Thread: help with creating a possibly awesomely educational game

Hi all,
I have an idea for an educational game that might actually work (and not be lame like every other game in existance).

the basic concept of the game is that it will be addictive on the one hand, but will require you to learn things implicitly (meaning, without any demand for mental work, rehearsal, studying or anything like that) inorder to fulfill your addiction. if my dream is reallized, it might actually be the ultimate way to:

-learn a vocabulary of a new language (which ever)
- learn basic arithmatic (addition and multiplication foryoung kids, and complex roots and powers for us)
- learn perfect pitch hearing (the ability to recognize notes and chords just from hearing)

and there are probably some other possible applications that i haven't thought about yet.


the problem is, that while I have very basic programming knowledge, I don't have any experience, and this project might prove to be of some size.
secondly, i don't really have any money to pay for it. I mean, I have some, and can pay some, but not anything resembling a programmer salary.

do you guys know anyone with a basic profficiancy in game development who might be interested in hearing more about it?

Okay....wanna hear more. What kinda program design do you have in mind

Originally Posted by TheMindHumper

the problem is, that while I have very basic programming knowledge, I don't have any experience, and this project might prove to be of some size. secondly, i don't really have any money to pay for it. I mean, I have some, and can pay some, but not anything resembling a programmer salary.

We see these types of posts all the time. The solution of course is for you yourself to study Java and gain the necessary proficiency. There is no way this will get off the ground by any other way. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Chibie

Okay....wanna hear more. What kinda program design do you have in mind

first of all, thanks for the reply

the basic Idea is a simple spaceship shooting game. and there are many ways in which to make those more and more addictive (by making coins and boosters come out of the beaten spaceships, adding varying wepons, awesomer foes etc.). now, inorder to shoot a space ship, at the beginning at least, you have to press a spesific key.

let's say I don't know any english (and the game is aimed to include 4 YO, and maybe less). a spaceship arrives with the letter 'L' on it, which means that only th L key will fire your wepon. this means that you now have to evade the firing of the enemy while pressing the L key frantically.
in addition, a few seconds before the 'L' appeared on the spaceship, a voice says the word "el", and if you manage to press the L key before it appeares, your shot come out as bigger rays, and do more damage. this should give you an incentive to listen to what the narrator says.

the next step (after you easily beat the crap out of one letter space ships), space ships start to appear with a small picture on them, and the narrator says, for example "dog", and a few second's afterwards the letters d' o' and g' appear on the spaceship. now, if you press the full combination, a missile will fire out of your spaceship (which will, of course, become bigger if you press the combination before the word appears.


now, this simple format, if you only make the basic format addictive enough, should help you learn, fairly quickly how to write and pronounce words in a foreign language. of course you have to make sure that the narrator isn't lame, and that the flow of the game doesn't feel educational, but i think this really has potential.

thoughts?

Originally Posted by TheMindHumper

thoughts?

This should be a great project with which you can learn more advanced Java programming. I think I speak for all in encouraging you to start this, and to come on back with your code and your questions if you get stuck.

Originally Posted by curmudgeon

This should be a great project with which you can learn more advanced Java programming. I think I speak for all in encouraging you to start this, and to come on back with your code and your questions if you get stuck.

I see what you're saying,
only it scares the living crap out of me, since I've only ever done basic programming in C, and even that was over 7 years ago..

I'll try and find something that would make me pick up the glove. anyways thanks, and if anyone does feel like jumping head first into something of this sort, I would love if you'd let me know

Most of us have our own projects that we're dealing with. The only successful collaborative projects that I've been familiar with have all been led by an expert programmer and are often hosted on one of the project hosting sites such as SourceForge or Assembla. So for this to succeed your best bet is to become that expert programmer, something that sounds daunting but hardly impossible. Good luck!

Originally Posted by TheMindHumper

first of all, thanks for the reply

the basic Idea is a simple spaceship shooting game. and there are many ways in which to make those more and more addictive (by making coins and boosters come out of the beaten spaceships, adding varying wepons, awesomer foes etc.). now, inorder to shoot a space ship, at the beginning at least, you have to press a spesific key.

let's say I don't know any english (and the game is aimed to include 4 YO, and maybe less). a spaceship arrives with the letter 'L' on it, which means that only th L key will fire your wepon. this means that you now have to evade the firing of the enemy while pressing the L key frantically.
in addition, a few seconds before the 'L' appeared on the spaceship, a voice says the word "el", and if you manage to press the L key before it appeares, your shot come out as bigger rays, and do more damage. this should give you an incentive to listen to what the narrator says.

the next step (after you easily beat the crap out of one letter space ships), space ships start to appear with a small picture on them, and the narrator says, for example "dog", and a few second's afterwards the letters d' o' and g' appear on the spaceship. now, if you press the full combination, a missile will fire out of your spaceship (which will, of course, become bigger if you press the combination before the word appears.


now, this simple format, if you only make the basic format addictive enough, should help you learn, fairly quickly how to write and pronounce words in a foreign language. of course you have to make sure that the narrator isn't lame, and that the flow of the game doesn't feel educational, but i think this really has potential.

thoughts?

This is a nice idea but as you've been told, learn Java with ur mind focused on game development and it'll become a reality. You can start with smaller game projects with your mind fixed on this bigger one. Goodluck