It’s that time of the year again, late night cramming – I mean study – sessions with sleep deprived classmates desperately clutching their Venti, double shot, caramel latte in the vain hope that if they stay awake an extra three hours they will perform better on their next final. More importantly, however, it’s also the end of another exciting semester with the iPhone research team. Boy, what a semester this has been. I came into the semester with a good chunk of my game done due to work I had done over the summer but after the second week I just wasn’t feeling it. So I decided to abandon all the work I had done and started over on a different game idea, much to the horror of my research advisor Professor Polack. But looking back now, I believe it was worth it.
The overall theme of my game has always been Ancient Egypt; however the story and structure of it changed after that decision on week two. The concept of my game is that you start out as one of the lowest rungs on the Ancient Egyptian social ladder, a pyramid builder, and your goal is work your way up to become the Pharaoh. You do this by completing the mini-game associated with your current social standing. In total there are four mini-games for each of the four social rankings you must achieve; pyramid builder, craftsman, scribe, and priest. However there are two modes you can play in: story mode and arcade mode. In story mode there is narration as you progressively play through each mini-game to become the Pharaoh. In arcade mode there is no narration but you can pick and choose which mini-game you want to play.
At this point all of the logic and most of the art is completed for each mini-game. Due to the nature of the craftsman and priest mini-games, adding more art would equate to adding more content, which is what I intend on doing. As a matter of fact, most of the art is done in general. The last major art addition that needs to be added is the ending screen after you win. After that the next big addition will be the audio. I begged my friend with the golden voice, Damian Allen, to do the narration and – after promising to name my first born after him – he has kindly agreed. After that the only other audio that will be added are sound effects for pressing buttons and other gameplay mechanics. Finally, once some minor bugs in the software have been squished, this game will be ready for release.
The Kingdom of Mali. The questions are based off of the material 2nd grade students need to know for the Virginia SOL.
The game is centered on following the path of a Griot prepping the way for the Great Haj. The path of the Haj will involve visiting several historic and archetypical locations, such as a Salt Mine, River Outpost, the city of Timbuktu and the city of Djenne. At each stop, the player will complete trivia challenges and games in order to expand their knowledge of Mali. The games includes multiple choice questions and unscrabmling pictures . Each game include ideas and facts about the history of Mali, and will include voice overs and written text explanations. The player will be able to choose from a flexible path of seven different locations, creating a game that can be replayed in order to gain more knowledge. There will be more questions and concepts in the game than can be covered in a single trip, so replay will be heavily encouraged. The purpose of this game is to entertain and promote the knowledge of ancient Mali history.
Do educational games really work? The S.M.A.R.T. research group (Student Made Applications and Researching Technology) at UMW are trying to answer that question by developing and analyzing the effect of educational iPhone applications on elementary school students. Applications created by S.M.A.R.T. have been requested specifically from educators across the nation. Most of the applications thus far have been focused on specific math and literacy topics covered by the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. However it was recently requested of the research group to create educational history applications; as a result, games about Mali and ancient Egypt are currently in development.
People asked for it and now it is time to play. Download onto you iPhone/iTouch/iPad
Investigation Math is a fun fill apple collecting addition game by Jeff McElhannon and Jennifer Polack-Wahl. The app guides the uses through addition problems using two and three digit numbers. As the worm comes out of the apple you know you are making your way to the right answer. If the worm stays in the apple and the apple rots “uh-oh” you are making some mistakes. Great for 2nd and 3rd graders learning to add multi-digit numbers. Watch as the apples roll across the screen while learning to break your numbers down by parts.
Investigation Addition is based on The “Investigations “Method developed at TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The “Investigations” method is designed to help all children understand fundamental ideas of number and operations.
Investigations addition uses the strategy of breaking the individual numbers down to hundreds, tens and ones and then adding the hundreds, tens and ones for each number.
For example:
Adding hundreds, tens and ones
214 + 432
Where do I live is even more fun and provides more educational material during the gameplay. Improved to given a better educational experience. Fun and Free.
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We will update you as soon as it is released!
Tic-Tac-Spell has been published. Congratulations Dustin! However, we found two bugs after publication and will be fixing them within the week. Currently it does not tell the student what the correct spelling if a student spells the word incorrect.
In addition, to the update we are already working on adding word families to the spelling game and this will be release by July 2011. We will be using the word families at Enchanted Learning.
What do you think?
Clam Match has been approved. Download on iTunes. Congratulations, what do you think?
Tic-Tac-Spell was submitted today. The app was created by Dustin Lieske, UMW Computer Science graduate 2011 and artwork by Chelsea Mageland (UMW Junior).
Tic-Tac-Spell takes the classic game children love to play and adds a spelling twist to help children learn how to spell, all for free. In Tic-Tac-Spell kids learn to spell words from the Dolch Word List. The Dolch word list is a list of commonly used English words which children need to recognize in order to achieve reading fluency.
Tic-Tac-Spell allows people to play against the computer. Moves by the computer are randomized to ensure that the game will not keep making the same moves over and over again. In addition, words are randomly asked, so each game is unique. Tic-Tac-Spell uses over 60 words from the pre-primer, primer, kindergarten and first grade Dolch list.
Currently the game is suited for preschooler, kindergarteners and first graders. It is fun to play and you learn along the way.
How to Play
Free and Fun.
Help me, I lost all of my clams! Each clam starts closed and if you touch the clam then it will reveal its letter. Each clam contains either an uppercase letter or a lowercase letter. You will only be able to open 2 clams at a time. If you match the uppercase letter with its lowercase letter then the clams will disappear and you will have a match! If the letters are not a match, then the clams will close shut. If you match all ten correctly, then you win!
Game Created by Bryan Keelon, graduating senior.
If you haven’t heard about our downloads and latest app read the previous post. However, I have exciting news to share with everyone about our newest and hopefully published soon apps.
We need some help, please!
As always if you know of anyone needing an app for specific purposes we are open to any and all ideas.
