Yeah, that’s kind of my point? We understand memes and online humour because we have the context to. If you have to try and understand something (in this example, children’s cartoons), chances are you’re going to look ignorant to anyone you’re trying to impress i.e. the player.
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That’s not entirely true. As a kid, I saw my brothers preparing for their exams, so then I started using their textbooks to impress my parents - the end result? Reasonably happy parents and a satisfied child that learnt something.
EDIT: Just noticed you said something about this later on, my bad. Personally, never felt school was a chore.
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I discovered a love for algebra after watching my older sister doing some online homework, and deciding to give it a crack myself
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You actually need to know what school, high school etc educating formats and types are to make this, I’d recommend you get a job at one of them and try copy the formats and types into a educational game, this isn’t all about school though. You need to know how to use a game to educate and teach.
Lmao, I’m not going to get a job at a school just for a roblox game. Good try though.
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This is really bad advice - no kid comes home from school and logs onto Roblox wanting to do more of it.
And yeah, getting a job as a teacher is waaaayyyy excessive for this. Maybe interviewing one that you respect and learn well from could help though?
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I said it wasn’t all about school, you also need to know how to script, build and design, get the UI’s and text right for the educational game and know how to properly execute it in a way that will actually get kids to play and get educated and learnt.
that’s what this topic is all about.
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He’s asking about educational games in specific, this is just generic advice for people learning to make games
Including other stuff that will make it actually able to educate kids and get them taught.
I’m in the lower bracket of that and I can honestly with 100% say this:
- I encountered memes in real life before on the internet - majority of the time never on the internet
- Learning what a meme meant was always me asking someone, I’d never understand it otherwise, like why would some like stretching your arms horizontally exert dominance?
Don’t attempt to replicate the feel that people have from watching videos, everyone has their different reasons. Take your example of Spongebob, while yes, it does incorporate lots of humour, sometimes (don’t remember it well enough to say often) slapstick humour. However, it does have other elements, you could say it has some elements of romance, martial arts, fantasy (talking sponges) and even (very minuscule, I’m aware this is the very border of borders because it doesn’t include death, but it’s the best word for it), tragedy, in the case of Squidward (however his name is spelt) having to put up with Spongebob. Heck, it even has parts that are heavily musical.
If you try to incorporate all that, you’ll run into lots of problems.
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Making an educational game is not the same thing as teaching - the goal isn’t to get them to pass some test, it’s to inspire them and fuel their love for learning.
It’s to make them feel a little joy and wonder, and look to find out more
I do agree that spongebob isn’t the best idea, but every other show would be the same thing, many episodes all exert diffrent emotions to the viewer, so what should I do in this case?
Stop trying to “learn” what kids like, and just create a solid game.
The only way you’ll succeed in “learning” what children are like is by being around them - if you really want to do this, volunteer to help in clubs where your target age group participate.
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You don’t really see many educational games around so this could work in your favour. If you want it to get popular you will need some uniqueness about it that players will keep wanting to come back and see. Also you want to make the game to be enjoyable for ‘kids’.
If you want to make the educational aspect tie in with a fun aspect in your game then why don’t you actually make it so the players feel like they are in the exhibit. Lets say you have an exhibit with dinosaurs then players should be able to actually travel to that time period. Then if you have an exhibit about space then the player should be able to travel to space and fell like they are apart of the mission being explained about.
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These are some really good suggestions, and would help you lean into the interactive medium of video games.
So I refrained from posting this since I noticed it was briefly mentioned by plasmascreen, but since I’ve made two other posts on this thread that isn’t solely related to your topic, I guess I’ll expand on it.
Everyone loves a reward, don’t they? I don’t know about you, but I sure do! Acknowledging a player’s effort by giving rewards would be a good idea as it gives them both a sense of satisfaction (they’ve gotten something), a sense of achievement (they’ve learnt something) and a method to brag to their friends!
Adding something like medallions that are publicly visible to everyone on the server to show how well people are doing on your game would support the above, then adding something like a currency that people gain through little minigames and parkours, etc (possibly even an optional tour around the map? I know that Cadbury World gives those who go around the site free chocolate), then allowing them to spend said currency in a store for things that they might find fun, from catalog gears (allowing them to experience what they might not be able to afford) from your own custom perks! If you really wanted to profit off it, you could also add a way for people to purchase them, but I wouldn’t advise this in the sense of gameplay, as it would discourage people to play and learn and encourage them to just spend money.
You could add medallions or badges (or anything else) for every area, with a way to view your current ones and how many you have missing, whilst currency could be given for completing minor things in an area and the actual reward once they complete the entire section. Other players could be able to view what you have and don’t have via a custom player list where you click their username or profile picture to bring up the respective UIs. A possible restriction to certain areas that you can’t access until your complete a prior area, and having to utilise what you’ve learned previously to complete that area will help add to their sense of achievement (they’re able to apply what they’ve learnt, they’ve earned something new) and, personally, as a player in those kind of settings, I’d strive to have every single thing available (that’s free), which in this scenario would be to unlock all the areas, thus promoting people to actually play the parts of your game and learn from them, allowing them to go back and revise what they’ve learnt later on as well, in case they’re unable to apply their knowledge. Adding things like hints would be a good idea so that they don’t just get stuck the moment they run into a stump that they can’t get past. There are lots of things you could do and add to improve the gameplay and player’s immersion into your game, from Camera Cutscenes to dialogue (not monologue, let the players reply! That’ll make them feel more involved in your game).
Hope this helps. 
EDIT: As a person, I love to read. This is mainly due to the fact that I’m able to envision scenes that wouldn’t normally be applicable in this world, or to me at least. From flying through the sky in fantasy settings, to even the most cliché of romance novels. You could try and incorporate things like that - referencing books in some way, whether within your game (your own books) or outside of your game (books written by authors) could also promote reading, for example one of the previous egg hunts, which was based in a library.
Extensive monologue or dialogue between NPCs will often bore your younger audience, which is where allowing your own players to be able to “converse” (through fixed choices) to your NPCs would make it feel less dull, with maybe something abrupt happening between dialogues, causing you to go into an event? Maybe even make it so it’s like a “pick your path” kind of book, where rather than one correct path, you can have your choices impact (whether largely or not) your experience within the game, such as having a solo boss battle vs gaining an ally to fight the boss, which would promote people to think more about their decisions in life and not act so whimsically.
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I am not reading through all the other posts so I don’t know if this has been told yet. Do a night at the museum kinda game. In the day they could learn and at night interact all the things. Although this could be difficult scripting side. Just an idea.
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Could you elaborate please? I don’t understand.
what movie? And I understand what your trying to say.