Game Title: Passports 7 2016

Game Genre: Simulation/educational

Target Audience: First grade students, and all grade levels learning about
cultural differences.

Subject Area: Social Studies

Topics Covered:

1. The names of the 7 continents

2. The locations of the continents on a map

3. The cultures of each continent (food, money, clothing, ethnic groups, and
weather)

Learning Objectives/Standards Addressed: SS1G3 Locate major

topographical features of the earths surface.
a. Locate all of the continents: North America, South America, Africa, Europe,
Asia, Antarctica, and Australia.

Goals The goal of the virtual world game is to teach students the location and
cultures of parts of the 7 continents.

Rules: Players must interact with their simulated surroundings to and take a quiz
in order to travel to the next continent.

Storyline: After creating personally designed avatars, players will enter a

simulated environment that resembles real life. Players will begin by taking a
picture (snapshot of their avatars face) and pack for the vacation of a lifetime.
After packing players will be whisked off to the airport to visit their first continent.
Two major countries will be visited in each continent. During the airplane ride
players will view an introductory video that discusses the names of the 7
continents and where they are located on a map and globe. During each visit
players will have their passports stamped after completing a short quiz about the
continent visited. While visiting each continent students will interact with the
locals by experiencing different foods, money, ethnic groups, clothing, and
climate. There will be a tour guide at each airport stop.

Characters/Roles: The main character will be the player (avatar), the tour guide,
and friends that the player makes in each country.
 Problems/Tasks/Missions: Players must collect at least 3 artifacts from each
country. The level will not end until all 3 artifacts are chosen and the quiz has
been completed.

Descriptions of 3D Environments
Overall description (visual)
Realistic objects, colors, and environments.

Characters or NPC
Characters will be real-life

Game mechanics (actions)

Use the arrows to move around, space bar to grab, eat, and interact
with surroundings. The mouse will be used to answer questions and
collect items.

In-world tools/resources
The tour guide will be there to explain each destination and features.
Everything will be said aloud and written in speech bubbles. Locals
and friends will speak with the accent of origin.

Challenges or obstacles
Players must pass the cultural quiz at the end of each trip. A quiz of
continent location will be given at the end of the game.
Interactions and communication
Interactions and communication will be done face-to-face and
through speech bubbles and said aloud. To respond to where they
would like to go student can click a response. The computer will
read each response when students hover over the speech bubble.
Sounds
Background cultural music will play depending on the continent and
country of origin visited on the continent. Movement sounds and
voices will be included.

Levels and Progression: 7 progressive levels.

Number of Players Single player

Estimated Length of Gameplay: 5.15 hours. Each travel destination takes

about 45 minutes to explore. This gameplay is expected to last at two weeks
during instruction. The ideal utilization of the game would be after an introduction
to a continent then have students complete level 1 of that continent, then discuss
what was learned.
 Cognitive Processes Required for Gameplay
Remembering
Yes, players must remember details from the cultures of each continent.

Understanding
Yes, players must understand the differences in the world around them.
Players must understand the tasks and directions given to them in the
game. The game is moistly computer led to suit the virtual needs of
younger children.

Analyzing
Yes, players will be able to analyze the artifacts that they are collecting
from each continent and why they are important.

Skills Required for Gameplay

Decision making
Players can decide where to go in the various towns to find certain artifacts. For
example if you must collect a piece of clothing as an artifact players must know that
they will need to stop by a market or clothing store.

Creativity
Imagination is key when playing games. Players must imagine themselves being
engulfed with the virtual environment as if they are actually there.

Communication
Players must have language-sense to understand the conversations in the game.

Psychomotor skills
Players must understand that the up arrow on the keyboard movers forward, left
arrow move left, right arrow moves right, and that the down arrow turns the avatar
around.

Content Integration
This game requires prior knowledge.
Yes

This game teaches academic content.

Yes

Content integration strategies and rationale:

Content is integrated throughout the game. Content is integrated in each level by
displaying the continent on a map in the corner at all times, revealing informative
information about the continent through simulation virtual gameplay. For example the
tour guide or a new buddy that the player met might ask the player (calling him/her by
name) if they would like to go grab a bit to eat. Once at the restaurant they will view a
picture menu with pictures of different types of cultural meals.

Engagement Strategies: real-life scenarios while traveling will keep players

engaged, as well as new experiences of interacting with people from other
cultures, seeing the types of food they eat, clothing that they wear, music that
they listen to, the money that they use to purchase items, and even boarding a
plane and finding a seat. Many students never get these experiences in real-life.
The fact that the game will use and say players name (as phonetically correct as
possible depending on the spelling of the name) is also a great attribute.

Scaffolding Strategies Just in-time support: Explanations of objects and

artifacts in the virtual countries and review videos on the plane ride to each
continent.

Assessment Strategies The assessments will be given in at the end of each

level in order for the player to load the plane to travel to the next destination spot.

Major Purpose of the Game Integration: This game will be mainly used as
a
Motivation tool
Yes. I believe students are more motivated when participating in learning games.

Instructional tool
Yes, this game is aa great instructional tool for learning about the 7 continents and
cultures around the world.

Formative assessment
Yes. If students do not pass the mini assessment at the end of each level, they cannot
progress forward.

Implementation Plan Implementation would begin when I begin the unit on

continents and maps. Letting students know that they will be traveling the world,
meeting new people, seeing different styles of food and clothing would get them
excited for the game. On the first day of the unit I would discuss the 7 continents
and show them on a map and ask students to identify our continent, country,
 state, and city. After discussing our personal continent I would begin by
discussing the first continent that students would journey to in their virtual game.
The rules and gameplay movement actions would be explained to the students.
After playing level 1 we will come together as a class to sum up their experiences
the next day. Then begin level 2.

Perceived Barriers & Support Needs Barriers would be an insufficient number

of computers for students to all play at the same time during class. Another
barrier might be for those students who do not comprehend well. For support I
would scaffold those students constantly so that would not get lost in the game. If
1 or 2 students are not able to use the computer alone (severely PEC) we may
complete a group travel experience where they work with me and I explain the
information to them while we work together to make game decisions and
complete the mini quizzes.

Reflection: This assignment was interesting. Creating an educational virtual

reality game was engaging and thought pro-evoking. I had to think of most of the
gaming characteristics that I would like to include in my game. I would actually
like to create virtual world games for students and teachers to explore in class.
3D game-based learning environments are ideal for students. Students let alone
adults rarely are able to experience world-wide travel. But with the creation of
virtual world gaming the sky is the limit.