Assignment 1
This is an individual assignment.
This assignment is marked out of 25 points, and it's worth 10% of your course.
Due Date
2:00pm September 21, 2017.
Part 1: Comparison of Existing Educational Games (18 points)
Search on the Google Playstore or the iOS App store for 3 games that teach the
same concept as your game (which you will explain in Part 2).
Ideally, you will want to find games that teach the same concept, or a concept
as closely related to yours as possible.
Since you will be building a mobile app in this course, it is best you stick
with other mobile games for comparison purposes (rather than searching for
desktop apps).
Once you have this, document what the names of the games are, who developed
them, when they were released, and the link to download them.
Next, familiarize yourselves with these games you found. Once you have a good
sense of how these are played, provide a description of each game in the
report. Include screenshots as appropriate so you can illustrate what's good
and bad about each game. Make sure you clearly explain the user's task in the
game and what the user needs to do to win.
Then, evaluate their pros and cons from a user interface (UI) design
perspective and also from a pedagogical perspective. To do this effectively,
you must be familiar with each UI and pedagogical feature of the games. See
report template for details.
Part 2: Game Concept Proposal (7 points)
Given a (small) sample of related games, write down your game concept. Include
the following in your description. Expected length: 0.5 page.
- What specific concept does your game teach?
- How does your game let the user practice a concept?
- What is the general setting and storyboard behind your game?
- What is the user task? What does the user need to do to win the game?
-
How can your game incorporate level of difficulty?
Does your game provide hints?
Does your game involve interaction with other players?
What other features might you include in the game?
- What is unique about your game? What will make your game better than
the ones you've reviewed in Part 1? Be as specific as possible.
Keep in mind that mobile game sessions tend be short and frequent.
Evaluation Criteria
Use the template provided to complete your
assignment. The specific criteria for your submission is as follows:
- Part 1:
- Clear explanation of games (2 points each)
- A complete and reasonable rationale for the UI evaluation
(2 points each)
- A complete and reasonable rationale for the pedagogical evaluation
(2 points each)
- Part 2:
- Clear explanation of game concept (2 points)
- Explanation of game features (2 points)
- Rationale of game uniqueness (3 points)
What to Submit
Submit on Canvas:
- A PDF report based on the template given.