Hello everyone. I am developing an educational game. But people tend to think educational game is boring as long as I say "educational".
My design is to make the story highly related to professional experiences and stories. For theories that's obscure, we translate that into flash animation and tailored small games to interact with players.
I mean the player gotta to have some level of professionalism, right? Would that be nice if some one can play a game while actually learning something?
11 hours ago, Kai-7 said:I am developing an educational game. But people tend to think educational game is boring as long as I say "educational".
What people think is beyond your control. What you say about your game is entirely in your control.
Educational games don't "have to" be boring.
There is a stigma against educational games because many of them really are boring. Also, the boring ones are often not "games" very much, but just interactive exams. So when people hear "educational game" they automatically assume the worst. Just like some people hear "mobile game" and automatically assume a money-grabbing Skinner box (see also: the backlash over the Diablo Immortal announcement)
If you change the definition of "educational game" from "something that literally teaches you lessons and gives you exams, but looks like a game" to "something that is a game, but also teaches you things", things change. As an example, there are countless Kerbal Space Program players that can intuitively design an interplanetary space exploration mission, without ever taking a single class in rocket science or orbital mechanics. But I doubt they would call Kerbal Space Program an "educational game". Changing the established definition is hard though, I suggest you stop calling it "educational game" and instead call it "game that teaches...accounting".
9 minutes ago, 1024 said:If you change the definition of "educational game" from "something that literally teaches you lessons and gives you exams, but looks like a game" to "something that is a game, but also teaches you things", things change.
Yes. What you say about your game is in your control.
Really depends on how you market your game. If you market it as something that sounds fun, it’ll sound fun to people.
Moreover, build a game that is fun. A lot of the problems with so called educational games is that they really aren’t fun to play, as @1024 said. Certainly not every game is that way, but many are. You build a game that’s fun and gets you to learn something, nobody will complain.
I was actually just thinking about this. Lately I've been playing around with this language learning app (Duolingo) which in fairness isn't really a game, but does have some "gamification" type features, and it kinda got me thinking about whether it would be possible to harness a more traditional style of gameplay to teach something like that. (For example, an RPG or adventure game where you wake up in a strange place and everyone speaks a different language and you need to learn enough of it to get by.) As others have said, it probably boils down to making the actual gameplay fun rather than just interactive quizzes or flashcards or whatever.
Good luck with your educational game project and I'd be interested to hear more about it!
14 hours ago, deltaKshatriya said:Really depends on how you market your game. If you market it as something that sounds fun, it’ll sound fun to people.
Moreover, build a game that is fun. A lot of the problems with so called educational games is that they really aren’t fun to play, as @1024 said. Certainly not every game is that way, but many are. You build a game that’s fun and gets you to learn something, nobody will complain.
Making the game fun to play is the issue that causes headaches. Besides answering questions to get points or rewards, we want something that can make the whole learning process more interactive, the interaction that we see in most "typical"games. We are still struggling on it and maybe we will be struggling throughout the developing process:D.
3 hours ago, devharts said:I was actually just thinking about this. Lately I've been playing around with this language learning app (Duolingo) which in fairness isn't really a game, but does have some "gamification" type features, and it kinda got me thinking about whether it would be possible to harness a more traditional style of gameplay to teach something like that. (For example, an RPG or adventure game where you wake up in a strange place and everyone speaks a different language and you need to learn enough of it to get by.) As others have said, it probably boils down to making the actual gameplay fun rather than just interactive quizzes or flashcards or whatever.
Good luck with your educational game project and I'd be interested to hear more about it!
Well, the best way to learn a language is by using it, so does many other subjects. The advantage of language learning game is that it can be applied in every aspect of our lives. I don't know whether the Duolingo is working good for you, but if you want to learn Mandarin I can give you a tip or two lol.
2 hours ago, Kai-7 said:Besides answering questions to get points or rewards
Answering questions helps measure your knowledge, but it is not fun. It also breaks the immersion of the game, because the player knows that they are being tested.
Sometimes you don't have to measure the knowledge. If the "educational game" is used in a school or in a course, then it makes sense to measure the knowledge. But if the "educational game" is standalone, the game itself could require you to use the knowledge to progress, without explicitly scoring you. That is more fun and causes a greater sense of learning from the players. Even if the knowledge needs to be tested (like in a school), it could be better to have a traditional exam outside of the game.
