Understanding and Creating Educational Games
By
ChicMic Studios
February 21, 2024
As technology intertwines into our daily lives, it is also quickly changing our educational system. Today, educational games have become a potent method to engage and teach young learners worldwide. These games create a healthy environment for children to enjoy, learn, and develop their skills through interactive learning. Thus, there is a growing demand for better educational game development that can revolutionize the current educational system worldwide. Join ChicMic, and let’s learn more about educational games and how to make them fun and engaging.
Understanding educational games
Simply put, educational games are particular games designed with the sole intention of teaching or educating the audience on a specific subject or skill. These games are intended for students of all age groups and are used in classrooms or outside.
Benefits of educational games
Besides educational games being fun and engaging, they also offer several benefits. Here are some of them
Developing soft skills
While the current curriculum in schools focuses on language skills and STEM, there is a shifting focus on developing soft skills in children. Educational games help effectively build a child’s creative problem-solving, leadership, critical thinking, and collaborative skills.
Adaptive learning
Adaptive learning uses AI to create a personalized learning environment around the students. It gauges the student’s learning curve to increase or decrease the difficulty level according to the player’s needs.
Real-time feedback
While traditional tests provide results at the end of the course, educational games ensure robust learning throughout the journey. It instills the habit of learning from mistakes and helps boost a student’s self-esteem through positive reinforcement.
Better engagement
Educational games aim to achieve high student engagement through their design and layout. And this engagement increases even further when students enjoy learning.
Exploring Educational Game Design
Exploring educational game design can be a fascinating journey that merges the principles of practical learning with engaging gameplay. Here are some critical steps and considerations to keep in mind when designing educational games:
- Identify Learning Objectives: Clearly define the educational goals and objectives you want to achieve with your game. What skills or knowledge do you want players to acquire or reinforce? Understanding your learning objectives will guide the design process.
- Know Your Audience: Consider your target audience’s age group, interests, and educational level. Design the game mechanics, content, and aesthetics to be appealing and appropriate for your audience.
- Game Mechanics and Engagement: Integrate educational content seamlessly into engaging gameplay. Use game mechanics such as challenges, rewards, levels, and progression systems to motivate and keep players engaged.
- Balance Between Fun and Learning: Strive for a balance between entertainment value and educational content. The game should be enjoyable to play while also providing meaningful learning experiences.
- Active Learning: Design interactive elements that require players to apply knowledge, solve problems, make decisions, and explore concepts within the game environment.
- Feedback and Progression: Provide timely and constructive feedback to players to help them understand their progress and learn from their mistakes. Incorporate feedback mechanisms that support continuous learning and improvement.
- Accessibility and Inclusivity: Ensure your game is accessible to players with diverse backgrounds, abilities, and learning styles. Design features that accommodate different preferences and provide options for customization and adaptation.
- Alignment with Curriculum Standards: If your educational game is intended for use in schools or formal learning settings, ensure it aligns with relevant curriculum standards and learning objectives.
- Iterative Design Process: Take an iterative approach to game design, incorporating feedback from playtesting and user testing to refine and improve the game experience over time.
- Resources and Technology: Consider the resources and technology available for developing and distributing your educational game. Choose platforms and technologies that best suit your goals and target audience.
- Ethical Considerations: Be mindful of ethical considerations related to data privacy, in-game purchases, advertising, and content appropriateness. These factors are vital, especially when designing games for children or in educational settings.
How do we create educational games?
Let’s look into the educational game development phase and what goes on behind the scenes.
An idea:
As an educational game developer, you need a game that engages and entices a child. Your game idea will also depend on the age group of children you’re targeting. As part of your research, look into the best educational games and apps for children in the app store. It will show you how to build a game that grabs a child’s interest and does not lose it.
Choose a Game Platform:
You must determine the platform(s) on which your game will be available. Options include mobile devices (iOS, Android), desktop computers, web browsers, or dedicated gaming consoles. Besides, consider the target audience and their preferred platforms for gaming.
Balance Challenge and Fun:
As a developer building a game for children, you must balance educational content and engaging gameplay. You must ensure that the game offers appropriate levels of challenge to keep players motivated and interested.
UI/UX:
Kids are visual creatures and run toward bright, colorful, shiny objects. You must work on a visually attractive app design with fewer buttons and icons and more actions. Apart from these, you should also include pictures and sound cues that create an engaging environment.
Development phase:
You can start the development phase and work on your educational game. Or you can hire a team like ChicMic to build an engaging game and release it on the app store. Our team has a decade’s worth of experience in game development and can confidently assist you in your project.
Testing:
Testing is a critical phase of the education game development, and you must check for bugs and other discrepancies.
Concluding note
Educational game development is entirely a child’s play. As a game developer, you must consider the above factors and spend ample time in research to determine the right game subject. Educational games hold a significant promise if done correctly, and with the right marketing strategy, they can bring in enormous profits for the creators.
