I think I was in the fourth grade when I played my first Kahoot. Even though it might have not been on any of the most rigorous of subjects, I could tell at the time that this technology was going to change the course of my education. The Kahoots turned into Quizlet Matches, which turned into Quizizz, and then Gimkits and Blookets. AAnd at some point in this process I turned to myself and asked, am I still learning? We went from a pretty straightforward multiple choice game to a whole system of answering questions to open boxes of treasure, all the while hoping to gain the ability to steal all of your friends gold right as the timer runs out to win the game. The person who wins should need higher than 30% accuracy on multiple choice questions that repeat themselves. I’m not saying it’s not fun. It is. I am, however, saying that at some point we crossed the line between educational games and just games. What I want to know is where that line is. 

I do think games as simple as Kahoot or Quizlet are more educational than not, decently on the educational side of the line, so there is room to go in both directions to find the optimal learning game. As part of this search, this semester I’ve been working on an independent study in Educational Software, where I’m attempting to develop my own educational games. 

The first game I’m working on is called PQWS. The main goal of this game is to incorporate the player’s location into the playing of the game. You can think of it as a sort of scavenger hunt. Players get questions or challenges based on their location in respect to a certain gamemode or real world location. The game is played by moving around the playing area which can be as small as the field or as big as the city.

Teachers are able to set where they want the locations to be as well as upload the challenges/questions they want their students to play through. So far I’ve developed two game modes: Capture the Flag and Hallway Dash. Capture the Flag is pretty self explanatory. Players compete in two teams and try to capture the other team’s flag by competing in a head to head penalty shootout style challenge. Hallway Dash is a gamemode that has players run to one of the four hallways depending on their answer to a multiple choice question. With PQWS, the goal is to add in the additional fun and educational element together through physical movement.

Another approach to modern educational games is using AI. AI has the potential to change the game/questions as it progresses to adjust to the players skill and potentially provide catch up mechanics that could keep more players in the game for longer, which increases overall enjoyment of the game. AI could also be used for generating new content to avoid repeating questions and make the game more interesting.

These are just two ways that educational games could grow moving forward. There are plenty of other possibilities to make them fun while still grasping onto the fundamentals of an educational tool.