Review of the game Cents City created by Skill-Life

Rating:

About Cents City

Cents City is a first-person adventure game that can be played in a Flash-enabled web browser. It is designed to educate players about managing their money.  I only accessed the free demo of this game for this review which means I only had access to a small amount of game content. I have assumed that the developers would show their best content in the demo. I considered purchasing a premium subscription for the purposes of this review but the website indicates that this service is not available yet so I am assuming that it may still be in beta stages of development.

The player begins by choosing a mentor to guide them through the game. The mentor gives the player quests and guides them through each step of the quest.

My Opinion

I had high hopes for this one. On first impressions, the graphics look great. The quests look really exciting. It gave a much better first impression than Celebrity Calamity.  After playing both games, I think Celebrity Calamity is a far superior game. I have outlined my likes and dislikes below.

Likes

Here is what I liked about the game:

• 2D graphics are of high quality
• Interesting and quirky game characters
• Quest format is a nice idea
• Voice over artists are high quality and engaging
• Offes a wide variety of interesting cartoon characters to act as player mentors
• The game has a number of interesting locations to visit.

Above: Cents City has high quality 2D graphics

Above: The game features some quirky characters.

Dislikes

• Gameplay is linear – there are all sorts of cool places to visit but you have to do things in the order mandated
• Contains some stereotypical characters such as a French chef (although they are entertaining)
• Game mechanic is mostly stimulus video followed by quiz questions. My belief is that games such as this should have the maths as the mechanic – it should not be an add-on. Celebrity Calamity and Zoombini Island Odyssey are examples of maths games that do this much better.
• All text displayed in the game should also use be read to the player using character voices to help those with low literacy.
• The game narrative is not logical. For example, your first task is to get your PIN to access your bank account. For some strange reason, in order to do this the player has to go to the Eiffel tower where a French chef plays you a video on how to manage your money. He then tells you to click on the elevator to get your PIN. When you click on the elevator, a series of quiz questions are asked that check your understanding of the stimulus video that the chef played you. If you answer all of the questions right, then you get your PIN. There is no relationship between clicking on an elevator door and getting a PIN for a bank account. I think the narrative needs to be much more meaningful and should match the mathematical content better.
• Some of the information that the game asks you to remember is not meaningful and it is not required. For example, after the player goes to the Eiffel Tower and gets their PIN for their bank account, they have to go to the bank to open an account and deposit their pay check. If the player forgets their PIN, there is a button that the player can press to say that they forgot it. Instead of telling the player to go back and find it out again or giving them a hint as to what the numbers are, the game puts the PIN in for you and simply says, “please remember it next time”.  If the game does not treat the information it gives you as important and use it in a meaningful way, I’m not sure why the player should treat it as important. Game interfaces should promote recognition not recall. However, this is a maths game, so it is ok if the player has to recall some meaningful mathematical information that will help them with their mathematics but I wouldnot say that remembering a PIN is in that category.

Image Attributions

All images used in this review are screenshots taken from the game Cents City. These were used for review purposes. If you are the copyright holder of these images and wish for them to be removed, please leave a comment on this blog entry.

Review of the game Mission Lighting created by ZMQ

Rating:

About Mission Lighting

Mission Lighting is a casual mobile phone game designed to educate players about eco-friendly lighting. 

The object of the game is to earn as many points as you can before the timer runs out or before you lose your 5 lives. The player takes controls a plane that must collect as many CFL Bulbs and star rating symbols as possible while avoiding the incandescent light bulbs. In this game incandescent light bulbs are the enemy. The items collected must be dropped on houses that request them. The player receives points for collecting CFL bulbs and star rating symbols and for dropping the correct object on a house. The player loses points for dropping the wrong item on the wrong house and loses a life every time they smash into an incandescent light bulb. The game ends either when a timer runs out or when the plane loses all of its 5 lives – whichever comes first.

 
Above: Screenshot of gameplay. The house at the bottom of the picture is wanting the player to drop a CFL bulb on it. Most of the game statistics are located at the bottom of the screen.

My Opinion

So, yes, many mobile phone games have a reputation for being a bit flaky and shallow. Even still, I wasn’t really impressed with this game. I really wanted to like it but I’m afraid I didn’t. I was a little bit put off by the in-game advertising. I was a little disappointed that a game that should be solely about the environment was advertising a company that is arguably a big cause of environmental problems. Even overlooking this, I found the gameplay a little bit abrupt until I figured out what I had to do (by reading the instructions). I think there are a few things that the developers could do to improve this one.

Game Balance

Some elements of the game play give game good balance, other aspects do not. In this section, these will be explored.

The player may choose a number of victory conditions. These include:

• Keeping their plane “alive” until the timer runs out – the game ends when the timer reaches zero. If the player can manage to not collide with the CFL bulbs, more than 5 times, this victory condition can be achieved.
• Score a certain number of points or beat their previous best score
• Keeping their plane “alive” until the timer runs out and score the most points.

In a well balanced game, the skill of a player will influence the outcome of a game more than any other factor. If the player is aiming to score the most points rather than just trying to run out the timer, skill does influence the outcome of the game more than any other factor. In order to earn points, the player must firstly collect CFL bulbs and star rating symbols from the sky whilst avoiding the incandescent light bulbs. Each desirable item collected gives the player 10 points. The player loses a life each time they hit an incandescent light bulb. Secondly, the player must drop the items that they collected onto the correct house. The player receives 100 points for dropping the correct item onto the correct house and they lose 50 points for dropping an item in the incorrect place. The action that will give the player the maximum points reward is dropping the correct item onto the correct house.  However, in order to be able to drop an item on a house, the player must have first collected the items from the sky. The loss of 50 points for dropping an item in the wrong place also encourages users to strategically drop the items that they have collected, not just drop them anywhere and hope for the best. The points structure of the game encourages the player to engage in all aspects of the game play: collecting items, avoiding items, dropping items onto the correct houses and avoiding incorrect drops. Thus, the points system encourages the player to develop skill and this skill will influence the outcome of the game more than any other factor. The scoring system provides good game balance.

Above: The scoring system of the game.

If the player’s aim is simply to finish the game without having lost all of their lives, then player’s skill is not necessarily the main influencer of the outcome of the game.  A dominant strategy exists. If the player simply leaves their plane in its starting position at the bottom of the screen, the player will be able to play out the game’s timer. They may lose some lives but it is unlikely that all of the player’s lives will be lost. I have used this strategy twice. The first time, I lost one life and the second time I lost none – and managed to accumulate 100 points by not even touching a control. Some suggestions for combating this dominant strategy include placing more obstacles in the way of the initial starting path of the plane and having provision for a highscore leader board that players can use to gauge their progress.

Some ways that I think game balance could be improved are listed below.

Recommendation 1. Have several levels that gradually get more difficult

 At the moment, the game has one level of difficulty although at times, it will suddenly speed up and then slow down later with no obvious reason for the speed up or slow down. I think it would be better if the game gradually gets faster rather than a sudden spurt of speed and then an equally as sudden slow down.

Recommendation 2. Make losing a life less disruptive to the play

When the plane hits an incandescent bulb a plane crash animation is played and the player loses a life. The plane crashing animation unnecessarily disrupts play. The crash animation that is played does not align with the information being shown on the screen before the crash and is potentially confusing, especially to new players. One way to make losing a life less disruptive to play would be to simply have the plane flash for a few seconds and, whilst the plane is flashing, it cannot collide with anything.

Above: The crash animation that plays is disconnected from the rest of the gameplay. I’m guessing its main aim is to display an eco message?

Recommendation 3. Basic instructions on key presses should be given at the start of the game

At the game startup screen, the player can choose to either read the rules or play the game. If a beginner player chooses to start the game rather than read the rules, no indications are given as to what keys to press to do different things within the game. The keys used are not intuitive, so I think the game should have a screen that a seasoned player can skip quickly through that explains the controls used in the game.

Image Attributions

All images used in this review are screenshots taken from the game Mission Lighting. These were used for review purposes. If you are the copyright holder of these images and wish for them to be removed, please leave a comment on this blog entry.

References

Drennan, P. 2009. INB280/INN280 Fundamentals of Game Design – Lecture 6. QUT.

Review of the game Real Lives 2010 created by Educational Simulations

Rating:

About Real Lives 2010

Real Lives 2010 is an educational sandbox simulation PC game. There is a trial version of the game that is free to download and a premium edition that must be purchased. This review was written using the trial version. Real Lives 2010 is designed to help people understand what it is like to live in other countries. There is a focus on people from developing countries but game play is not limited to just developing countries.

The player takes on the role of someone from another country. The game follows the character from birth onwards. The player makes decisions about the character’s life. The trajectory of the person’s life is affected by the decisions that the player makes and the reality of life in the country where the character lives.

Above: In Real Lives 2010 the player takes on the role of someone from another country.

Above: Information about the family the character’s family and how they compare with people across the world.

My Opinion

The Good

Real Lives 2010 does some things really well. It uses world statistical demographic data to generate game play in a way that I have never seen before. For example, your character or one of the character’s loved ones may develop a disease. If the player asks for more information about the disease, it will explain a bit about the disease and then give some statistical information about how many people in that person’s age group, gender, socio-economic class and living in that geographical location get that disease. It also provides a link to the source of the information so that the player can verify it. This game provides a really interesting way to learn what life might be like in a different country and in different circumstances. It could be especially useful for teachers and could easily inspire further research on particular countries or diseases.

The Not So Good

However, without a secondary motive to play the game such as using it as a classroom stimulus activity, I do not think the gameplay will be compelling. The game is only in beta at the moment and has a few bugs – I sincerely hope that I am proved wrong and that many find it compelling. It is certainly a game I would classify as worthy.

Real Lives 2010 as a system of conflict

Conflict in a game arises from a player actively pursuing a goal but obstacles impede them from achieving it (Crawford in Drennan 2009). Conflict in this game is of the form single player versus the system. The game attempts to make the challenge personal by assigning the player with a character that has just been born. The player’s task is to guide the character’s decisions throughout their life.

Although Real Lives 2010 provides the player’s character with plenty of impediments that would get in the way of the character’s progress in life (such as a family member getting sick), it is difficult for a player to develop their own meaningful quantifiable goals. Although sand box games generally do not tell players what their goal should be, they do provide a number of different measures or achievements that a player can use to measure their own accomplishments. The game provides many statistics but some of these statistics are difficult to understand. It is also unclear as to which of the statistics the player can affect. Many of the statistics appear to be based on life in that particular country but it is unclear whether there is anything the player can do to improve or worsen them. I understand why this may have been done. In reality (outside of the magic circle), there are no silver bullet solutions to poverty and poor living conditions. The game is trying to show the plight of people living in a variety of different situations and they do not want to sugar-coat it and make it look like it is a really easy problem to solve. However, I am not sure that this works in a game situation.

Above: Many of the statistics displayed in the game are difficult to interpret and it is unclear which aspects can be affected by decisions made by the player.

There are only a small number of decisions that the player can make and when they make the decisions it is unclear how these decisions affected the outcome of what happened.

Above: The decisions that the player can make are shown on the above screen. Many are greyed out.

There are some options in the game that are unable to be accessed by the player because the buttons are greyed out. The game does not explain why some are inaccessible. For example, I wanted to educate my character but there were times when all of the schooling options were greyed out. That may be because where he lives schooling is unavailable or too expensive but the game did not give me enough information to know whether that was the case.

As a player, because of the lack of competition and conflict, you feel that you are really just watching to see what happens. The game does provide a new way to explore life in other countries but I think the game has a ways to go before it will truly engage the player on its merits as a fun game.

This game is more a cool way to display, use and humanise real data than it is a fun game.

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Above: This game pulls in real-life data froma variety of sources.

One way that this game could be improved is by providing a smallish set of indicators that the player knows will be influenced by their gameplay decisions. The rest of the rich data should not be discarded (although its signficance could be made clearer) as those using the game may want to access this data; especially if they are using the game as part of classwork. It should be made clearly obvious which statistics the player can affect.

Image Attributions

All images used in this review are screenshots taken from the game Real Lives 2010. These were used for review purposes. If you are the copyright holder of these images and wish for them to be removed, please leave a comment on this blog entry.

References

Drennan, P. 2009. INB280/INN280 Fundamentals of Game Design – Lecture 5. QUT.

Rating:

About Celebrity Calamity

Celebrity Calamity is a free-to-play, single-player, simulation game created in Flash. It is designed to help young people explore money management concepts such as spending money, credit cards, debit cards and interest rates.

The player takes on the role of a celebrity’s assistant. The player has to assist the celebrity to earn money, help the celebrity spend his/her money wisely and use banking products such as credit and debit cards wisely.

Play takes place across a series of rounds. Each round the player helps the celebrity earn and spend their money. The player has to catch desirable objects and avoid catching undesirable objects that fall from the sky.  Objects fall from the sky at different rates. The player has to catch those which are useful (such as large sums of money) and avoid those which are not (expensive items that the celebrity did not ask for). The celebrity will ask you to buy particular items at the start of each round. It is up to the player to decide whether to give the celebrity what they ask for. At the end of the round, a total of all of the money the player collected is given and each item that was “bought” appears. The player has to decide whether to pay for it using the debit card or the credit card. The player also has to decide how much to pay off the credit card each round. Just to make things interesting, every few rounds or so, the celebrity makes huge extravagant purchases that they really cannot afford (I suspect, probably not dissimilar from real life!). As the rounds progress, both the player and the celebrity progress up their occupational leader. If the celebrity is dissatisfied with the performance of the player, he/she may fire the player (although the game always gives you another shot).

For more information on the game, check out this short Youtube Video the creators of the game have made.

Above: Youtube video promoting Celebrity Calamity

My Opinion

At first, I thought this was going to be another piece-of-fluff educational game… but I found myself getting engrossed in the game. I found myself playing the game right through from beginning to end. To play the whole game probably took about an hour. The game itself will not replace teaching students about interest rates but it is a great stimulus for starting/continuing discussions around using credit cards, spending within your means, etc.

Whilst it is not in the same league as something like Zoombinis Island Odyssey, I found it superior in quality to drill-and-practice games. What I believe makes it superior is that the learning is not an add-on. The learning is the mechanism of the game.

Rules, Challenges and Rewards

The rest of this review will examine 10 major uses of rules, challenges and rewards within the game. Throughout the game, the player discovers some of the unwritten rules of the game.  These unwritten rules are the mechanism used to teach the player about managing finances. Some of these unwritten rules are listed in items 1-4 below. The game’s challenges are what keeps the game interesting and give the player the opportunity to make decisions. Items 5 – 8 list some of the key challenges the player faces. If the player faces up well to these challenges, the game contains rewards. Items 9 and 10 list the two main rewards used to keep players motivated.

1.      Unwritten rule – not paying off your credit card is costly

If the player does not pay off the celebrity’s credit either because they choose not to or because they do not have enough cash to cover it, the player gets a hefty bill the next month. If the celebrity pays too many fees, they get upset with you and you risk getting fired.

Above: This celebrity is angry because she paid too many bank fees.

2.      Unwritten rule – going over your credit card limit or overdrawing your account is costly

If the player goes over the credit card limit or overdraws the debit account, they are charged a huge fee and the celebrity starts to get anxious and upset.

3.      Unwritten rule – things happen that are beyond your control

Sometimes, the celebrity will buy something really expensive on a whim.  This can really throw your finances out! This introduces an element of uncertainty to the game. Also, as the earning capacity of the celebrity increases, so does their credit limit. As it increases, the celebrity’s whimsical buys become more and more expensive and sometimes will more than max out their credit card and the player can find themselves in financial distress.

Above: This celebrity loves extravagant purchases!

Above: Why is the money manager always to blame?

4.      Unwritten rule – on the way  to the top of the career ladder, the player will be fired at least once

Each time the game is played, it purposely gets the player to bring the celebrity to financial ruin. This demonstrates to the player how people can get themselves into bad financial situations. In this game, your character gets fired; although the celebrity always gives you an opportunity to redeem yourself. Your character does not run out of lives. This would be counter-productive to the learning.

Above: Getting fired for the first time in this game. Lucky she decided to give me another chance!

5.      Game challenge –balancing what the celebrity wants with their earnings

At the start of each round, the celebrity tells you what she would like you to buy for her this round. If you get nothing on the list, the celebrity is likely to be displeased with you. However, if you get all of the items on the list, this could affect your earnings and savings negatively. As the celebrity’s assistant, your job is to decide when to do what the celebrity wants and when to hold back. If you give the celebrity everything he/she wants it is likely that they will become bankrupt and you will be fired.

6.      Game challenge –collecting money whilst avoiding unwanted things

During each round of play, the player has to catch items falling from the sky. The aim is to collect as much money as possible and any other items that you wish to purchase for the celebrity. Sometimes in an effort to catch the money or other items, the player may accidentally purchase some unwanted items. This challenge provides a great metaphor for impulse buying.

Above: You have to be careful to only collect desirable objects. The list of what the celebrity wants you to buy is across the top of the screen.

7.      Game challenge –working out the best way to use debit and credit

The game provides the player with the opportunity to pay for each item purchased using either a debit facility or a credit facility. Items that cost more than the debit limit must be purchased using a credit card. The player can also choose how much to pay off the credit card each round. The player has to balance the credit card payments with the interest the money can earn in the bank.

8.      Game challenge –prioritising

When the player is catching items that are falling from the sky, too many items fall at once (especially in the later rounds) to be able to catch everything that you would like to catch. The player has to choose which items are worth catching. For example, if there is $100 falling from the left hand side of the screen and $1,000 falling on the right hand side of the screen and the player could only get to one, it would be better to choose the $1,000. However, if the $1,000 falling on the right hand side of the screen was falling beside a piano that costs $1,000 and the player would be bound to collect the piano if they collected the $1,000, then the player may choose to catch the $100 instead.

Above: Competing interests – the player must prioritise them.

9.       Game reward –climbing the career ladder

After each round, if the celebrity is happy with your performance, the player character will proceed one more rung up the career ladder.

Above: The player’s career ladder

10. Game reward –the celebrity’s progress

As you help the celebrity manage their finances, they receive new job offers. The player decides which job offer the celebrity will take and watches as the celebrity progress up their career ladder.

Image Attributions

All images used in this review are screenshots taken from the game Celebrity Calamity. These were used for review purposes. If you are the copyright holder of these images and wish for them to be removed, please leave a comment on this blog entry.

Rating:

About Meteor Multiplication

Meteor Multiplication is a free-to-play, single-player, drill-and-practice maths game created in Flash. It is designed to help children learn their times tables.

The player controls a space ship that has a number written on it. There are a number of meteors drifting towards the space ship. The meteors have times tables written on them. The space ship has to blast the times table with the correct times table on it. The player has to blast the meteor before it hits the space ship. Once a meteor has been blasted, a new meteor appears and a new number appears on the space ship. This game is designed to be played on a PC or on a Wii using the internet channel.

My Opinion

This game emphasises speed and accuracy in mental calculations. It does not focus on the ability to problem solve. It encourages the automatic recall of information (automaticity). Whilst there is nothing wrong with helping children achieve automaticity, I think that games, especially learning games, have the opportunity to be far more enriching than this. As a game, I do not think it would have a tremendous amount of stick-ability for children.

In this game, as with most drill-and-practice games, the learning is an add-on to the game. The game mechanism is shooting meteors before they hit the space ship. The times tables really just get in the way of the mechanism. I think that learning games are best done when the actual game mechanism is the learning. For example, in Zoombinis Island Odyssey, the mechanism of the game is solving  mathematical problems. To solve these problems, the player has to form hypothesese and test them, they have to identify similarities and differences in objects and group them accordingly and observe and identify patterns.

Rules, Challenges and Rewards

The rest of this review will examine the game as a system of rules, challenges and rewards. It will identify 10 major ways rules, challenges and rewards are used within the game and the relationships between them.

As with many computers games, many of the game’s rules are not explicitly stated but can be observed during game-play.

1.      player can change game rules by choosing which times tables the game will use

One rule that can be changed during the setup stage of the game is which timetables can be used within the game. By default, the time tables that can be used are between 1 and 12. At the start of the game, the player or the player’s teacher or parent can choose the range of tables that they wish to be tested. If the option of using only the tables between 1 and 3 is selected, then only the following times tables will be tested: 1×1, 1×2, 1×3, 2×1, 2×2, 2×3,3×1, 3×2 and 3×3.

Whilst this is a nice game feature, there is a fault with it. Generally, when someone is learning their times tables, they will learn a particular set of times tables such as the 3 x times tables. The learner will then proceed to learn 3×1, 3×2, 3×3, … , 3×10. In this game, there is no way to choose  that you would just like the game to test the 3 times tables.

Above: At the beginning of the game, the player can set the times tables the game will use and the speed of the game.

2.      player can change game rules by changing the speed of the game

At the start of the game, the player can choose whether the game speed will be slow, normal or fast. The game speed refers to the rate at which the meteors gravitate towards the space ship. This allows the player to adjust the game speed to provide appropriate challenge for them. It should be noted that regardless of the speed chosen, the speed of the meteors will increase as the player progresses through the levels.

3.      unwritten game rule: if a meteor is getting really close to the space ship, its answer  will appear in the space ship next

By observing game play, I observed that when a meteor is getting uncomfortably close to the player’s spaceship, the next number that will appear in the space ship will be a match to the times table on the uncomfortably close meteor. Having this knowledge provides an incentive to quickly find the matching meteor for the current number on the spaceship.

It was also noted that while the rule still holds true as the player proceeds to the higher levels (there are 9 levels in total), the  meteor is allowed to get even closer before its matching answer will appear. This unwritten game rule is used to increase the challenge of the game as the game progresses.

4.      unwritten game rule: as the levels progress, the times  tables use bigger numbers

In order to increase the challenge of the game, as the player progresses through the levels, the times tables being examined use bigger numbers. For example, when I was playing a game that ranged in times tables between 1 and 12, the beginning levels mostly used 1x, 2x and 3x tables. Once I made it through to the final levels, the times tables used tended to be the 9x, 10x, 11x and 12x. This increased the level of challenge of the game not only because the numbers involved are bigger but also because bigger numbers tend to have more factors. For example, 24 could be 2×12, 3×8 or 6×4.

5.      if a player fails a level, the player has the opportunity to repeat  the level

One of the game rules is that if a meteor manages to collide with your space ship and your mission has failed at that level, the game allows you to repeat the level from the start. You do not have to start the whole game again. Your space ship has an unlimited number of lives. This rule helps to challenge the player at the level that they are at and stops them from getting too frustrated at having to start all over again.

6.      level of challenge is increased by displaying the answers in the space ship rather than displaying the question

Within the game, a number appears inside the player’s space ship. There are 8 meteors surrounding and closing in on the player’s ship. Each meteor has a times table written on it. The player has to examine each of the meteors and determine which one (and there may be more than one) matches the number appearing inside the player’s space ship.

Another way to create this game would be to display the times table on the space ship and the answers on the meteors. Doing it this way, the game creates more challenge for the player. It encourages more mental calculation. If a player cannot quickly identify which meteor matches the answer on the space ship, they will have to work out the answer for each of the times tables on the meteors until they find a match.

Above: Having the answer rather than the question appear inside the spaceship increases the challenge of the game.

7.      the game rewards speed of recall of information

The main challenge for the player is to speedily recall their times tables. The speed required to succeed in the game increases as the player works towards through the 9 levels.

8.      the game rewards correct recall of times tables

If a meteor does not match the answer given on the space ship, a time penalty is awarded. All of the times tables on the meteors except on the meteor(s) that the player could have chosen disappear for a couple of seconds. During this time, the player cannot make a new selection. This game behaviour disadvantages the player by giving them a time penalty but also serves to advantage them by showing them the correct answer.

Above: If an incorrect meteor is selected, the incorrect times tables disappear and the gameplay is locked for a couple of seconds.

9.      players can set their own goals

If a player does not have fast enough recall of their times tables, they may never make it through all 9 levels of the game. Even if this is the case, the player may still feel a sense of accomplishment in playing the game. A player can set their own goals. For example, if a player has never been able to progress past level 5, then beating level 5 may be an intrinsic reward for that player.

10. the main game reward

When a player completes all 9 levels, a certificate is issued. Personally, I think this is a bit of a let-down. Having a certificate that a child can print is nice but I would have also liked to see something that perhaps extended the narrative of the game – not that there is a lot of game narrative in the first place!

Above: The final game reward is a certificate

Image Attributions

All images used in this review are screenshots taken from the game Meteor Multiplication. These were used for review purposes. If you are the copyright holder of these images and wish for them to be removed, please leave a comment on this blog entry.

Rating:

About Fatworld

Fatworld is a free-to-download, single player, sandbox game designed to help the player explore how popular culture, the fast food industry and government legislation contribute to unhealthy living and obesity.

In this game the player takes on the role of a Fatworld resident who can:

• buy houses
• make a living by buying and running a restaurant
• visit other residents
• do exercise
• go grocery shopping
• prepare their own meals.

Whilst this game had great potential, the initial tutorial takes far too long to play and is tedious to complete. There also some bugs in the game. I was religiously saving my game and had one item left to complete in the tutorial. Next time I loaded the game, my progress was gone – I had to complete the 23 steps again!

The biggest problem with this game is a poorly designed user interface. The problem is not that the user interface looks bad – in fact it looks really cute. It is just that it is not very user-friendly or functional. The rest of this review examines flaws in the user interface design of Fatworld.

Above: Youtube video introducing the game Fatworld. Video created by PBS.

Top 10 Flaws in the User Interface Design of Fatworld

1. floating menus obscure your view of the game world

There are four floating menus that can obscure the player’s view of the game world (as shown below). One of these can be collapsed down and moved around the screen but the other three are fixed. These menus can obscure game play and can get quite annoying.

Above: The floating menus can obscure the player’s view of the game

2. user controls that are not obvious

One of the first items on the tutorial is to visit a running course. I walked around the town for a while and eventually found the running course. When I tried to walk through the running course archway, my character couldn’t do it. A little floating ENTER sign appeared over my head so it looked like I should have been able to enter. I tried clicking with my mouse, pressing the enter key and approaching the course entrance from a number of different angles. Nothing worked! It turns out, you have to press the SPACE BAR to activate the floating ENTER sign. Confusing!

Above: To enter the running course, the player has to press the SPACE BAR key

3. confusing and sometimes contradictory language is used

In this section, I have shown some examples of confusing in-game language.

Above: The question asked does not align with the possible responses of yes / no.

One source of confusion is the floating enter signs that appear above the player character’s head. this floating enter sign is provided to prompt the player to press the SPACE BAR to perform an action. In many cases the word ENTER simply does not match the action that will be performed as shown in the pictures below.

Above: To use the exit to this building, the game character has to move into a position so that the floating enter sign appears.

Above: To interact with the cashier, the game character has to move into a position so that the floating enter sign appears.

4. in-world navigation can be difficult

Several times, I couldn’t find my way back to the house or the restaurant that I’d bought. The game marks anything that the character owns with a star but if you are not in the general vicinity of the building, you cannot see the star. There is also an inset map in the bottom right corner of the screen. This inset map marks your house but not your restaurants but once again, you have to be in the general vicinity to see it. I also found that the marker used to indicate where your house is, is quite large and I did several laps of the streets it indicated before I finally found my house again!

Above: Buildings owned by the player are marked with a star. In this picture the player character is standing outside a restaurant that it owns. In the inset map on the bottom right corner, you can see that my character’s house is located a block and a half from where my character is currently standing.

When you click the small inset map, a larger map is activated. It can help you locate all sorts of things but  it does not show items that are owned by the player character.

Above: A larger map can help with navigation in Fatworld

5. non-intuitive visual and auditory feedback

The game does not provide appropriate visual and auditory feedback to compliment the action. For example, in the restaurant minigame, the player has to serve as many customers with food as possible. Tables of people magically arrive in the restaurant. These people don’t walk into the restaurant, they just appear in one of the restaurant’s booths. These same people disappear when their timer gets to 0 or the second you serve them food. Once again, they do not walk out, an animation that says the word “plop” plays regardless of whether you manage to serve them their food or whether they leave because the counter gets to 0. In order to serve the food, your character has to go to a corner of the restaurant to pick up their food (by pressing the SPACE BAR). Your character then has to walk to a table and press the SPACE BAR again to serve the customers.

Above: Screenshots of the restaurant mini-game

Some ways this mini-game could be vastly improved by providing better visual and auditory feedback include:

• have the customers walk into (and out of) the restaurant rather than just pop in… and “plop” out.
• have the player character’s avatar show that it is carrying food. At the moment, the only way, the player knows that the character has successfully picked up food to deliver to its customers is by the “Ready to Serve” sign on the top right corner of the screen. If the avatar were able to carry the meal in its hands, that would make this part of the game much easier to understand.
• have a simple sound effect play when the player successfully picks up a food item to serve and a different one when they successfully serve a customer. At the moment, it is difficult to know whether the character was positioned in exactly the right spot to pick up the meal or to serve the meal to a customer. Simple audio sound effects would be helpful. At the moment, the only audio that is heard during this mini game is the annoying game soundtrack and the sound of your footsteps (also annoying) in the restaurant.
• use a different animation for when the customers disappear because they got tired of waiting to when they leave because they have finished eating. At the moment, they both display the same “Plop” animation. To be honest, I’m not sure why “plop” is a useful descriptor for either behaviour! At the moment, the only feedback that the player gets that they have served customers, is a counter at the top of the screen.

6. cannot access information when required

Since this game is about healthy living, when the player character is in its house, the game asks the player to plan the player character’s meals. In order to make the meals, your character has to visit the grocery store to buy groceries. The idea is that you plan your menu and then go to the grocery store to buy the items on the menu. There’s only one hitch – once the player character gets to the grocery store, I couldn’t find any way to access the list of meals and recipes that I had created. Either I could not find the appropriate section on the user interface or this functionality does not exist. The menu contains far too much information for the player to remember. It would be better if the player could either access this information whilst at the grocery store or if they could compile a shopping list whilst the player character is at home.

7. difficult directional movement

A fair portion of this game is spent walking around Fatworld. Walking around Fatworld is tedious because the streets are positioned at an angle (rather than vertically or horizontally). This means that in order to navigate down a straight street, the player has to toggle between two arrow keys (eg. UP + RIGHT) just to walk up the street.

8. character moves extremely slowly

The game character moves slowly. This coupled with the difficult controls, makes game movement quite tedious for the player. It should be noted that the player can move the character faster by holding down the SHIFT key. Players can also buy vehicles for their characters but I haven’t managed to do that yet – largely because there is a glitch in the save games and I lost all of my progress. I didn’t have the heart to do it all again!

9. some text in the game is written in a hard to read font

Besides your character, there are other “Fatworld residents”. Your character can enter their house to view health information about the people. This information is provided in the form of an “index card”. The font used to create this index cards is quite difficult to read.

Above: The font used to create the index cards is difficult to read.

10. screen scrolling is not smooth

When the player character moves to an edge of the screen, the screen automatically scrolls. Many games require scrolling screens. In this game, I found that the scrolling distracted me from the game. The scrolling was not smooth and I found that I was quite often waiting for the screen to scroll so that I could see what was next. I found that this disrupted the immersive nature of the play experience.

Image Attributions

All images used in this review are screenshots taken from the game Fatworld. These were used for review purposes. If you are the copyright holder of these images and wish for them to be removed, please leave a comment on this blog entry.

Rating:

SOURCE: game screenshot, used for review purposes

Game Overview

Zoombini Island Odyssey is a puzzle-solving single-player PC game designed to help children (aged 8 and above) learn mathematical concepts drawn from set theory and logic. The player takes on the role of hero or problem solver in the fantasy world of the Zoombinis and the Zerbles. Zoombinis are little blue creatures that once inhabited Zoombini Island until it was invaded by the Bloats. Zerbles are orange creatures that form an integral part of the Life Cycle of the island along with the caterpillars that become moths that pollenate the fruit trees that the zerbles eat.

   
Above from left to right: A zoombini, a zerble, a moth and a caterpillar  (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

The player’s job is to help the Zoombinis bring Zoombini Island back from the brink of ecological devastation after the evil Bloats used up all of the island’s resources and left it in ecological ruins. 

The player begins by recruiting Zoombinis from a neighbouring island to help him/her in his/her quest to rescue the island. The recruited Zoombinis heroically sail from their home island to Zoombini Island. Each Zoombini brings with them a caterpillar that will be used to restart the Circle of Life on Zoombini Island. The player then helps the recruited Zoombinis solve 7 different puzzles  that help restore the island to its former glory.  After the player has helped these 12 Zoombinis solve the  puzzles , the player must go back and recruit 12 more Zoombinis. The puzzles gradually become more complex once the Zoombinis have successfuly completed them. The game finishes once 240 Zoombini recruits have completed their mission and restored Zoombini Island back to its once pristine state.

Pictured Above: A picture of the flourishing Zoombini Island after it has been rescued from ecological disaster. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Game Play

Following a short cut-scene , the gameplay begins.

Task 1. Starting the Adventure

The first task that the player has to do is recruit 12 Zoombinis. The player can create 12 Zoombinis using the Zoombini generator pictured below or they can have the Zoombinis generated randomly. In this section there is no puzzle to solve, it is a mechanism used to help tell the story and gives the player a chance to customise the game characters.

Pictured Above: The Zoombini generator allows you to customise the look of the Zoombinis that will journey to Zoombini Island. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Once this has been completed, a short cut-scene shows the 12 Zoombinis sailing to Zoombini island, each carrying a pink caterpillar on their head.

Pictured Above: All of the Zoombinis travel to Zoombini island carrying a pink caterpillar on their head. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Task 2. The Catapult

Once the 12 Zoombinis arrive at Zoombini Island the player’s first task is to catapult each of the 12 Zoombinis onto the island. The catapult is pictured below. There are two items that can be loaded into the catapult’s chute: mud balls and boulders. Only the boulders are heavy enough to catapult the Zoombinis over the cliffs onto the island. There are exactly the same number of boulders as zoombinis, this makes boulders a very precious commodity – the player does not want to waste them. Whilst the mud balls will not catapult the zoombinis to the island, they can be used to test the mechanism of the catapult machine. Each time the player comes back to the catapult, the mechanism of the catapult machine is different so the player can use trial-and-error with the mud bricks to determine the sequencing required to catapult the Zoombinis onto the Island. 

Pictured Above: The players first task is to catapult each of the 12 Zoombinis onto the island. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

As with each of the puzzles, there are three layers of complexity: Not so hard, Oh so Hard and Very Very Hard. Once the player has achieved success at the easier level, the player can progress to the next level of difficulty.

Task 3. The Wall

Once the Zoombinis have been catapulted onto the island, the next challenge they face is “The Wall”. On the other side of the wall is a big tree – the tree that the caterpillars can munch on. Once the caterpillars have munched on the tree, they will be able to go into a cocoon to emerge as moths thus re-establishing the Circle of Life on the Island. In order to get the caterpillars to the tree, however, the player must “break the code” and place each heiroglyph block inthe appropriate position on the wall (see picture below).

 
Pictured above: A heiroglyph block can be dragged from the bottom of the screen onto the wall. If all four heiroglyphs match the code being used, a Zoombini gets to go through the door. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

This puzzle requires the player to recognise patterns and form and test hypotheses. The player only gets a limited number of incorrect goes before the wall crumbles and locks the door on you. When this happens, the player must come back and have another go. The next time they come back the symbol mappings will be different.

As with the other challenges, there are three levels of difficulty. Each level a little harder than the one before. A screenshot of the hardest level is shown below.

Pictured Above: The Very Very Hard level in the Wall challenge. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

The additional challenges that the most difficult level presents include:

• the blocks have three symbols on them instead of four thus making it harder to identify patterns
• not all of the heiroglyphs on the wall  will be matched (i.e. if all the of the blocks are placed correctly on the wall, there will be gaps)
• there is less feedback given when the player puts a block in the wrong place – in the first level of difficulty, blocks have lights on them that indicate how many of the heiroglyphs match the symbols on the block
• a player can only make two errors before the wall will crumble
• some blocks have more than valid spot where they can be placed. However there is an optimal position for each block. If the optimal position is not chosen, then this will stop another block from being able to find its position on the wall. 

Task 4. The Planetarium

The caterpillars have now formed cocoons. The cocoons are in the crystal shaped like a pyramid shown at the bottom of the screen (see picture below).

Pictured Above: The cocoons are hidden away in the crystal shaped like a pyramid at the bottom of the screen. The player has to use the coins provided to place the sun and the earth in the appropriate positions to match the time displayed on the clock at the top of the screen. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Pictured Above: The help screen provides players with additional details to help them solve the puzzle. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

If the player solves the puzzle completely, moths will hatch from the cocoons and they will be released from the crystal. If the player solves the problem, partially, only some of the moths will be released. The player can come back and have another go to release the rest of the moths.

The player solves the puzzle by matching the time shown on the clock at the top, middle of the screen with the time indicated by the sun’s position in the sky on the right hand side of the screen and the position of the earth relative to the sun on the left hand side of the screen. To move the sun and the earth, coins are dragged from the bottom of the screen and placed in the appropriate slot.

The game provides both auditory and visual feedback as the sun and the planet moves.

This challenge requires players to use their spatial reasoning, encourages them to form and test hypotheses and also requires the players to be able to read the time and do some basic addition.

There are three levels to this challenge. The hardest level introduces the idea of cycles of the moon. Not only does the player have to position the sun, moon and earth at the appropriate time but also at the appropriate time in the month (pictured below).

Pictured above: This is a screenshot of the Very Very Hard level of the planetarium. In this screenshot, the player has successfully lined the earth up at the right time and date. A moth can be seen flying from the crystal, ready to participate in the next phase of the game. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Task 5. The Greenhouse

The fifth task takes place inside a greenhouse. The moths (on the left hand side of the screen), must travel across the field of snozzleberry plants in order to pollenate the seedlings on the right hand side of the screen. Each moth only likes a certain sort of plant. Some moths like plants of a particular colour, others like plants that have a particular sort of flower and others like plants with a certain number of leaves. The type of plant the moth likes is indicated on their back. The player has to find the appropriate path across the field for for each of the moths so that they can pollenate the seedlings.

Pictured Above: In this screenshot, the blue moth, the yellow moth and the red moth is making their way across the field of plants to pollenate the seedlings on the other side of the screen. The other moths are waiting on the left for the player to direct them to their path. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

The more difficult levels introduce new types of plants and new colours of plants. They also make the puzzle harder by giving the player a “magic swapping wand” that can be used to swap the position of plants (as indicated in the picture below). The “magic swapping wand” can only be used a limited number of times before it disappears. This encourages the player to try to use it in an economical way.

Pictured Above: The “magic swapping wand” is used by the player to create a clear path for the moths across the field to the seedlings. It must be used thoughtfully and economically as, if it is used too many times, it will disappear. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

The Very Very Hard level introduces beetles. Just like the moths, beetles only like plants of particular characteristics. The beetles are trying to cross the field from top to bottom. If a beetle cannot find a plant that has the appropriate characteristics that it will not budge from the plant it is on. A moth will not cross the path of a beetle, therefore the beetles can block the moths (as shown below).

 
Pictured Above: If the beetles cannot find a clear path down the field of plants, they will be forced to stand still and can block the moths from progressing. Looks like the “magic swapping wand” needs to get to work! (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Task 6. The Garden

Once the moths have pollenated the seedlings, the seedlings are ready to be planted in Arno’s garden.

Above: Now that the seedlings have been pollenated, they are ready to be planted in Arno’s (bottom-right of picture) garden. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Arno is very particular about which seedlings can be planted in which hole. Only plants that share a common trait can be planted in the same hole. The player must use trial and error to figure out where the plants go. The player only has a certain limited number of tries before sundown – which is when the garden closes.

Above: In this example, only plants that have the same neck shape can go in the same hole. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

As with all of the puzzles, there are three levels of difficulty. A screenshot of The Very Very Hard level  is shown below. Notice that the holes are arranged in four separate plots of land.In this level, only plants with three traits in common can share a hole and plants that share a common characteristic will share a row, column or plot.

Above: In the Very Very Hard level of the Garden challenge there four separate plots of land. Only plants that share three traits can share a hole. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Above: In the completed example above, plants that have the same leaf shape share a plot. Plants in the same row in each plot are the same colour and plants in the same column in each plot have the same type of neck. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

To complete this task before the sun goes down, the player has to sort and group the plants, formulate and test hypotheses and arrange the plants into a multi-dimensional array.

Task 7. The Corral

Once the seedlings have been planted in the garden, it is time to take some snozzleberry fruit to feed to the Zerbles. Each of the snozzleberry fruits can be defined by three characteristics: their colour, leafe shape and fruit shape. Each Zerble only likes to eat a fruit with a particular leafe shape, fruit shape and is a particular colour. The player must use the projector lights to figure out which combination of traits each zerble will eat. If the player feeds the Zerble the correct fruit, it leaves the corral and goes to the barn.

The three images below are screenshots from the Not So Hard level, the Oh So Hard level and the Very Very Hard level.

Above: In the Not So Hard level, the Zerbles will eat any snozzleberry fruit that has two particular traits in common. For example, the Zerble in the middle of the picture will eat purple fruits that have a clover-leaf.  (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Above: In the Oh So Hard level, the Zerbles will only eat snozzleberry fruits that have three particular traits in common. For example, the three Zerbles in the middle, bottom of the screen will only eat snozzleberry fruits that are blue, have the leaf structure shown on the left but aren’t shaped the same as the shape indicated at the top of the screen. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Above: In the Very Very Hard level, the Zerbles will still only eat snozzleberry fruits that have three particular traits in common. However, the projectors no longer tells the player which projector light is revealing what trait. The player has to compare the numbers of Zerbles in each section with the traits of the available fruits to figure out which Zerble eats what. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

To succeed in this level, players have to understand how to use the Venn diagrams created in the pictures above, collect evidence, observe and compare and formulate and test hypotheses.

Task 8. The Barn

The final challenge – and probably the hardest challenge – takes place in the barn. The Zerbles that you fed in the previous challenge are now in the barn and are ready to be paired together so that they can produce offspring when they are returned to their natural habitat. The spinning wheel at the top left of screen (see below) produces a set of characteristics that the offspring should have.

Above: The Not So Hard Level of the Barn challenge (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

The player must choose which pair of Zerbles will be most likely to produce that combination of offspring. In the Not Very Hard level, when a Zerble is are placed on the scales, the “x-ray stones” reveal which genes the Zerbles have. Once two Zerbles have been selected, the “gene pool” shows images of four baby Zerbles that would be produced as a result of this pairing. If the result matches the spinning wheel, then the two Zerbles leave the room and are taken to their natural habitat. If the player has too many unsuccessful goes at pairing the Zerbles, the water in the gene pool runs out. In the first two levels, the traits being examined are the type of legs the Zerble has: feet, wheels or legs. There is a rock-paper-scissors relationship bewteen the traits. Each trait is stronger than one trait but weaker than another trait.

Above: Information from the game’s help system on the relationship between the traits. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Above: The Oh So Hard level of the Barn challenge. In this level, the xray stones don’t work – the player has to figure out the mechanics of the results for themselves. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

Above: In the Very Very Hard level, the leg trait is no longer the subject of the comparison – it is the Zerble’s tails. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

What’s Next?

After a puzzle has been played once, if the player was unable to complete any puzzle in its entirety (for example, the player failed to get all of the zoombinis catapulted onto the island), the player can go back to it at any time to finish it off. Also, at any time, the player can go back to Zoombinis home to recruit more Zoombinis to help rescue Zoombini island. The game finishes when all 240 Zoombinis have done all they can to rescue the island. 

Above: This map of Zoombini Island acts as an interface for the player to select the challenge they want to do next. (SOURCE: screenshots from game, used for review purposes)

What makes the game compelling?

Zoombini Island Odyssey is compelling because it:

• is initially challenging to work out the game requires the player to do. When the player starts a new challenge for the first time, it can be dificult to figure out what to do. Trial and error is necessary to understand what is required. The in-game help can also be used.
• allows for different approaches to be taken to the gameplay. At a macro-level, there are multiples paths to success. At a micro level, within most of the challenges there is more than one way to arrive at the solution.
• has a play-mode and a practice mode. The practice mode allows the player to play any challenge at any time. The results of the play in practice mode do not affect the narrative progress of the game.
• provides adequate in-game help that can be summoned when required. The in-game help is provided in both visual and auditory form – useful for young players who may not read well.
• encourages the player to use but not rely completely on trial and error. Many of the challenges require a trial and error approach be taken in the initial stages of the challenge. If the player fails to learn from the trials they conduct, the player will run out of the resources required to continue the challenge.  If this happens, the player needs to complete the challenge again later. The next time they do the challenge, the player will have to use trial and error again to ascertain the patterns and rules being used in the new challenge.
• always provides appropriate auditory and visual feedback. For example, in the Greenhouse challenge, when the magic wand is picked up, the player’s cursor turns into the magic wand and a chime is heard. When the player clicks on flowers to swap using the wand, each flower lights up and a sound effect is played.
• has high quality 2d graphics, music and sound effects. The characters are cute and of a quality you would expect to find in a children’s cartoon and the voice actors have cartoon-like voices.
• provides the player with many opportunities to make meaningful decisions and solve problems that affect the outcome of the game. 
• provides the player with uncertainty at a micro level but not at a macro level. At the macro level, the player knows that if they manage to work out all of the puzzles, they will “save” Zoombini Island. At a micro level, the player cannot be certain that they will be able to solve each of the challenges before the mechanisms designed to limit the amount of aimless guessing the player does (such as the sun going down or the magic wand running out of magic or the wall crumbling). The player does know, however, that they can always come back and have another go at the challenge. 
• uses an in-game reward system. As the player releases more Zerbles into their natural habitat, each Zerble flocks to its natural biome (climatic region). The more Zerbles the player releases, the more Zerbles they can see enjoying the island’s natural habitat.
• continues to provide challenge throughout the game play. Even though the game requires much repetition of each of the eight puzzles, each time a puzzle is commenced, the puzzle has different parameters, therefore a new problem solving experience is embarked on. Also, the three different levels available in each puzzle continues to offer well-scaffolded challenge.
• scoffolds the learning. Players are not able to progress on to the harder levels of challenge until they have had success at the easier levels.
• gives just the right amount of penalty for not being able to complete a challenge. Players are always able to come back again to help the characters that they were unable to help earlier, however, each time they come back they have to solve a new puzzle based on the same premise as the last time they completed the puzzle. This approach limits the amount of aimless guessing that the player can do.
• provides emotional immersion for the player. An evaluation conducted of the first Zoombinis game in the series said that the players felt emotionally invested in the characters (Murray, Mokros & Rubin, 1999)
• uses the learning (in this case it is maths) as the game mechanism. The Maths is not an add-on to an otherwise ok game.
• provides the player with different play modes. The player can choose to play through the challenges in order or go into practice mode where they can choose to play any challenge at any skill level.
• uses the completion of challenges to drive the narrative forward.
• comes with a manual complete with information for parents and teachers on how to maximise the learning opportunities of the game and it provides information about what mathematical skills the child is learning when playing each section of the game.
• never makes the player feel like they have ended up in an irrecoverable position. The player can always go back again and take on the challenge another time.

Further suggestions

I think the game is excellent. I enjoyed playing it myself as did my nephew. I do think that the game could go one step further by allowing users to get further invested in the narrative of the game by giving provision for user-generated content and hosting a sharing site for teachers to share how they are using the game in the classroom.

Reference

Murray, M., Mokros, J. & Rubin, A. 1999. Where’s the Math in Computer Games? Terc. Accessed from
http://mathequity.terc.edu/gw/html/handsonarticle2.html on 16/9/2009

Review of the game Ayiti – the Cost of Life created by the high school students in Global Kids in conjunction with game developers at GameLab

Rating:

Game Overview

Ayiti: The Cost of Life is a single-player simulation strategy game playable for free over the internet using a flash-compatible web browser. It is aimed at school students – although even adults will find the game challenging. The player takes on the role of managing the activities of the Guinard family – a family of 5 who live in the developing country of Ayiti. The player’s goal is to help the Guinard family get an education and improve their lives.

Above: The Guinard family – Jean, Marie, Yves, Jacquline and Patrick. (SOURCE: screenshot from game, used for review purposes)

The game-play occurs over 16 rounds. Each round represents a season. There are four seasons a year so the overall timeframe represented by the game is a four-year period.

At any time, the player can click on a member of the family to view information about them. The information panel tells the player the character’s current level of health, happiness and education and also tells the player what the character is currently doing, the character’s current health status and the character’s current education status.

Above: At any time, the player can click on a member of the family to view their vital statistics. This screenshot was taken at the very start of the game before the start of the first season. (SOURCE: screenshot from game, used for review purposes)

The game also keeps track of important information regarding the family’s progress as a whole. This information is always visible in a panel on the left hand side of the screen. Information that is stored includes:

•  the total number of (educational) diplomas the family has collected
• the amount of money (Gouds) the family has
• the current living conditions the family is subject to – The living conditions can be changed manually but also change automatically depending on the level of income of the family
• the items that the family owns (these are purchased from the store).

Above: The panel at the left hand side of the game screen stores information about the status of the family as a whole. (SOURCE: screenshot from game, used for review purposes)

Money can be spent on school tuition, living conditions and items in the store such as books, bicycles, home remedy kits and chickens for the family farm.

The player’s goal is to keep the family happy and healthy for the four years. If both parents die, the game is over. If the parents survive, the level of success is measured by the amount of education each member of the family has.

Check out this Youtube video for a walkthru of one round of the game (Youtube video created by holymeatballs).

What makes the game compelling?

One of the reasons this game is compelling is that it is easy to learn what to do; but it is extremely challenging to master. The reviewer has played the game at least four times. On the most recent occasion, both parents and one child died of cholera. The remaining two children were scattered between different relatives and foster homes and lost all chances at a brighter future!

Above: The game is compelling because it is difficult. (SOURCE: screenshot from game, used for review purposes)

Factors that make it compelling include:

• the challenge and conflict within the game comes from the desire to accumulate resources so that they can help provide a better standard of living and education for the family, however, if only a resource accumulation strategy is applied to the game, the characters will become sick or depressed and will no longer be able to work to accumulate resources
• a balanced strategy needs to be employed to take on the system effectively
• it is free to play
• the narrative is engaging
• the 2D graphics are reasonably high quality
• the game music and sound is reasonably high quality
• the user interface is intuitive
• it allows for differing player approaches – there is more than one way to “win” the game
• there are no easy choices – every choice made within the game comes at the expense of something else
• there is uncertainty – the player makes meaningful choices but is not certain how it will impact on the lives of the characters in the game.

Game Play

The gameplay bears similarity to Lemonade Stand style games and more complex tycoon games. The player starts each round (each round in this game is a season) with a certain amount of money. The player can use that money to buy things such as school books, home remedy kits, toys, a bicycle.

Above: Money can be used to buy items at the store. (SOURCE: screenshot from game, used for review purposes)

The money can also be used to educate the family members.

Above: Money can be used to educate family members. (SOURCE: screenshot from game, used for review purposes)

The player also has to decide what each member of the family will do during the season. Will they receive education, stay at home and rest, work the family farm, get a job, volunteer for a non-government organisation or go to receive medical treatment?

Above: Family members can take on jobs providing they have the right levels of education and have appropriate transport. (SOURCE: screenshot from game, used for review purposes)

Once the player has decided where to allocate resources and what each family member will do for the season, the Start Season button is pressed.

Whilst most of the game’s decisions are made before the season starts, there are some decisions that the player can make during the season . Decisions that the player may have to make during the season include whether family members should stop working if they are sick, whether they should seek medical treatment and which level of treatment is most appropriate and whether to spend more money on hurricane-proofing their house.

If the money gets low or the health of a family member gets really low, some decisions are automatically made by the game. For example, if a family member gets really sick, they will be no longer able to work and will be forced to go home. If the family runs out of money, all family members receiving medical attention or education will be forced to return home.

Larger Culture around the Game

The game provides some extra ways to engage with the game content. These include lesson plans for teachers and other supporting information such as maps of Haiti (the country which the game is based on) and links to other supporting materials. Check out this page on the Unicef – Voices of Youth website for more information.

Why was the game created?

Goal 1.

Ayiti: The Cost of Life was developed to educate people around the world about the complexity of the issues facing people living in poverty in developing countries. Its key message is that no single factor can account for success.

Goal 2.

The game development process itself was used as a tool to promote digital literacy and career awareness for underserved youth as part of the GlobalKids Program. This game was designed by high school students in collaboration with a professional game development company.

Did the game achieve its goals?

Goal 1. 

Whilst there were some shortcomings in the evaluation of the game, it does appear that the game’s goals were achieved at some level. The evaluation conducted suggested that individuals playing the game had a fuller understanding of the complexities associated with living in poverty than they did before playing the game.

Goal 2.

The evaluators conducted two separate focus group meetings with six students involved in the program. These focus groups revealed that as a result of their involvement in this project students learnt many lessons including:

• respect for each other and other people’s ideas
• how to share their ideas and listen to the ideas of others
• how to work as part of a team
• increasing their computer skills
• understanding what goes into making a game.

Watch this youtube video created by students who made the game.

Shortcomings of the evaluation

A large-scale survey was conducted with players of the game to ascertain whether it was useful in educating people about the complexity of the issues facing people living in poverty. The survey took the form of a pre-gameplay question and a series of True/False post-gameplay questions.

Shortcoming 1. The pre-gameplay question

The pre-gameplay question asks players to identify a strategy that they intend to use to play the game as depicted below.

Above: Before playing the game, the player is asked which strategy they will choose. (SOURCE: screenshot of game, used for review purposes)

The problems with this pre-play question all centre around the Happiness option:

• the text describing the Happiness option is chopped off mid-sentence
• the heading used for this section does not match the content of the answer. Many people choosing an answer to this question would be so keen to skip to the actual game that they may read the heading and not look at the rest of the text.

Even though the happiness descriptor is probably the most balanced strategy, players probably would not select it based on the incompatible heading and the fact that not all of the text for the descriptor is not present.

Interestingly, even in the game evaluation, the evaluators chose to replace the heading happiness with the heading survival stating that “although the survey instrument referred to the theme of happiness, we refer to survival in our analysis as it is a more accuracte reflection of the content of the corresponding statements”. The reviewer believes that survival is also not an appropriate heading for the description. In fact, this heading really is about having a balanced game strategy. It is likely, though, that if the word “balanced” were used as a heading on the screen pictured above that most people would choose that option. The reviewer believes that this evidence is enough to question whether a valid strategy has been used to evaluate the success of the game.

Shortcoming 2. The post-gameplay questions

The post-gameplay questions were a series of eight true/false questions as depicted below.

 
Above: After playing the game, the player is asked a series of 8 true/false questions. (SOURCE: screenshot of game, used for review purposes)

There was a technical glitch in the version of the game that was evaluated and the final question did not appear. This problem was subsequently fixed, however, no data was included in the evaluation that contained responses to the final question.

The evaluation split the statements into pairs around the themes money, health, education and survival and classified each statement as an absolute or a relative statement. See the image below for more details.

Above: Table used in Nudell, Brunner & Pasnik’s evaluation report 2007. (used for review purposes)

The percentages of users who chose to check each statement was then calculated and compared with the percentages that chose the initial game playing strategies. It should be noted that a player is able to mark both the absolute and relative statement in each category as being both true, both false or one true and the other false.

 
Above: Table used in Nudell, Brunner & Pasnik’s evaluation report 2007. (used for review purposes)

Whilst this does provide some useful data and it would seem to indicate that those who played the game demonstrated  some level of understanding of the complexities associated with living in poverty, given the issues with the questioning techniques used how valid is the data? Could other statistical methods been used to further prove the association? Is using a survey as the only means of assessing player understandings useful? Should other methods of evaluation such as focus groups have been used? 

Image Attributions

http://www.unicef.org/voy/images/costoflife_banner_180×150.gif (Used for review purposes. If you are the copyright holder of this image and wish it to be removed, please add a comment to this blog entry.)

Other images are from the game’s evaluation report and are screenshots of the game. All are used for review purposes. If the copyright holder of this information wishes it to be removed, please add a comment to this blog entry.

References

Nudell, H., Brunner, C. & Pasnik, S. 2007. Playing for Keeps Evaluation Report. EDC | Center for Children and Technology. Accessed from  http://gamesforchange.org/resource_uploads/c1c5600b0026a083e5b3f67beea27040/21219805895P4K_Year_2-Report.pdf on 14/9/2009

Unicef 2009. Voices of Youth – Game: Ayiti: the cost of life. Unicef. Accessed from
http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/rights/explore_3142.html on 14/9/2009

Review of the game Re-Mission created by Hope Lab

Rating:

The Story

The year is 2027. Due to significant improvements in Science, nanobots are used to fight cancer. The player takes on the role of Roxxi – a humanoid nanobot who is charged with fighting cancer cells, protecting the good cells and being involved in managing the treatment -related adverse effects.

Play begins by porting Roxxi into a cancer patients body for her first mission.  Once the cancer has been defeated, the mission is complete and the player can play another mission. There are 20 missions in total. Each mission takes place inside the body of different cancer patients. The cancer patients are male and female, from different parts of the United States and have different types of cancers and therefore require different forms of treatment.  All patients are adolescents and young adults. 

Why has the game been created?

Research indicates that adolescents and young adults are less likely to adhere to self-administered cancer treatments such as oral chemotherapy. The game aims to help young people with cancer feel like they have power over the disease in an effort to increase treatment adherence. It was created with support from medical staff with knowledge of cancers and their treatment.

Did the game achieve its goal?

According to the research study that was conducted alongside this game, an increase in adherence to self-ministered cancer treatments of the adolescents and young adults who played the game increased. Self-efficacy and knowledge of cancer and its treatment also increased.

Interestingly, there was no increase in self-reported measures of adherence, stress, control or quality of life.

This indicates to me that when evaluating the effectiveness of serious games, subjective self-assessment by the player may not be the best measures to use. This may be because the game player is not always aware of what they are learning within the game – the learning is implicit. If the learning were overt, maybe the game would not be quite as fun? If it is important that the learning be explicit to the player, perhaps extra activities need to be conducted outside of the game as a supporting mechanism to the game-play?

After having played the game myself, I think it would help you feel better about your treatment and give you a better understanding of the side effects and their treatments. I don’t think the game alone would effectively educate you about your cancer treatment – however, this is not the main purpose of the game. The game would be a good reinforcer for concepts introduced by the doctor.

About the Game & Game Play

Re-mission is a 3D, third-person shooter PC game developed for adolescents and young adults with cancer. The game is made available through hospitals and can also be downloaded for free from the internet.

The game is a one-player game. However, there is limited two player functionality. Two players can play simultaneously using one computer. When playing in two-player mode, there are two arcade-style missions that can be played. The two-player functionality seems to be an after-thought and as such is not as immersive as the rest of the game.

Check out this youtube video for an introduction to Re-mission.

Culture built around the game

In an effort to embed the game inside a larger culture, there is a supporting website with information about cancer and a large amount of user-created content. Sections of the website featuring user-created content include:

• What’s up doc? – a space where kids with cancer can have their questions answered by professional medical staff
• Top 10 lists created by members  - top 10 lists are compiled after kids with cancer share their responses to a variety of stimulus questions like “When you visited the hospital, what are some nice things the hospital staff did for you or other patients?” and “What foods made / make you nauseous during treatment?”
• Art & Poetry  - below is a sample art piece

  user-created art work sample from the re-mission website

This community to share user-generated content was an excellent addition to the game although it looks like it is no longer being maintained. The most recent entry in the Art & Poetry section was Feb 2008. The community section of the site looks as though it was be fairly carefully moderated – which can stifle creativity but given the age group the game is aimed at and the sensitivity of the subject matter – this was probably both wise and necessary.

Likes and dislikes summary

References and Links

Kato, P.M., Cole, S., Bradlyn, A.S., Pollock & B.H. 2008. “A Video Game Improves Behavioral Outcomes in Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: A Randomized Trial” in Pediatrics 122 (2): e305. (2008)
Accessed from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/122/2/e305 on 1/9/2009

Straylor. 2009. Re-Mission – A video game for kids fighting cancer (youtube video).
Accessed from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBfKo3FsC-Q on 1/9/2009

Hopelab. 2009. Re-Mission: a game for young people with cancer (website)
Accessed from www.re-mission.net on 1/9/2009

Image Attributes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musigny/148258023/ (used under Creative Commons Licensing)

http://www.re-mission.net/site/community/ap.php?sid=61&id=2 (Used for review purposes. If you are the copyright holder of this image and wish it to be removed, please add a comment to this blog entry.)