At Zen Maker Lab, our approach to teaching STEM/STEAM has always been a "design, make, play" approach so when we developed a camp to teach robotics to kids from 12 years old to 17 years old, we figured the most engaging project to develop would be a robotic game that the children and youth could make.

We used to call the game Pong, after the original table-tennis themed arcade sports video game, manufactured by Atara and released in 1972, where two players had a paddle and a pixelated ball would bounce from one side to the other knocking down bricks as it went. The goal was to not let the ball get past your side of the playing area by moving your paddle up and down. 

It was based on an electronic ping-pong game made by Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console, leading Magnavox to sue Atara for patent infringement. Given the trademark lawsuits, we thought we better steer clear and come up with our own name so we are calling it Zen Maker RoboBall and have given the game a unique, hardware touch. 

It is a great project for your child or children to learn about STEM/STEAM and having a fun end result game that the whole family will spend a lot of time battling it out, laughing and interacting.

It is also a great way for a robotics club or team to learn some important mechatronics concepts, parts and tools.

We saw first hand how much fun kids had with it, at both our camps and in demos that we regularly do at our Zen Maker Lab Shipyards location in North Vancouver.

Here is one of the very early versions...

When we brought it out in the wild, we had constant line-ups and kids having a great time playing.

Led by our maker guru and mechatronics whiz John Omeljaniuk, our team at Zen Maker Lab has released successive versions with a bunch of improvements.

We have a sleeker arena, better functioning linear motion and shooting mechanisms and a good battery system.

With the funds raised from this crowdfunding campaign, we plan on making our first release even better!

We have set the perks up in a way, that would can purchase the more generic linear motion device in case you would like to use it for some other project of your own (they are very versatile) or you can purchase the linear motion device that also includes the shooting mechanism (1 kit for the game).

If you prefer, you can purchase what we think is the best option, the whole game (2 kits for the game and the arena, that includes a very cool, lit up LED sign that can be customized for you. You can send us the graphics that would you like printed on your LED sign, e.g. your names, pictures, birthday or holiday greeting or whatever you think would be cool. 

Because we are manufacturing the parts for this game on a small scale and we have a talented team of engineers and maker lab equipment, we can add this special customization! It's something you won't be able to get from a large games manufacturer!

We are limiting our quantity to a maximum of 20 Zen Maker RoboPong games for this crowdfunding campaign so you won't want to miss out on this unique game and learning opportunity!