Dimenxian
So as you likely already know, the Learning Games to Go project (of which this blog is but a small part) will ultimately yield a learning game to be played by middle-school pre-Algebra students. Recently, I was lucky enough to play a demo of another game that teaches math to kids. It’s called Dimenxian and the game’s motto is “Learn math or die trying!” Now given my utter lack of game-playing expertise, I must admit that I found this motto/threat to be more than a little disturbing. If I didn’t learn the math (as I suspected I wouldn’t), would I, in fact, “die trying”? As it turned out, though, I survived the experience and liked the game a lot.
The first thing you notice about this game is that the graphics are way cooler than you’d expect from a typical learning game. You move through a well-designed 3-D space, you experience beautiful colors and textures, and you feel like you’re playing the game for fun (and not to learn algebra). Here’s a bit of what the game looks like -
The first game, the one in the demo, involves working with x and y coordinates on a graph (and in the 3-D space of the game) to locate and download urgent data from the weather stations (or something like that…). Amazingly, I was able to navigate myself around and actually do it. I had my struggles, but I didn’t feel like a moron when I played this game.
One really helpful thing about Dimenxian (especially for a Newbie like me), is that you get lots and lots of feedback. There is a voice that guides you and there are on-screen warnings when you’re straying too far from your goal. In short, you’re allowed to mess up, but the game also holds your hand a bit so you’ll have a good chance to succeed.
I think that the folks who make this game are really onto something, and I look forward to playing the rest of it. You have fun while you learn – what a concept!!
December 21st, 2006 at 2:36 am
“You have fun while you learn – what a concept!!”
Statements like that are so absurd to me. Not that people say such things - because there certainly are plenty of reasons - but that people feel the need to make such statements! People aiming to make educational games tend to focus on the education part. They’re really just desigined interactive training systems… Somethng that boringly drills you on multiplication or some such and then has some lame animations tied to unrelated actions. Maybe some kind of score or goal involved. Yes they qualify as games, just really poorly designed ones.
Teaching and excercising new skills and know-how is what games are all about! They’re designed to teach and use skills! What’s important is to design gameplay mechanics that make sense for the particular set of skills that you’re working with. Usually educational games are nothing more than painful casual games that aren’t very involving. Though the Dimexian game you discuss certainly sounds like a push in the right direction. I’d like to check it out.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:38 am
PS - Happy birthday! Just noticed your header modification.
December 26th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Dranore,
I do agree about most educational games - what they generally help you learn is that you don’t really want to play them! Hopefully, better learning games are coming soon. Check out the video podcast I produced about the MIT team we’re working with on this project - http://www.thinkport.org/technology/gotgame/doandview/podcast.tp, It’s podcast #6 - they’re an exceptionally cool group. And they’re making a real GAME.
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
Tom/Newbie