read customer reviews.

Hi everyone! We are finally spreading the word about Mixup!, an iPhone game that we recently released to the App Store. In the game, you unscramble words against the clock and rally up your best score.

Andrea and I were inspired to make this game, because we wanted to give people (especially our moms) a fun and casual way to improve their English. It is really fun seeing people get into the game and even better to see them improve over time.

You can download the app for free, which lets you play up to 5 rounds per day. The unlimited version is $1.99 (in-app purchase). Let us know if you want to get it for free for someone who wants to improve their English. We’re gauging interest.

Lastly, the game is designed for people who want to improve their English, but native speakers: don’t be turned away. The highest score we’ve ever seen is 147, but my highest score is only 35. See where you come in.

Sam

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Check out Mox Boarding House

July 2015

We recently visited Seattle, where we fell in love with Mox Boarding House: a game store with a restaurant that welcomes you to play any game in store. If you're in the area, it's definitely worth rounding up your friends to go check out. http://www.moxboardinghouse.com/

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2015 Space Apps Challenge

July 2015

Every year, NASA sponsors a big global collaboration called the Space Apps Challenge. It's open to the public and for 48 hours, teams from around the world work on projects related to Earth, Outer Space, Humans, and Robotics.

This year, our team worked on a project called FlappyNauta: a fun twist on Flappy Bird where kids learn about the effect of gravity on different planets. The goal of the project was to get kids excited about space exploration through play.

Flappynauta made it to the top 15 (out of 949 projects) for the global People's Choice Award. It was also selected as the Bodies in Spacey Motion challenge winner by the Kennedy Space Center.

See more at the Space Apps Challenge homepage: https://2015.spaceappschallenge.org.

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Innovation Day 2015

April 24, 2015

On April 21st, Crazy Machine held a design-thinking workshop to celebrate Innovation Day in Nicaragua. Students and professionals from around the country gathered at the American Nicaraguan School to create something new.

The event was based on the design process, which has five parts: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. We used fictitious personas created by UNICEF based on an extensive user-research performed in the RACS region of Nicaragua. The stories of UNICEF's personas served as great tools to deeply understand the child labor problem in the region. With this information in mind (and heart), each group worked to create educational games that school teachers could use to teach academic content that is immediately applicable at work.

There was so much energy at the event, and we are tremendously grateful to everyone who helped make it possible—especially, IEEE, Red de Innovación, ANS, UNICEF, and every participant. Here is a short video of the day:

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We’re about to publish an iPhone app!

March 26, 2015

A lot of stuff has been going on at Crazy Machine!

Most recently, we decided to turn a mini game from one of our early board game ideas into an iPhone app. The app is called Mixup! and it is a quick-reaction game around unscrambling words. You just get a few seconds per word—how many words can you get? We are currently in the testing phase, so let us know if you are interested in testing it and giving us feedback!

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How to manufacture a game board from scratch

January 19, 2015

Andrea and I have been hard at work getting ready for Toy Fair next month. We've been testing our game mechanics, polishing our prototypes, and learning a lot of new things along the way. One of our favorite lessons from last week came when we wanted to manufacture a game board for one of our newest concepts. Check out the photos below!

We spent the morning at the manufacturer's workspace. Neither us nor the 10-yr veterans knew how to create a folding board, so we brought Pictionary for inspiration.In the end, we printed the design on vinyl and adhered it to cardboard. We then cut the cardboard with a half-inch margin around the vinyl. Two types of squeegees were used to smoothly mount the vinyl to the cardboard. The soft one (left) is used for vinyl with printed material, and the plain one (right) is used for solid vinyl. After we had our game board ready, the last thing to do was make the appropriate cuts so that it could fold. We marked off the board into four equal quadrants. We made one incision along the center length of the board. We then flipped the board over, and made another incision along one half width of the board. Finally, we make a through cut through the other half width of the board. Props to our little puppy for being so patient throughout the morning. Let us know if you have any questions!

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"No matés tu creatividad" — Andrea's TEDx Talk

November 11, 2014

Currently only available in Spanish, but here it goes:

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[Video] Interview with Andrea Cuadra, De Sol a Sol

November 4, 2014

Yesterday, Andrea was invited by De Sol a Sol to come in and talk about Misión Alien: she discussed the Nicaraguan innovation and announced upcoming events at TOYS in Managua. Check out the ten-minute segment below.

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Misión Alien Cake Pops

October 15, 2014

A surprise that made all of Crazy Machine smile really big: hand-made Misión Alien cake pops! From Amanda Luna, an amazing family friend.

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[Video] Crazy Machine on Esta Semana

October 1, 2014

Esta Semana is a news magazine, directed by journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro. Its mission is "to provide a critical analysis of Nicaraguan reality." We were excited when they reached out wanting to do a piece on Crazy Machine, our Founders, and our work in Nicaragua. Check out the video that they put together:

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We launched Misión Alien!

September 21, 2014

I hadn't even finished setting up when a family with two boys passed by in front of our store. I stepped out to show off the Zupper Uppers, and two minutes later the boys were inside the store learning how to play Misión Alien. By the end of the first game they were begging their dad to buy it. And that's how Crazy Machine sold its first game!

Evolving a crazy idea into a sellable product. *Check ✓* 

Crazy Machine sends huge thank yous to everyone who has supported us as we follow our dreams.

—Andrea

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Milestone accomplished: first Misión Alien games ready to be sold

September 19th, 2014

We set out at the start of this summer with one goal: to invent a game and put it into stores by October. On September 19th, we sealed the box of our first Misión Alien game!

-Andrea

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Assembling the Zupper Uppers

September 13, 2014

This week we started assembling 200 Zupper Uppers for the 100 copies of Misión Alien that we plan to have ready to be sold in next month. 

One of my friends whom I met while volunteering in San Jorge, Rivas in the summer of 2010 saw our article on the newspaper and texted me to congratulate me. One thing led to the other, and in the end, he decided to come over to Managua and help me out! Thanks so much, Beto!

Assembly is usually long and tedious, but for us, even though it was a lot of work, it was fun. Here are some of my favorite things that Beto came up with this week:

1) Peeling the plastic from the acrylic pieces using an exacto knife instead of our fingernails. 

2) Using the leg of the ping pong table to triple the speed at which we made sliding knot for the Zupper Uppers.

3) Imagining each knot we completed was actually a black puppy.

Isn't that a cute little puppy? Have a good weekend, everyone!

-Andrea

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Can toys and apps play nicely together?

September 4, 2014

...It's a question toymakers have been trying to answer for years and the question of this week's Wall Street Journal article, Traditional Toys Add Digital Apps for Children Who Learned to Play on Tablets. In case you didn't get to read the full article, we pulled together the main points for you here:

Examples of toys that successfully mix digital and tangible play

"Toy industry analysts say the best combinations focus on what companies call "play pattern," whether it's creative design or imaginary combat. Both toy and app have equal importance."

Mattel's Barbie Fashion Design Maker

Ages 6+

Retails $50

Girls use a computer or tablet to design fashions and print them out on sticker-backed fabric

Girls then mold the fabric to Barbie

Nerf's N-Strike Elite Nerf Cam ECS-12 Blaster

Ages 8+

Retails $80

Kids can record their best shot and then upload the videos to Youtube or send to each other's phones

Lego's Fusion

Ages 7+

Retail $35

Kids build on the "capture plate" and a corresponding app imports an image of the physical creation into the digital game

An early lesson from a failed attempt

"It is hard to get the toy-tech formula right. Focus too much on the digital, and the toy feels like an afterthought. Focus too much on the toy, and the app feels like a distraction."

Barbie's Digital Makeover Mirror

Girls slip their iPad into a vanity frame and look into the 'mirror' to apply makeup to their own reflections

Retailed $70

Only lasted one Holiday season

"What we learned was, it was just a really good app," says Mattel's Dr. Shore. "Did it really need to be married to a physical object? Probably not."

The pros and cons of adding digital elements to tangible play

Pros

New levels of customized play for kids

Less 'zombie gaze' screen time for kids

Informative analytics on play behavior

Additional/diversified revenue sources

Cons

Expensive devices/products

Increasing age compression

  So, what do you think?

Do you know of any other toys that combine digital play and a tangible toy in an awesome way? Do you remember any toys that totally failed at it? Where are toys headed next?

Talk to us @crazyinventors.

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Why we built a giant spaceship out of cardboard

August 31, 2014

This weekend one of Nicaragua's best toy store, TOYS, was having a big sale, so they were expecting many customers. We were lucky to have been offered space to show off our game and start promoting our brand. And so, our first marketing lesson happened. 

We set up a table, wore the same color, and brought some giveaways:

The kids that played loved the game, and that was awesome. However, something felt wrong—kids were not automatically drawn to us even though they were to other toys in the store. Reflecting on this observation, I had an AHA! moment (which was more like a duh! moment)—What do kids see? Two big, strange people, a big, boring table, and an unknown, whited-boxed game. What do they want to see? A big, fun, and cool thing. 

I emailed my team my realization and a very, very basic sketch of something I thought was cool, and we could make quickly.

Like that, our Sunday morning turned into a do-it-yourself (with whatever you can find while everyone is asleep and all the stores are closed) kind of Sunday morning.

As soon as we were done, we went to the store excited to showcase our new set up. 

And it was COMPLETELY worth it:

The big, strange people magically became more approachable,  as more kids on their own discovered and started loving the unknown, white-boxed game.

-Andrea