Creating an Educational Video Game

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Creating an Educational Video Game

In the gaming world, there are many different types of games: sandbox, shooters, puzzle, RPG, platform and many more. One thing that is not seen is educational games; they are there but are in the few. Many factors are the cause for the scarce amount of these games. They need to be educational in a certain field; corresponding with math, reading or science. Therefore, they need to be fun to encourage players to continue playing the game as well as to retain its teachings. Gamers today will mainly play games to have fun; thats why people today will rarely pickup educational genre because with the stigma that comes with those games as being boring or simple. This is about creating an educational program that can benefit students of all ages by increasing their literacy skills, teaching them grammar, improve word comprehension, and allow them to learn in a custom environment as desired by the player.

The first step in building a game is to select the desired game engine. The process for choosing the game engine is a precarious one; they can make either a wide range of game types or a single type of game. These engines also use different types of code as well; therefore, picking one with familiar code is of the utmost importance. Game engines can be either free or have a high price. Take the Unity game engine for example, “The free version is all you’ll need as a beginner, and its fine to use commercially as long as its profit is less than one hundred thousand dollars a year. The Pro version is for pathfinding, physics, graphics and greater special effects, it also has no royalties for either version” (Francis 2). It is Important to chose one that fits the game type and budget. It is essential to r...

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... This game will have taught students to increase their knowledge of literacy and allow them to experience it in a custom environment that will keep them entertained for hours of learning and excitement.

Works Cited

Plass, Jan L. Educational Video Games Boost Motivation to Learn. New York, New York

University. August 1, 2013. Print.

Brummit-Yale, Joelle. Effective Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary. K12reader.com, n.d.

Web. 4 April 2014.

Gee, James P. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. New

York: Palgrave/ Macmillan, 2003. studentweb.niv.edu Web. April, 2014.

Closs, Ellen K. Teaching Reading Comprehension to Struggling and At Risk Readers.

Columbus Ohio: Pearson, 22 September 2004. Print.

Francis, Tom. The Indies Guide to Game Making, Beauford Court, England. August, 2014. Print.

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