Adventure Game 1: Path-Based
The character moves through a world or along a path. As the character moves along, she will come across situations or other characters that make her complete a task, problem, or puzzle before they can move forward. For our purposes, the character’s path will be straight (there are no branches or forks in the road).
Example Path-Based Adventure Game: Super Mario Brothers
Mario moves through a world along paths on the world map. At each yellow dot, Mario must complete a task in the game in order to move forward.
Educational Objective:
The user learns about the educational topic through each task she must complete.
Player’s Objective, Scoring, and Winning:
The player’s objective is to make it to the end of the road/path/world, and wins when she reaches it.
There is no scoring, since the player must complete each task successfully to move forward.
If the player does not complete each task successfully, the game may allow the player to try again or may send the player back to the beginning of the game.
Objects and Characters:
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Main character: Responds to user controls. Moves along the path and does tasks as they come up.
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Task-related objects: Depending on the task given, you may need additional characters or objects.
Media Requirements:
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Instructions screen
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Winning screen
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World map background image for moving along the path
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Image for task stops along the path
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Instructions screen and background image for each task
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Object images for each task
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Main character image
Game Activities:
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Moving along the path: the user controls the main character to move along the path. The character moves from task to task.
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Completing a task: Depending on the task, the user must control the main character in some way to complete it. A task could be matching pictures or words, answering a question, etc.
Controls:
The user moves the main character around the world map by using keys:
| Key | Action |
| right or left arrow | if the character is on the world map, the character moves left or right on the world map to the next task stop if the previous task stop has been completed successfully |
| Return/Enter | if the character is on a task stop on the world map, the character starts the task |
How to personalize your game and incorporate your educational topic:
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Decide the kind of world that the player is moving through using your educational topic as a theme. It could be a forest, a highway, a solar system, etc. Use the same theme for what the task stops will look like. They could be trees, gas stations, planets, etc.
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Choose the main character for the game.
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Decide what each task will be. What do you want the player to learn from completing a task? How will they complete this task? Make the task simple, so you know you can code it and the player can complete it.

