Literacy in Motion Design Aspects
Design Concept
Recent scholars have identified that 21st-century learners are multimodal learners. They learn better through visual and auditory systems. Our client was interested in finding a video game that has support visual learning with active aspects to support their 4th to 6th-grade students in literacy learning. Their students participated in the Literacy Clinic tutoring program to enhance their reading ability, which includes recognizing and spelling vocabulary and constructing sentences by using tier two vocabulary. These students like to play sports, read fiction and adventure books, and play computer/video games.
With this ideal game, our client hoped it fulfills three aspects:
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Students are able to learn or reinforce some tier two vocabulary through the game during a 15-20 minute break between literacy tutoring sessions.
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Students are able to release their energy during the breaks so that they will be able to concentrate during their next tutoring session.
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Students will not compete with each other or act violently after they play the game.
We found that the majority of children‘s video games on the market are often designed for entertainment purposes only. Therefore, these games contain a great number of visual elements, animation, and music but less educational meaning. In contrast, to fulfill the purposes of education and entertainment within the project, we adapted Mayer and Moreno's (2002) computer-based multimedia learning theory, particularly the cognitive loading process in designing the content of this game.
Mayer and Moreno’s multimedia learning theory suggested that if a learner’s visual and
verbal channels are overloaded, this would affect their learning outcomes. Therefore in our game, to overcome possible struggles from the learners due to the fact they may encounter vocabulary that is not taught at their schools, we plan to use synchronized audio with on-screen text to minimize cognitive load. Moreover, the background images and animations (scenes) must be consistent with the text. Also, to fulfill our client's need, we decided to In order to fulfill the third aspect, we designed this game with a single-player mode with no guns or any other violent images or activities.
Design Method
The concept of using vocabulary in this educational-based entertainment game is to include vocabulary from easy to moderate, from moderate to difficult. Ideally, tier two vocabulary usage will build from 4th to 6th-grade level words as the player progresses in the game. At the beginning of each game, up until the first mini-game, the vocabulary should mostly be 4th-grade level words and feature minimal 6th-grade level words. Once the storyline enters its second mini-game, the vocabulary weight will be shifted to about half 4th grade tier two vocabulary and half 6th-grade level tier two vocabulary. Finally, the story between the second and third mini-games should have more 6th-grade tier two vocabulary and less 4th grade tier two vocabulary words. In addition, in order for learners to engage with the game, each storyline should have a section that if the player loses the game, they have to start over just like other entertainment games. The vocabulary weighting and exact tier two vocabulary list are approved by the SME.
The overall game has two main sections, a video narrative, and mini-games. The video exists to provide the story, goals of the game, and lead into the mini-games. Within the story, the game is broken down into four locations. Each of these locations, the ship, forest, city, and cave, consist of several mini-games. The nature of the game as a choose your own adventure game means that these areas need to change in some way depending on the choices made. The changes do not need to be very drastic, but rather provide the player with the sense that their choices have affected how the rest of the game plays out. The order in which the forest, city, and cave are visited should alter the way that the rest of the areas play out. Provided in this document are some possibilities for how these changes would play out. Again the idea is just to provide the player with a more active role in determining the story’s progression. The game would end after all areas had been explored and completed.
Mini Games
There are 12 mini-games in this project. They are divided into two types: slow-motion games and high-speed activities. Slow-motion game features ‘lock and move’ or ‘lock and drag’ movements. High-speed game features include jumping, swimming/digging, extreme climbing, dance, and flying/gliding.
The purpose of slow-motion games is to emotionally connect students with the Spacebunny and elicit their curiosity about the game. The activities are designed to follow various events around the ship. For example, removing the obstacles to escape the ship or collect fireflies to be able to see. Moreover, each storyline has its own pace depending on how Spacebunny acts and how the story is developed. Therefore, there will be a slow-motion game between two high-speed activities or after two high-speed activities according to the story flow. High-speed games are mainly the entertainment that allows students to release their excess energy, while ‘reading’ or ‘viewing’ the story. Each high-speed mini-game activity is recommended to be limited to 3 minutes to keep up the speed. Tier two vocabulary will be introduced before and after the game.
When Space Bunny looks for a missing spaceship part in the forest, they will somehow face a life and death danger if they are not careful enough during one of the mini-games. The mini-games in the forest story are jumping, roaring, and swimming. Once the bunnies reach the city limits, they immediately find out where the part is located. The Spacebunny has to enter a building and successfully survive another mini-game in order to accomplish the mission. The mini-games in the city story are a maze, a body shape game, and a glider game. When the Spacebunny reaches the cave’s rough terrain, they reach several roadblocks that prevent them from going any further. This terrain creates the need for the bunnies to come up with a way to overcome the obstacles and find their lost part. The mini-games in the cave story are flying, digging, and climbing.
Visual and physical: Forest
Jumping over alligators’ heads
The player has to jump over alligators’ heads in order to cross to reach the other side of the pond. Some of the alligators are visible but others are coming up after the player jump close to them. Visual should create a “path line” for the player to follow. The ideal of this jumping game is able 3 minutes. In order for players to be able to catch their breath, some large rocks in the pond are necessary. In addition, each player can stand one alligator no more than 5 seconds; otherwise, players have to re-play the whole game.
Roaring over a lion
The player has to roar over the lion in the game. Lion and player take turns to roar for five times. The game should include a noise record or detector. The player should roar over 10 seconds for at least three times in order to win the Lion. The visual should be a Lion facing the player. When it roars, players should be able to see inside of the lion’s mouth.
Swimming in a lake
The player must jump into the lake and the visual change to the water scene with all kinds of marine organisms and ecology. The player is free to use either freestyle or breaststroke. The motion of freestyle is horizontal movement and breaststroke is vertical movement. The space part is laying in the bottom of the lake, therefore, players must use both movements in order to reach the space part. There are some moveable obstacles such as whale would block the player’s way so that player has to swim pass by these creatures.
Visual and physical: Cave
Flying in a Cave
The players navigate through an obstacle course of sorts avoiding rock formations and the cave walls. In order to make the character move the player will be required to lean to one direction or the other. To move to the left the player will lean from the waist from to the left. To move to the right the player will lean to the right. If it is decided to include changing elevations in the mini-game, that would be controlled by bending their knees.
Digging for missing parts
The player is tasked with digging through dirt and debris to uncover one of their missing parts. The dirt and debris, if possible should act like sand in the sense that as some of it is removed, a small portion fills back in.
The motion that would be used to dig would be a sweeping motion with both hands. Starting with both hands at shoulder height and together in front of the chest, the motion then brings both hands out to their sides remaining at shoulder height, then returning to center. The process repeats until the part is uncovered.
Climbing to excape
The player’s challenge is to climb up a rock face to escape from the cave that they are in. Highlighted handholds would be on-screen indicating the positions that the player's hands would need to touch in order to advance up the wall.
The player would need to move their hands up to the designated highlighted areas and hold them there and then moving their hands down, the screen would move down as the player moves up.
Visual and physical: City
Maze
The player is presented with a maze on the screen along with animated instructions which show the user what to do in order to finish this game. The player will use one of their hands to navigate the maze. The vector point on the player’s hand is used to move the bunny on the screen. The hand will be naturally to the side of the player with the palm facing toward the Kinect. The user then begins to move their hand very carefully trying to not hit any of the walls or traps on the screen. If the user hits one of these things they are teleported back to the beginning or to one of the other traps on the screen. The user would go through a series of mazes, which could look as floors of the building they are in.
Body Transformation
The body shape game will consist of having several predefined objects which the user will have to hide behind by positioning their body in certain ways. The first basic one would be the crate in which the person would squat down. The next would be a “pole” position in which the user would have to stand straight with their hands to their sides. Another would be hiding behind a table where the user would squat with their arms extended in front of them. Yet another would be having their arms extended above their heads in a “Y” shape. The game would start and the character would move on its own from object to object. When the user completes the correct positions in the amount of time allowed then the bunny would move to the next object.
Gliding
This game would have the player descent back to the ship while avoiding obstacles. The user would have to have their arms extended to their sides in order for the glider to stay on the same level. When the user lifts their hands up to about the “Y” position the glider would fly up. Then if the user did the opposite of the “Y” position with arms close to their sides the glider would start coming down. The glider would decent slowly trying to avoid the buildings in the city and then the trees as they approached closer to the ship. The building and trees would be randomly generated in order to give the user a unique experience each time. If the user was to hit something they would be slowed down if they hit something again the game would restart. Also, speed carrots could be picked up which would allow the glider to temporarily increase its speed and become less sustainable to damage.