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Self-Reflection to Level 4: Vocabulary Detective: Digital Game Design Document & Construct 3
I finally finished the prototype of Vocabulary Detective, here is the Game link:https://yuepei.itch.io/vocabulary-detective
Level 1: match the graphics to the words
Level2: finish the word spellings
Level3: finish the sentence.
Game Overview
In this game, you will play as a detective to match the right graphics with the right words, to finish the word spellings, and to compose your sentences with the given words. The sentence you finally finished composing contains the clues of the hidden place of the thief, based on that, you will find the thief as a successive detective.
Learner/Player
The intended users are Grade 3 students in primary schools at Columbia, Missouri. They are 7-8 years-old girls. The boys will play another version of the game with different boy-player graphics. Other elements of the game will be the same. The kids are learning to spell new words related to learning tools. No need so much game experience for playing this game, only can use 4 different direction buttons to control the player to different directions when it is necessary. For the subject matter knowledge, the learners should know the right spellings of the common learning tools.
Subject Area
English Language Arts
Knowledge Domain
Declarative knowledge and rules-based knowledge(Kapp, 2012) are my game’s learning domains.
Declarative knowledge
- Matching: match the word to the picture which shows its meaning.
- Repetition: to find the right letters to finish the given words.
Rules-based knowledge
- Experience Consequences: Compose the correct English sentence with the given words.
Learning Objectives
Instructional objective: Grade 3rd students will be able to compose a simple English sentence by using the given words.
Supporting objectives:
- After playing the game, the players will be able to match the right graphics with the relative English words.
- After playing the game, the players will be able to correctly spell the given English words.
Game Goal
The overall goal of playing the game is to assist Grade 3rd students to learn and review common English words; practice composing English sentences. The players will try to use less time to remember the meaning of the words, familiarize the spellings, then try to use the words to compose sentences correctly. The more accuracy and the less time cost will gain extra points.
Game Description
This is a “Sokoban style” (pushing box) game. The player will experience three game levels. Firstly, to push the graphics to the relative English words, once a graphic matches to the correct word, the player gets the reward points. After playing, the player will learn or review the English words and remember their meanings. Second game level, the player will push the missing letter(s) to finish the word spellings they have seen in the first level. In this level, the players will get more chances to be familiar with the words. Third game level, based on understanding the meanings of the words and their spellings, the player will push the words to the right place(s) to finish an English sentence. The finished English sentence will tell the clues of the hidden place of the thief. The players will find the thief with understanding the meaning of the English sentence. Finally, the thief will be caught by the vocabulary detective with the help of police men and teachers.
Environment
It’s a half-realistic and half-fantastic game that takes place in an elementary school named G school (Fig.1).
Fig.1 Game Environment
The player will see a classroom with messy graphics and English words. A message from the teacher tells her that a thief stole items from the classrooms. The second classroom has English words with missing letters. The player will compose the English sentence in the third classroom and find the clue of the hidden location of the thief.
Story/Narrative
There is a story that helps players engage with the game. One dark night, a thief stole some valuable knowledge, made the items of instruction and learning in the classrooms a total mess in G School. The next morning, a Grade 3rd student asks to help teachers reorganize the teaching and learning items in the classrooms. The player will manipulate the four direction buttons on the keyboard to put everything back to the proper places. The player will see the graphics of the english words, English words, English words with missing letters, English sentences with missing words in different scenarios. The play will push the messy items which were disturbed by the thief to the original places, then find the lost items to report to police.
The purpose to keep the players moving forward is to save more time to report the missing items in the school to police. The faster the vocabulary detective finishes the matching, the quicker the police will understand the real loss in the campus to take action to catch the thief.
The climax of the story is using the right words to compose a correct sentence, which is based on the understanding of the meaning and usage of the words. The sentence is the clue to the thief’s hiding place. If the player understands the sentence correctly, he or she will help police find the thief more easily. The rising actions are being familiar with the meaning of the words in the first and second scenarios. The game helps foster students’ English vocabulary learning interests.
Characters
The main character is a Grade 3rd student, a vocabulary detective. Except for the main character, there is a thief hiding somewhere in G school, a teacher and a police officer who are searching for the thief.
The thief is a challenge in the game to arouse the passion of playing and learning. The teacher and the police officer are Non-player characters who are also very important components of this educational game. In real life, the kids are not recommended to face the criminals directly. The right way for them in this scenario is to report to adults or police officers.
Core Dynamic
Race to the finish, and Matching.
Gameplay
Core loop: The player will control a detective (sprite 1) to use the clues (English sentence) to resolve the crosswords puzzles and match the relative graphics, then use the words to compose an English sentence as soon as possible. Each correct match will add the score.
Action: The players will manipulate the four different directions buttons to control the spite to finish the tasks in the game.
Scoring, Reward, Assessment
Scoring: The initial score is 100 points. Each correct word matching will add 10 points, and each correct sentence matching will add 20 points. Meanwhile, each wrong matching will reduce 10 points.
Reward: The players will start from the game with a 120 seconds back counting timer. The left time will be calculated as extra points, each second equals to one point, to add to the score. The more proficient the player with matching, the higher points the player will get. The top 3 achievements will be recorded and will be viewable to other players.
Assessment : The game system will evaluate the players on their speed and accuracy when they successfully finish all the right matchings.
Gee Principles
- Identity – Clear goals and clear roles, games invite you to take on different roles and invite you to become different people and try new activities(Why Game Based Learning Will Make Your Child Smarter?, 2020).
In my game, I want to invite the players to take the role of a sort of superhero to help the police officer and school faculty to find the thief. Knowledge is powerful.
- Empowered Learners – learners must feel like what they do matters(Why Game Based Learning Will Make Your Child Smarter?, 2020). I hope the players can really use daily learning in their classrooms to resolve problems.
Description of Planned Construct 3 Game Implementation
I have been designing two letters and two objectives the letters should be pushed to by the player. If the right letter were pushed to, the system will add 10 points to the score, instead of the wrong letter being pushed to, then 10 points will be decreased from the total score. The same logic will be copied to more letters, graphics and word sprites.
There are some tutorials, resources I have been using
- Platformer game design tutorial: https://www.construct.net/en/tutorials/platformer-game-2329
- Top-down shooter game (score function) design tutorial: https://www.construct.net/en/tutorials/beginners-guide-construct-1
- Pushing box in construct 3 tutorial: How to make pushing box in Construct 2 & Construct 3 – YouTube
- Resource: Toon characters 1: Toon Characters 1 · Kenney
- Resource: Sokoban: Sokoban · Kenney
- Resource: Generic items(deceleration):Generic Items · Kenney
- Resource: Letter Tiles:Letter Tiles · Kenney
- Resource: Puzzle pack:Puzzle Pack · Kenney
Screenshots
Fig 2. Code event sheet
Fig 3. Play view
References
Tutorial
Sound and background music :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6y0lTeOURE
Countdown timer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8BRbEJP7e8
Assets:
Audio:https://www.kenney.nl/assets/category:Audio?sort=update https://www.kenney.nl/assets/impact-sounds
Background music:https://freesound.org/
Read MoreLevel 4-Reflect on Digital Design Process: Vocabulary Detective Game Design
(Fig. 1 Vocabulary Detective. Designed and Created by Yupei Duan and ChatGPT )
While studying Level 4 of the Designing Games for Learning course, I have been reading the book Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, written by Jane McGonigal (McGonigal, 2011). There were a lot of ideas in the book that needed to be pondered during designing serious games. During the process of designing my game on Construct 3, I have been pondering this idea from the book, “a game designer and researcher should be aware that video-games are not just entertaining and addictive but also can be powerful tools for solving real-world problems.” Life is full of problems. Learning a new language is one of them that I am resolving in my real life.
In my family, there is a daily online activity hosted by my elder daughter starting from December of 2022 to now, every night, the little girl teaches English words or sentences by leaving voice messages in a social media group where I, my wife, my parents, and my parents in law will receive the messages and learn the relative content, then respond to our own English reading practice via sharing voice messages in the group. A virtual online platform unites all the family members together with doing this simple activity. How can I make this activity more interesting? How about designing a video-game based on this online activity?
When I started to design my game on Construct 3, the initial idea was to make a bilingual vocabulary game to let the players (like my daughter, my parents and parents in law) can play the game to review the vocabularies they have learned. However, just matching the right translation to the expressions is hard to reach some high-level instructional objectives. While checking the English Language Arts (ELA) Priority Standards (Priority Standards – English Language Arts, n.d.), I found there were very clear expectation to the students’ understanding of vocabulary:
- Using sentence-level context to determine the relevant meaning of unfamiliar words or distinguish among multiple-meaning words
- Distinguishing the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context
- Using conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases
In the coming year, my elder daughter will go to 3rd grade in Columbia’s local primary school. Why don’t I design a game for her to warm up for the upcoming school year English vocabulary learning? At the same time, other family members will be familiar with my daughter’s learning content. So, I changed the educational goal of the game from simple translation to resolving crossword puzzles.
Reflect on your process for designing the mechanics for your game.What worked best, what didn’t?
During the process of designing my game, I found the following mechanics worked best for me:
- Points: the player can see the real-time points from the game.
- Storytelling and Narratives: an introduction scene will show in the beginning of the game to tell the background of the game. During the game playing, the player will compete with the villain to finish resolving the crosswords puzzles. At the end of the game, the player will see the result of competition with the villain.
- Feedback Systems: the player will hear the sound and see the effect diagram when the puzzles are resolved.
Some mechanics I wanted to use but failed, for example: badges and achievements, leaderboards, collaboration and teamwork, etc.
If you had to do this process over again, what would you change? If nothing, why not?
If I had a chance to redesign the game, I would like to delve deeper into the ELA Standards in Missouri first, then to find more proper content to design the game. Besides that, I would like to read more game-design papers related to ELA learning. Based on recent research progression, I would design a higher value educational game.
What did you learn from the Construct 3 implementation aspect of the project?
Currently, I am still a novice user of Construct 3, the more tutorial videos I watch, the more potential functions of Construct 3 I can find. I think it’s a friendly and convenient game design platform, in which the users can design games on chrome. The design technologies are based on coding logic but don’t need the designers to have high coding skills to start.
How has this game design process differed from your previous game design experiences?
Compared with Twin, an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories, construct 3 contains more dimensional interactions with the players. More real-time feedback could be easily fulfilled in Construct 3, like animations, interactive effects, etc, which would be hard to have in Twin.
Digital Game Details:
- Game title: Vocabulary Detective
- Subject area: English Language Acquisition
- learning objective:
- After playing the game, the players will be able to correctly spell the given English words.
- After playing the game, the players will be able to match the right graphics with the relative English words.
- After playing the game, the players will be able to compose a sentence using the given English words.
- Game goal: learn and review english words; practice composing English sentences.
- Core dynamic: Race to the finish, and Matching.
- Mechanics: Points; Storytelling and Narratives; Feedback Systems.
- Assessment : The game system will evaluate the players on their speed and accuracy when they successfully finish all the right matchings.
- Scoring: The initial score is 100 points. Each correct word matching will add 10 points, and each correct sentence matching will add 20 points. Meanwhile, each wrong matching will reduce 10 points.
- Reward: The players will start from the game with a 120 seconds back counting timer. The left time will be calculated as extra points, each second equals to one point, to add to the score. The more proficient the player with matching, the higher points the player will get. The top 3 achievements will be recorded and will be viewable to other players.
What is the core loop you want players to experience in your game?
The player will control a detective (sprite 1) to use the clues (English nouns) to resolve the crosswords puzzles and match the relative graphics, then use the words to compose an English sentence as soon as possible. Each correct match will add the score.
Show off your Prototyping!
Fig 3. Working progression 2 on Construct 3
Peer responses
What did your peers have to say about your game design?
Comments from Dr. Oprean:
Bilingual Detective is an exciting title, Yupei. For your intended learning objectives, I am not seeing either one as being entirely higher-order. Translate can be closer to higher order but it generally falls into lower-order by itself. Maybe what players do with the translation activity would make it higher-order? For reference, the following chart may be helpful – https://tips.uark.edu/blooms-taxonomy-verb-chart/
You have a lot of nice elements in this game idea so far, though I wonder if you could contextualize those elements a bit more so there is continuity between them that makes it easier for the player. Such as the Timer – why is there a Time Element for this? The element should connect with something related to the game goal and context – maybe something along the lines of being a detective and needing to resolve a clue before the villain gets away?
The translated word matching is a nice mechanic. I would think there should be some devising involved given the detective context though. Something like putting the translated words together to determine who the thief or criminal/villain is? This would change the core dynamic slightly but that is something to consider.
Could the scoring also be something that is more contextualized with a detective game? Such as clues solved or tracking the progress of decoding the information (which may still use the same scoring system you indicated).
For the prototype, a shooter game is an interesting idea and not one I would have thought of for a detective game. I would want to see something beyond changing what players shoot from the Ghost Shooter tutorial as well – so perhaps that is where you can consider what about the game makes the player a Detective and see if you can demonstrate some (not all) of that in one round of the game.
You are off to a good start here and I’m looking forward to seeing where your idea goes.
Comments from Leeann Grace:
- What did you like about the idea?
I like the idea of Bilingual Detective, as it combines language learning with gamification, making the process more engaging and interactive.
- What suggestions do you have for them to improve the idea? (this can be in many forms including providing any resources you may have found that would be helpful in prototyping!)
Diversify Learning Modes: Consider incorporating different learning modes, such as auditory and visual cues, to accommodate various learning styles.
Progressive Difficulty Levels: Implement a system where the difficulty level increases as the player progresses, keeping the game challenging and ensuring a continuous learning curve
- Does the assessment appear to test the learning objectives?
Testing Learning Objectives: The game seems to effectively test the learning objectives related to matching English nouns with graphics and translating English sentences into Chinese. The speed and accuracy metrics align well with the language acquisition goals.
- What comments do you have on the scoring and rewards as motivating the player to keep playing?
Feedback on Scoring: Include a detailed breakdown of the score, specifying points earned for each correct match and deductions for incorrect ones. This transparency can help players understand their strengths and areas for improvement.
Were there any useful suggestions to help you move forward?
Both Dr. Oprean and my classmate Leeann gave me very valuable recommendations. Based on them, I have been improving my game development and design documents. The comments about designing teaching objectives from Dr. Oprean helped me think how to design a challenging and educative game, but not only a simple and funny game for the players (learners). After checking some papers about designing games for ELA learning, I found it was a huge research area. I am still on the road.
Like a hangman game showed that Hangman Game can improve the students’ understanding of the meaning of the words, besides that the students also can master the words based on the context given. It also helps a lot with the practice of vocabulary and spelling in children. The game exposes students to practice the alphabet and remember the vocabulary learned in classes. From this paper (Martono et al., 2013) I understood that time limitation is a very important game mechanic.
Flashcards have always been very useful when teaching children interactively. In the article the author writes about the benefits of GBL in children and states that GBL is known to sharpen the memory of kids by 90% and also says that Learning concepts through visual learning leads to better retention power and sharpens the minds of kids, which allows them to improve their memory. Using cards in the classroom as competition will awaken in children the need to play and win. Some elements from the article (Why Game Based Learning Will Make Your Child Smarter?, 2020) I would like to use in my game design in the future.
References
Priority Standards—English Language Arts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2023, from https://sites.google.com/view/priority-standards-mo-dese/home/english-language-artsWhy Game Based Learning Will Make Your Child Smarter? – EdTechReview. (2020, July 23). https://www.edtechreview.in/trends-insights/trends/why-game-based-learning-will-make-your-child-smarter/
Read MoreLevel 3 – Iteration Equals to Rebirth
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
– Zig Ziglar
Iteration and rebirth can be seen as similar in the sense that they both involve a process of renewal and transformation. During the ongoing progress of the course “Designing Games for Learning”, I felt that not only did my games undergo multiple iterations, but my mind also experienced numerous rebirths throughout the same process.
On level 3, I used the games from Level 1 I played as mentor games to design my board game. All the competencies I relied on were from previous practices, readings, discussions, and assignments. I could see my board game more and more clearly approaching to the submission deadline. I hoped to make it better, but the time was always limited. So, I will just record the current status of my board game 80 Days in Predynastic Egypt here in my blog, and waiting for the next round iteration for the game.
Analog Game Design & Prototype Video (7384)
- Game Title:80 Days in Predynastic Egypt
- Video Introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GEB_nXqdNA
- Subject area: History & Geography
- Learning domain, learning goal/objective: The architectures, religious system, and civilization development in Ancient Egypt
- Who are the players: Students in Grade 4- Grade 8 who have recently learned about Predynastic Egypt. The student players will form groups, each group consisting of 3 to 4 students.
- Premise of the game: Hi students, many of you are familiar with Magic School Bus, which is the title of a series of fictional scientific books. In this game, 80 Days in Predynastic Egypt, a board game will give you a chance to get on the magic school bus to have a virtual venture in Ancient Egypt, and I will be your driver. During the game, you will use your learnt knowledge about ancient Egypt to embark on your group adventure, you and your group members will be invited to share your journey after the game. Are you ready?!
- Game Goal. To resolve the problems related to Egyptian civilization in 80 turns and create a team story to introduce Predynastic Egypt based on the questions and learning from the culture foundation course.
- Learning Objectives.
Learning objective 1: To use the knowledge learnt from the Culture Foundation course to resolve the problems in the game.
Learning objective 2: To create a group-made Predynastic Egypt journey report for all players.
- Content.
A game board contains 80 grids on behalf of 80 turns(days) in the game.
There are three different icons on the board on behalf of different challenges: Civilization Development Challenges, Religious System Challenges, and Architecture Challenges.
The reward cards and penalty cards will bring random affairs related to Ancient Egypt to increase or decrease the players time travel opportunities. When the players have more chances to do the time travel, they can have more opportunities to explore in Ancient Egypt to discovery more knowledge with holding the reward cards. And the penalty cards will shorten the players time travel journey, then the players will have less chance to find more details for their final group presentation.
- Setup. Before the game begins, the student players will form groups, each consisting of 3 to 4 students. During the game, each group of students will represent a group of tourists, and they will roll the dice to determine their pace in the virtual journey through Predynastic Egypt. The game board features illustrations on the grids that depict challenges, bonuses, or penalties, all of which are related to the real history, civilization, and religion systems of ancient Egypt. Some grids will lead the players to check the “Reward” or “Penalty” cards to add more story details, random and fun.
- How to Play. In a turn, the player will roll the dice, then move the Player chess to the relative grid according to the number on the dice, then the player will check the information on the grid. Different grids contain different information, like: penalty, reward, common step, which will lead the player to check relative cards or information to compose a journey story (Core loop). Each round of the game will be finished in 80 turns. Then, all the players will collaborate to solve problems and use their game experience to create a presentation that introduces their virtual journey, helping them learn and review knowledge about predynastic Egypt.
- End of Game. The game will be over when all the players share their stories after finishing all the grids on the boards. The teacher will lead the students to reflect all the learnings they covered in the Ancient Egypt module in the culture foundation course.
- Statement about Learning.
Game Elements Embedded in 80 Days in Predynastic Egypt
Goals: The simple introduction of a goal adds purpose, focus, and measurable outcomes (Kapp, 2012, p. 68). In my game, the instructors from the Culture Foundation class will illustrate the game goals which are helping students eager to explore using their learnt knowledge. This game is another way to assist students to retrieve. The fact that retrieval practice, spacing, rehearsal, and the construction of mental models improve learning and memory is evidence of neuroplasticity and is consistent with scientists’ understanding of memory consolidation as an agent for increasing and strengthening the neural pathways by which one is later able to retrieve and apply learning (Brown et al., 2014, p. 172).
Conflict, Competition, or Cooperation: While it is helpful to consider the elements of conflict, competition,and cooperation separately, often good game design includes elements of all three (Kapp, 2012, p. 73). The student player will cooperate with the group member to develop their virtual journey stories. They need to resolve the conflicts together when they encounter some challenges while playing. During the showcase session, friendly competition will happen between different groups, while the student player will learn other teams’ stories to enhance their own to improve their learning.
Feedback: during the showcase session, the audience including the students and teachers will provide feedback to the storytellers as feedback to improve their understanding about Ancient Egypt.
Storytelling: storytelling plays a very important role in the serious game. All the students need to consider how to compose their adventure story while playing the game. As an educator, if I just ask my students to engage in mechanical repetition, they quickly hit the limit of what they can keep in mind. However, if they practice elaboration, there’s no known limit to how much they can learn. Elaboration is the process of giving new material meaning by expressing it in their own words and connecting it with what they already know. The more the students can explain about the way their new learning relates to their prior knowledge, the stronger their grasp of the new learning will be, and the more connections they create that will help them remember it later (Brown et al., 2014, p. 5).
The elements of “ALLUE of Play” in 80 Days in Predynastic Egypt
There are a lot of strategies and resources for designing an educational board game in the book The Educator’s Guide To Designing Games and Creative Active-Learning Exercises – The Allure of Play. I considered some simple mechanics or complex mechanic activities introduced in the book to design my game.
Simple mechanics(Bisz et al., 2023)
- Random: The dice, the reward and penalty cards will bring randoms to the players.
- Role: Students will play the roles as time travelers in Ancient Egypt.
- Rival: Students tend to compose their stories to be more vivid, literatical, and informatic to compete with other teams.
Complex mechanic activities(Bisz et al., 2023)
- Trivial Questions: understand through recall and review. Many grids on the board will be linked with questions related to Ancient Egypt knowledge. The students will answer the question to continue the game, while preparing their group story report.
- Brainstorming & Creation: Create a quick list for later appraisal. The student players will form a group to brainstorm their final story presentation.
- Simulation Role-play: Create by identifying with other perspectives. Since some challenges the students encounter will bring the students to a historical context, to let the students play a role and make some decision to continue the game.
- Statement about your Mentor Games.
There are a lot of valuable elements I borrowed from my mentor games 1&2. I didn’t only combined my two mentor games’ names surficial, but deeply merry their main mechanics together. The players can find a lot of similar mechanics in the new board game from Predynastic Egypt and 80 Days, e.g. budget plan (resource management mechanics); route selection (control mechanics); dialogues (progression mechanics); turning setting (control mechanics); random affairs (uncertainty mechanics); real historical affairs (progression mechanics).
- Credits. This board game is similar to Monopoly (“Monopoly (Game),” 2023) but it follows a single direction along the chronological development of Ancient Egypt in each round. The target audience is students in grades 4 to 8 who have recently learned about Predynastic Egypt, and can use this board game for review. In my game, 80 days in Predynastic Egypt, the “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards from the original Monopoly will be replaced with “Reward” and “Penalty” cards.
References:
Appendix:
Knowledge about Ancient Egypt on the challenge, reward, and penalty cards (Created by ChatGPT, revised by Yupei Duan).
1. Architectures:
Pyramids: The most iconic structures of ancient Egypt. The Great Pyramid of Giza, built for Pharaoh Khufu, is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and showcases the precision and architectural prowess of ancient Egyptian builders.
Temples: These were centers for worship and ceremonies. Famous temples include the Temple of Luxor, Karnak Temple, and the Temple of Horus at Edfu. These structures had massive columns, intricate carvings, and were often aligned with celestial events.
Tombs: The Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens are famous for their underground tombs, including that of Tutankhamun. These tombs were elaborately decorated with frescoes that narrated the life of the deceased and prayers for the afterlife.
2. Religious System:
Polytheism: Ancient Egyptians practiced polytheism, with a pantheon of gods and goddesses. Each deity had specific roles, and their importance could change over time.
Afterlife: The belief in the afterlife was strong. This is evident in the mummification process, where the body was preserved for the soul’s journey in the afterlife. The Book of the Dead provided spells and instructions for this journey.
Priesthood: Priests played a significant role in society. They conducted rituals, maintained temples, and were intermediaries between the people and the gods.
3. Civilization Development:
Ancient Egyptian civilization can be divided into several periods:
Predynastic Period (c. 6000-3150 BCE): Settlements began along the Nile, with farming communities flourishing due to the fertile land.
Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150-2613 BCE): This saw the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Pharaoh Narmer. The concept of a centralized state began to form.
Old Kingdom (c. 2613-2181 BCE): This period is known for the construction of the pyramids. There was a strong centralized government, and the pharaoh was seen as a divine ruler.
Middle Kingdom (c. 2050-1710 BCE): After a phase of decentralization, the Middle Kingdom saw a reunification and a resurgence in art, literature, and building projects.
New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 BCE): This was the golden age of ancient Egypt, with powerful pharaohs like Ramses II and Amenhotep III. The empire expanded, and there was significant architectural and cultural development.
Late Period (c. 1070-332 BCE): This period saw invasions by foreign powers, including the Nubians, Assyrians, and Persians. Nevertheless, Egyptian culture persisted.
Ptolemaic Period (c. 332-30 BCE): This began after Alexander the Great’s conquest and lasted until the Roman conquest. It saw a fusion of Greek and Egyptian cultures.
Read More
Level 3 Blog – Reflect on Analog Design Process — 80 Days in Predynastic Egypt
( Created by ChatGPT + DALL.E3 Plugin. Prompt: Artistic rendering of two school students dressed in current-day clothes and carrying backpacks, as they venture into a digital representation of old Egypt. Floating projections of landmarks like pyramids and the Temple of Dendur, the gods Osiris, Anubis, Horus, mummies, and a statue of Khafre engross them. )
Level 3 Blog – Reflect on Analog Design Process– 80 Days in Predynastic Egypt
I am on my way to re-envision my mentor games into a board game. Here is this Blog Entry, I am going to document my work and reflect on how this process has gone.
My process for designing the mechanics for my mentor games. What worked best, what didn’t?
During the iterative prototyping process, I initially wanted to use some mechanics, but eventually which were changed with the game’s core dynamic adjustment. Currently, I am using Exploration as my new game’s core dynamic. So, here are the main mechanics I want to keep in the re-envisioned game.
- The dice brings random effects to the game (Uncertainty mechanics)
- The shuffled “Reward” cards bring random questions related to the celebratory affairs in ancient Egypt history (Uncertainty mechanics)
- The shuffled “Penalty” cards will give the players random questions related to the tragic affairs in ancient Egypt history (Uncertainty mechanics)
- The game board is designed in chronological order, the players will explore and review the history of egypt chronologically (Progression mechanics)
If I had to do this process over again, I may change some elements based on different targeted audiences. A good design needs to be accepted by the players. Without the user’s review and feedback, the designer will find it hard to spotlight the weak points of the design.
My re-envisioned idea
- Mentor Game 1 Predynastic Egypt
- Subject area: History
- Learning domain: Ancient Egypt History
- Learning goal/objective: Familiarize students with the development of civilizations, culture, and religion systems in ancient Egypt.
- Game goal: Build a successful and strong civilization in Predynastic Egypt.
- Core dynamic: Territory acquisition
- Main mechanics: resources collect (resource management mechanics); turning setting (control mechanics); random affairs (uncertainty mechanics); real historical affairs (progression mechanics)
- Mentor Game 2 80 Days
- Subject area: Geology & History
- Learning domain: Critical Thinking: Players must make strategic decisions to manage their resources, choose the best routes, and handle unexpected challenges. Problem-Solving: As they encounter various situations and dilemmas, players need to find creative solutions to continue their journey successfully.
- Learning goal/objective: “80 Days” encourages strategic thinking and resource management as players plan their routes, budget their finances, and choose their travel options.
- Game goal: Players try to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days or less.
- Core dynamic: Race to the finish.
- Main mechanics: budget plan (resource management mechanics); route selection (control mechanics); random affairs (uncertainty mechanics); dialogues (progression mechanics)
- Re-envisioned Game Details:
- New game title: 80 Days in Predynastic Egypt
- Subject area: History & Geography
- Learning domain, learning goal/objective: The architectures, religious system, and civilization development in Ancient Egypt
- After playing the board game 80 Days in Predynastic Egypt, the players will be able:
Learning objective 1: To memorize the different types of architectures, and the development of religious system and civilization in Ancient Egypt
Learning objective 2: To use the knowledge learnt from the Culture Foundation course to resolve the problems in the game.
Learning objective 3: To compare one’s own report with others’ reports and try to make improvement.
Learning objective 4: To create a group-made Predynastic Egypt journey report for all players.
- Game goal:To resolve the problems related to Egyptian civilization in 80 turns and create a team story to introduce Predynastic Egypt based on the questions and learning from the culture foundation course.
- Core dynamic: Exploration. I changed the core dynamic from Territory acquisition to exploration.
- Mechanics: Uncertainty mechanics: the dice brings random effects to the game; the shuffled real history cards bring random questions related to ancient Egypt history; the shuffled affair cards will give the player bonus points or penalties. Progression mechanics: the game board is designed in chronological order, the players will explore the history of egypt chronologically.
- Describe your idea briefly including the following:
This board game is similar to Monopoly (Links to an external site.) but it follows a single direction along the chronological development of Ancient Egypt in each round. The target audience is students in grades 4 to 8 who have recently learned about Predynastic Egypt, and can use this board game for review. In my game, 80 days in Predynastic Egypt, the “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards from the original Monopoly will be replaced with “Reward” and “Penalty” cards.
Before the game begins, the student players will form groups, each consisting of 3 to 4 students. During the game, each group of students will represent a group of tourists, and they will roll the dice to determine their pace in the virtual journey through Predynastic Egypt. The game board features illustrations on the grids that depict challenges, bonuses, or penalties, all of which are related to the real history, civilization, and religion systems of ancient Egypt. Some grids will lead the players to check the “Reward” or “Penalty” cards to add more story details, random and fun. In a turn, the player will roll the dice, then move the Player chess to the relative grid according to the number on the dice, then the player will check the information on the grid. Different grids contain different information, like: penalty, reward, common step, which will lead the player to check relative cards or information to compose a journey story (Core loop). Each round of the game will be finished in 80 turns. Then, all the players will collaborate to solve problems and use their game experience to create a presentation that introduces their virtual journey, helping them learn and review knowledge about predynastic Egypt.
Peer responses
Peer reviewer A:
Pose at least one question:
How will the territory acquisition work with the card-based system?
How will you incorporate culture and lifestyle (your 1st learning objective) into the mechanics?
- One idea for improvement for the design idea
I’m not sure if you’ve played a deck building type game, but those are card-based games where you can “buy” other cards using some sort of resource. This could be an idea as far as territory acquisition.
As far as the score recording aspect, I think you could come up with some sort of “point” system (like, maybe different territories are worth different points?) like Catan uses. This would be a simple and clear way for players to record score.
- Does the proposed game address at least one of the three Cs of social mechanics (cooperation, collaboration, & competition)?
I feel like competition aspects are implied here but not explicitly stated. I assume this since each player will be recording their score as they play. The game goal could be a little more specific by being specific what a “great” civilization is mechanics-wise
Peer reviewer B:
I had never heard of the game ‘Magic: The Gathering’ before and had to look it up to have a better reference point. I understand that it is a card game, but you also reference a board game in your reimagined design. Will this be a board game with a card aspect or simply using cards? Honestly, I feel that the goal of developing a civilization may be too big to translate into a card game and would definitely suggest you consider a combination.
I agree with Kristin that there seems to be a sense of competition implied in the design with the mention of recording scores. Maybe adding another layer of competition by including a race to the finish aspect where players are working to be the first to accomplish a particular goal.
My Reflection on the peer reviews:
I was so lucky to have two peer reviews which pointed out very critical problems in my game. Based on the comments and suggestions, I made the following improvements:
- Changed the game style.
- Changed the game core dynamic
- Added more learning objectives.
- Changed the game rules.
- Improved and added the game mechanics.
Reflection of Introduction to VR-Enabled Instructional Design
Yupei Duan
School of Information and Learning Technology, University of Missouri
2023FS-IS_LT 4888/7888 Intro to VR-enabled Instructional Design
Dr. Xinhao Xu
October 15, 2023
Reflection of Introduction to VR-Enabled Instructional Design
Introduction
When I stood at the finish line of the course: Introduction to VR-Enabled Instructional Design, I first asked myself whether I met this course’s expectations. Scores on the assignments are just minimal requirements for graduate students since they don’t only learn the course for a certificate but for doing research. The unknown questions are more important than the known ones. The research about VR just began when I finished this course. In this personal reflection, I will cover my basic takeaways from the course, some proposals for my future research based on this course, and the concerns I currently have but may get answers in the future.
What is Virtual Reality?
The term VR came from Jaron Lanier, who is the founder of VPL Research. However, it was in 1965 that Ivan Sutherland published a paper entitled “The Ultimate Display” which described how one day; the computer would provide a window into virtual worlds (Mandal, 2013). After that, many technologies related to reality simulation were developed, including different types of VR systems, which were classified according to different usage of technological supply. Those various supplies and equipment were represented in various displayed hardware and interaction devices. “VR systems are classified according to the level of immersion they provide, ranging from semi-immersive (or desktop) VR to fully immersive VR to augmented reality (AR)” (Saeed et al., 2017).
Meanwhile, the conception of VR was getting more and more clear: the computer-generated simulation of images or whole environments that can be experienced using special electronic equipment – is progressing in several ways, including traditional virtual reality that crates environments, allowing people to be “present” in an alternative environment; augmented reality that starts with the real world and overlays virtual objects and information; and spherical or 360-degree video that captures an entire scene in which the viewer can look up, down, and around (Virtual Reality | Tools, Publications & Resources, n.d.).
A desk-top VR platform OpenSimulator was used in this course, which was an open-source multi-platform, multi-user 3D application server. It can be used to create a virtual environment (or world) that can be accessed through a variety of clients, on multiple protocols (OpenSimulator, n.d.).
Creation in OpenSimulator
I used Opensimulator in my master’s degree program as a user, this course gave me an opportunity to be a developer. I started by personalizing my avatar, constructing my virtual environment, and setting up my OpenSimulator Server. The comparison of using Mozilla Hubs with OpenSimulator let me find more possibilities for using VR to learn and teach.
The teamwork with my groupmates Shreya and Xaviera was a dream work I enjoyed. Although Xaviera was based in South Africa, which was 6 hours ahead of Mizzou, we used emails, Canvas forum, Google Docs/Slide, and Slack to update the progression of the group project. The real-time audio talk function in OpenSimulator was also used when we did our real-time collaborations. We combined our personal VRLEs into a series of learning project which isn’t just a learning opportunity; it’s a profound platform fostering comprehension of the profound relationships between humanity, our beloved Earth, and the boundless universe that surrounds us.
A Video link to the Real-time Collaboration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOfb-Dxi2GU
VR and Learning
“People do not learn from technology; they learn from thinking. When technologies can enhance students thinking, they should be used. Otherwise, they are probably no better than no technology.” David H. Jonassen commented to the relationships between learning and technology during an interview (Simsek, 2012). When I used OpenSimulator to design my instructional content, I used more energy to decide which learning content I should create than thinking about what technologies I should use during my personal project. What kind of scenarios can I create in the virtual reality learning environment (VRLE) to provide the learners with a better learning experience than in the real learning environment? My initial thinking was the environment contains more barriers and constraints for the learners in the real world. Both the small-sized and large-sized worlds meet my assumption. E.g., a planet cell or a solar system is impossible for common learners to experience in real life, but in the VRLE, the answer is OK. Plus, in OpenSimulator, the avatar can fly to check the virtual creation from more dimensions, making it easier and more beneficial for learners who want to learn space science. Then, I created my personal VRLE, a Mini Solar System. The group project From the Moon to the Universe was created under the same consideration.
The future of VR-enabled Learning is bright and potential. This course gave me a basic understanding and fundamental skills in using VR to design learning environments. In my future research, I would like to try more different types and platforms to try more possibilities of using VR to enhance learning.
There are more possibilities waiting for me. Everyone has been talking about the Metaverse since 2022. However, the metaverse is still in its nascent stage and evolving continuously. It has a huge potential in health care to combine the technologies of AI, AR/VR, web 3.0, Internet of medical devices, and quantum computing, along with robotics, to give a new direction to the healthcare system (Bhugaonkar et al., 2022). I was so lucky to be involved in a research program to use Metaverse to enhance clinical instructions and training. I am sure there are more meaningful experiences from it.
References
Bhugaonkar, K., Bhugaonkar, R., & Masne, N. (2022). The Trend of Metaverse and Augmented & Virtual Reality Extending to the Healthcare System. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.29071
Mandal, S. (2013). Brief Introduction of Virtual Reality & its Challenges. 4(4).
OpenSimulator. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2023, from http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page
Saeed, A., Foaud, L., & Fattouh, L. (2017). Environments and System Types of Virtual Reality Technology in STEM: A Survey. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 8(6). https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2017.080610
Simsek, A. (2012). Interview with David H. Jonassen: Looking at the Field of Educational Technology from Radical and Multiple Perspectives. Contemporary Educational Technology, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/6069
Virtual Reality | Tools, Publications & Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2023, from https://www.ala.org/tools/future/trends/virtualreality
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