24 replies to this topic

[imacreeper]

I've been working with this idea for a long time now, the business part is ready, the experts is ready to help and the software will soon work.
What we're missing is your game!

Donate-A-Demo
We would like you to donate a demo of your game (or the entire game) to us. Then we will convert it into an educational version and use these in schools. Thereby you get your game actively promoted in the classrooms and you support a good cause since this is a social enterprise. The only ones who will benefit from the profit is the school children in Latin America and Africa.

My name is Aske Sønderby Knudsen and I study Medialogy at Aalborg University Copenhagen. I have this wild idea that we can provide educational games which are of the same quality and just as fun as "normal" games, e.g. They Need To Be Fed, Angry Birds, Call of Duty etc.
And at the same time let users learn whatever they want from the games, they can create their own content.

At NameGames we convert existing games into educational games by implementing a small script into the games. When you play the game you will encounter educational questions from time to time, if you answer correctly you will gain an advantage in the game (e.g. Faster car in a racing game). Thereby the educational goal is combined with the original goal of the game.

See the introduction video to learn how we're gonna do this:


Next stop for NameGames is "Copenhagen Academia Startup Weekend" where we're going to develop the software needed, convert games and display it for jury in the end of the weekend.
To get the best result we need to convert a range of different games to show how this works for any type of game, in the future we will give the game developer a small script to implement themselves. But for this weekend we need the .gmk -files, we need to be able to test it out while developing.
I can only give you my word that I won't use your game for anything else than this concept, we convert it to this kind of educational game and not use the game in it's original state.

We hope that some of you will support the project and donate some games, big or small, new or old />/>

Let me know what you think, if you have questions or would like to "Donate-A-Demo" I suggest you post it here, but you can also write me at aske@namegames.org
We need the games before Friday June 15th at 12:00.

For more information see www.NameGames.org

WOW i'll try and send something in!

Edited by imacreeper, 23 November 2012 - 05:48 AM.

[Tarik]

What you're asking from us are GMKs of demos. That's a fair request. I think it's the wrong approach though. Technicalities shouldn't be the main inhibitor to success, rather I think it's solid game design. And truthfully, solid game design of an educational game means it's designed from its core to be educational. You can't plug in some script into call of duty that makes it educational as well as remain fun, engaging and immersive. It's not a technical issue, it's a game design issue.

There are two reasons why this is important. One, to make a game immersive and engaging, it's completely awkward and out of character to sneak in a question like 'What is the boiling point of Sodium', Calculate the differential equation of f(x) or 'What is the capital of Japan' in a horror game, futuristic space game etc. The underlying concept that makes a game, the game's world, will be experienced as completely arbitrary and fake if you mix it with out of character content. That's why we play as Hercules, Commander Shepard, Master Chief, because we want to be immersed into a game.

Secondly, if you don't design the game to be educational from its core, you will be restricted to root-learning type of questions. For example, you can design functionality that asks players about capital cities of European countries. But that's not education really, that's just a gimmick to package repetitive root-learning. Learning how to know or learning to be (two of the pillars of education of UNESCO) aren't covered. Competencies aren't taught. Understanding isn't taught. You can't learn a language through flash cards alone. When you design games from the core, you can offer a much better infrastructure for learning, much more in line with immersive gameplay.

Educational content is NOT easy. If you haven't read a single book on education or game design for that matter, and are not in a position to create the art, sound and game design assets required to create engaging educational content, start there first. Don't throw in sharing profits with the worlds poorest children as something that justifies your entire plan both for yourself as well as the game developers either. If you're concerned with that, there are much better and more interesting ways. One cool project is the cheap laptop that's affordable for all, sturdy and doesn't have to run on the grid, Raspberry Pi is one interesting group that's pioneering this effort. Check it out! Khan Academy is also a great source of free content that's seeing rapid expansion, professionalisation and multilanguage support.

A few days ago an interesting TED video was released on the beneficial effects to the brain for people playing video games, particularly high action games like shooters. Note that these had no educational content.

Edited by Tarik, 24 November 2012 - 06:05 PM.

[EdwardHogshire]

This looks like a brilliant idea. I am also looking for games with educational purpose. We are willing to pay for them. However, we need them as HTML 5 widgets to import into our ibook.
If anyone is interested please let me know.

[sQuiFGames]

 

(i dont mean just question and answer games, they are no fun)

This will be Q&A-games, what will make them fun will be the game around them. The goal with these game is to teach something which is immensely boring, in a fun way.

Taking French as an example, when you want to learn a new language you need to learn a lot of new words, here Q&A-games will become useful. However it will only be an addition to learning the language, you would still need to learn grammar and such.

And I believe there are a lot of quality information on "ze internet" when you know your sources. E.g. There exists translation tools/ebooks which can be trusted.
Fruthermore I would be asking students from different educations to create content relevant for their field.

I'm uncertain whether I understood you question correctly, if you're referring to the one who would use the game, then the answer is that these games will serve as a tool to memorize stuff in addition to normal teaching.

 

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Another small idea when it comes to languages, or whatever, that in the loading screens in between levels, a lot of games uses tips and such. "press escape to get into the options menu!" etc etc.

However, this can easily be changed to something that the game is supposed to teach. If the game is supposed to teach French for example, in a loading screen it could say: "Did you know - That oui means yes in French?" etc etc, and later on in the game, a question will pop up relevant to the tip that you have earlier recieved in the game, and therefore need to memorize it.

 

Just an idea.

[Stratadox]

If the goal of the game is to teach children the French language, just throwing in questions in an unrelated game will barely help. It might teach them a few words at best, but it isn't very effective.

 

Seeing how the most used example here is learning French, I might as well throw some of my own experience in: I was thought French in school through the 'here, translate these words' method, a bit like what's described in this concept. As one might expect, it barely helped. I had rather bad grades, and the rest of the class didn't do much better.

And yet.. my French today is rather fluent. In the sense that when I'm in France, the French often don't believe me when I tell them I'm from another country.

So, how did that happen? Well, not through questions and answers or word lists, I assure you. I just got thrown into a world full of French people for a while and learnt their language in no-time.

 

Games have an excellent opportunity for such learning methods; after all, as game designers and developers, we basically create worlds. Why not French worlds, while we're at it? And why not ancient French worlds, to teach both French and history at the same time.

Say you want a native English speaker to learn French, just make a game in which the player is, for example, an English spy involved in, say, the 100-years-war. (Or, inversely, a French spy in that same war. The French could use some English lessons too, I'd say.)

Learning the French language or answering history questions doesn't need to be an explicit objective: when it is not explicitly required but will help the player to get better at the game, like being able to talk to the people you're supposed to spy on, the players' motivation will be much more fierce than when he or she needs to answer some random unrelated question in order to unlock something.

 

In the concept of the spying game one could even implement vocabulary tests without breaking immersion; like building a conversation and giving several reply options, all in French, some with errors. Give a wrong answer, ie a grammatical mistake, and you're exposed as an enemy spy and thrown in Du Guesclin's prison, or executed by Philip VI, or something along those lines.

Note that these dialogue-implanted tests would not be the learning method, but the exams. The idea is that there are many opportunities in this virtual world to learn, and the player is free to find his or her own way of getting enough information to successfully take these dialogue-like tests. After all, something that is discovered sticks better in the mind than something learned.

 

I might actually even make that game

 

 

As for the original concept of this topic.. Back at school they handed out these CD's with "educational games" that worked a bit like the concept described here: enjoyable casual games where one was presented with totally random off-subject school questions where a right answer would save you from death or unlock new elements. It was a complete failure, at least for me: after all those years I do remember the gameplay, but not a single one of the questions (let alone answers) for which they wanted us to play these games.

 

I did learn a lot of English words just from playing RPG's as a kid. They weren't even meant to be educational, but those games just don't get translated into Dutch. So, every new item in the inventory was newly acquired knowledge of the English language. There were no translation questions or "Did you know these things are called gloves" - like messages; merely acquiring that item with the name "Gloves" and a matching icon sufficed.

 

IMO, that's the better way of learning. Not handing out a list of words to translate or definitions to know by heart, but using that what is to be learnt in real (or virtual) world situations.