Learn to read in English, learn all English phonics with these series of educational games.
After a long break on educational game, we come back for this new exciting title. You will explore a A to Z phonics curriculum. The main objective is to understand all English phonics , and be able to read correctly in English using the correct sounds. the project guideline is to be different from the other apps that work with questions/ answers scenarios. We want manipulatives, experiment and learning scenarios, in which the kids can think ,explore and understand the phonics .
the third guideline is to be engaging and to be very attractive on graphics design. {DevLab}.
Our Story
We are currently looking for volunteers to record sounds with American and/or British pronunciation.
We can easily modify all sounds recording on version 1.206 and up. We are located in Belgium. // found, American voices now.
dev journal and pictures
the abc, the alphabet and phonics looks like baby staff, but it 's one of the most important stone of the phonics awareness.
Project guidelines:
For each activities , we follow guidelines :
- you need to have clear /simple game rules.
- all cards , games elements needs to be clearly explained before games.
- you need to learn something ( dah education , not shooting).
- minimalist design for Ui (yup kids).
- it needs to be a game.
- kids need to be able to interact, play with other players.
- excitement, competition with others in a friendly way.
-scoring
//
- or being a manipulative to explore , experiment a concept ( without questions / answers scenarios), a little bit like a science experiment( observe, analyze data, conclusion....)
- creative game where the player can create a scene with backgrounds, characters, using objects from the sound lesson, and create sentences, tell a story or write simple sentences. the goal is to be able to reuse the vocabulary in a creative way, using kids imagination. kids learn faster when they are creative, use imagination because they really like it and imagination is a powerful tool to help on the memorization process. This is also to create sentences because learning words with flashcards is not enough to be able to speak a language. kids needs to create meanings with sentences.
- you have the choice to play alone or with others players.
- high quality sounds and graphics
-vfx ,animation, 3d , only if the app is low MO, FPS.
-KEEP it SIMPLE.
For learning :
- phonics curriculum, organized and progressive.
- need of capital and small letters.
- mix reading words, practice phonics.
-illustrated stories or sentences with words learned.
- show phonics rules at some point.
- spelling activities to memorize sounds with letters/spelling.
- creative activity : story telling scenario with active choices from the player, .....to be able to reuse words learned and speak and create short sentences, or give inspiration to write a small text with the new vocabulary.
In other words, games activities are organized trough different steps :
-1.flashcards to start to learn the vocabulary and pronunciation and discover a sound to learn .
-2.memorization game with flashcards to help on the memorization
-3.spelling bee game to memorize the spelling , the words and the phonics together.
-4.manipulatives to play with words and meanings.
-5. creative play( scene, characters, objects from lesson) with the goal to create sentences with words learned , or doing a speaking activity or a creative writing.
6: multiples games to review and increase probabilities of long time learning/memorization of spelling, words and phonics.
Methodology :
For 20 minutes of game each week.
In the classroom, we use this approach to test the efficiency of the game. or improve parts of the game to make it more efficient over time.
- can you see a clear improvement on reading the words, using the correct sounds ?
- can the kids speak and use the words in simple sentences with correct pronunciation ?
- can the kids spell the words we learned ? ( what is the percent of errors ? )
- did they learned the phonics rule for different sounds? Can they explain the strategy to say this X word, or the different possible spelling for a sound ?
--all testing phase needs to be done with an observation, then a solution to improve the problem.
- spelling : 10 words to write .
- reading a book and look at overall improvement of decoding, say the correct sounds for the sounds we learned in the game ?
- speaking : can they say in the real life the word with correct pronunciation ?
(Below)
This is an example of creating social games. kids can play together cards' game. In education, social constructivism ( in others words , interaction with others ) , it's the idea that you learn more if you interact with other learners. Competition brings the other aspect : you need to go beyond your "safe zone" if you want to win.
Your learn more/faster when you are outside the safe zone and It brings the excitement.
Therefore , to be considered as a game, you need to have a win and loose situation.
short a ; sounds game/ instructions : learning phase.
spelling activities , memorize sounds with spelling . ( photography words)
manipulatives, games.
experiment, observe and learn. type of scenario.
intro design , color pastel, and reuse of graphics for optimization.
v1.118 2players writing game with buzzer ( undepreciated // too crazy ).
v1.119 short A sound, possibility to add more cards
v1.121 new icon app . Who could forget this cute little cat ? :)
v1.122 short o, short i
v1.123 each sound is a planet to explore in the phonics universe. // level design.
// move in the universe with simple touch gesture , limited spaces to explore in x,y,z.
short -u, -e
long -i, long-a
long-u sound (yoo) and (oo).
-long -e sound
manipulative -ot - short -o sound
v1.129 11 planets to explore
v1.130 à 1.140 almost the 11 planets finished, + manipulatives short e , in
improved template efficiency for manipulatives and writing
v1.141 short -u with sounds
v1.142 adding ug manipulative
v1.144 telling time// story game activity
v1.145 creative story game template :
the game is to create a story ( or a sentence) to speak or write in English and review the sound learned in the lesson (game).
with a cool music, you quickly find a sentence to speak or write in English . the game gives the boost needed to create and use the words they have learned in sentences. There is almost endless possibilities to create story.
below , it 's an example to review the short -o sound and create stories.
for advanced story telling , we can add more layers , so kids can create like different book pages to tell a story.
v1.147 improve graphics on game template, ui redesign , give depth , add vfx to game
v1.149/150 redesign writing game ,
1.151,152 analyze drops of fps due to particles and 3 d lights effects + animation components
testing creative stories + levels
v1.153 new features , you can also create songs in the creative game. Lots of kids love to sing and can remember a song for a long time. I tested it with my son and it is very fun to create a song with the words.
For example , my son naturally creates songs about things. it 's a natural way to learn and as we work on words with the same sounds, it 's a very good features to create songs with some rhymes and beats . ....
1.155 to 1.160 correct and polished 6 levels for publishing , add - long a manipualtives
v1.161 long o manipulatives
v1.62 long i manipulatives
1.164 adding board games template. tested with 6 years old , there is not enough games to memorize quickly 24 new words. Adding more games might help to remember ....
1.165 improved 3d graphics with dices and improved template model
v1.166 board games for 11 levels , fix bugs
v1.167 3 d card games that can flip , for graphics design improvement or future games.
v1.168 memory card game prototype , cards get instantiate at random places. if you find a pair , they disappear.
each new game will be different and you can hear the sound each time you click on the card and see the spelling.
2 players memory game, if you find a pair, you win a point .
1.169 adding sound alone and 3d cards with the spelling for the sound , works as a spotlight , to bring more attention to the spelling and practice the sound alone.
v1.170 to 1.180
making memory game template with 3d pieces and random, -easy to reuse template for all sounds.
all games will be different as cards change places on each game. So kids can replay the game over and over and get a different outcome.
- memory game for the first 11 sounds.
for education , we make the hypothesis that more different games kids use with the same content , more easily they can remember the words at long term. 6 games should be enough to remember if you play 10 minutes in a week. we will test with 6 years old , and see .
memory game drop 200fps, very good framerate, even if the code make it a bit costly with destroyed object. and 53 pass calls.
v1.1181 to 185
-remaster Longman game.
first , we observed that 8 years old kids learning English as second language can easily read and say the words with the correct pronunciation, but the spelling was still difficult .
the objective is to reinforce spelling trough a new exciting game.
one of the very popular game used for this is usually the classical Longman for languages courses.. we remaster the Longman game to make a new one, inspired by casa del Papel or other netflix blockbusters, so it's looks like more 21 st century. Also , i was inspired by my son playing a game on roblox, where he needs to find the password. He needed to remember some spanish words in sequence to finally type the password. he loves this game.
- vault animation
- recognition of letters on virtual input.
- easy template so game can be reused for different sounds, then easy to edit.
-can be played with 2 players
- random so games change all the time.
v1.186, fix memory bugs for memory cards as flipping was put at 1 fps, (super faster on computer but slow on phone ( dah), and polishing game.
very happy about this last game, as i got involved a bit more on the code, as i had no idea how to code <char> list, in a smart way on virtual keyboard.
to win the game as i don't know the answer (awesome), i cheat with the sound template( vocabularies flashcards), looking at the words and i count letters of each word, to find the correct one and narrow the possibilities. i am expecting the kids finding the same strategies, and i think even more it 's a perfect game for spelling visualization.
1.187 recording sounds
- store listing improvement, time to get more feedbacks
v1.187 more depth to manipulatives as the activity is too much straight forward, and not enough critical thinking. kids could search a maximum number of words with meanings will be more interesting.
v1.188 making the manipulatives more challenging, more possibilities, more thinking. Problems of too much colors with different cars. -important to test all possibilities as you could get not appropriate words as outcome.
1.189 creating word game template
- same output, making spelling the fun superstar.
1.190 working word game v1.191 278 fps/s with effects.
1.192 design 3d models for games
1.196
word game added, emphasize spelling.
- leveling system to reward working on spelling and so kids can find satisfaction to work and progress on spelling.
the level up system was inspired by the joke or proverb : " I don't get older, I level up." :)
- for 6 years old, it 's great to use capital upper letter so they practice to recognize the upper letters too.
v1.197 word search, last game of this app
prototype working, 283 fps
1.198 to 1.199
wordsearch with unique random so the game looks always fresh and new.
3d grahics : chest reward system
1.199 cards to collect, working + overall design
1.200 3d animation planning
1.201 logic for cards legendary, epic and rare.
1.206 making all flashcards 3d for better visual.
1.207 to 1.209
grid planning and animation, redesign for faster production.
- as it is now possible to add more levels with this method, as before it was not scalable to 50 phonics sounds.
1.211
prototype
game with cursive letters and rotating cube and the super cool magic box .
test of higher quality graphics but it will run at the minimum limit on mobile (334k for tri) and 174 k for geometry,...ggg around 219 fps on computer so 20 frames on low phone.
selected version of magic cube. Impossible to don't want to learn with this.
The super cool idea came from my son who wanted that kinder surprise came out of the magic box. So at random time, legendary cards and items will come off the magic box and rewards the player of his effort . :)
creating normal map as they don't use more devices' power to render,... a trick to optimize 3d
1.214 no
character research with different skins for future endless runner
1.215 //216
character controller with no rigidbodies and physics , as i think it 's the biggest performance problem on this kind of game, and it gives a super smooth responsive character. 350 fps as now lol :)
,and making 3d props , planning special effects....
1.217 old , no
it's gonna be the most interesting, promising game prototype, as it is the first that looks like a real game , with educational content incorporated as type quiz in an infinite random loop, but with real game mechanic....
kids are not dupe and can easily recognize educational game and real game, but there the frontier between the two genres almost disappear, or combine....
1.218 no
modeling, modeling hand drawn model, super cute.
1.219 no
possibility to add cinematic into games as we have enough 3d to make cutscene ....( maybe if time).
1.221 adding American voices USA and making new levels. yes
1.239
new rewards system for future game:
prototype for an advanced rewards system using probabilities, advanced listing system based on type of rewards, super flexible and highly expandable with data system, for collecting cards for a cards game for example.
1.240
prototype battle card game
the main problem of educational game is that it 's very quickly boring so this game tries to bring a solution to that problem.
Main goal was to make a game that will be as much fun as educational. it should be in the perfect balance and reinforced with an exciting rewards system.
1.241
fully playable. basically unlimited playable characters. , collectible cards game, with easy possibility of expansion. yet addictive spelling game / few visual effects on v1.241.
10 heroes won in 10 minutes , with a good proportion respecting the probabilities of draw , rare blue, epic , legendary yellow.
1.242
planning special effects
- update all game to URP to be able to use shaders graph and better visual effects
therefore , bugs to be fixed :
- update particles effects
- creating power boost cards in rare, epic legendary so the games comes in the strategy category.
- adding database for power cards.
- adding visual effects on cards with shader graph.
1.243
adding power cards so the game comes in the strategy game category.
-ui design of cards with bouncy overflow design for cards.
-plan the database for cards.
-plan the logic for the card game and power cards.
-plan to redesign all ui with specific palette design with database.
- plan more smooth ui animation for the full project.
1244
adding an Ai opponent that plays cards in different levels of intelligence();, end turn...., use strategies to win....etc
1.245
cards can become 3d objects on the field, planning 3d effects, audio management.
1.246 reward game
the mechanic is different : 3 correct answers from the quiz unlock a quick ball game. If you loose the ball, you redo a quiz to continue playing ( like the quiz replace the publicity in regular mobile game) .
relooking 1.247
quick identification of power ups
1.248 procedural generation for levels ,
1. totally random with probabilities.
2. procedural levels that let you draw levels like pixel art with 0 ,1,2,3... to have cute levels with specific designs, powerup locations etc...
3. boss battles ( not done).
example 0 are empty blocks and 1 are red blocks ....
updates
// v1.115
optimized graphics < 10 ko resolution. 100 pic for 1 mo, 1000 pic 10 mo for one app
both sounds and pictures 20 mo .
//redo sounds < 10 ko . ogg
1.116
erase all letters when changing cards
v 1.119
: change game rules for writing game , no buzzer ( imagine 20 kids using buzzer in class lol )
2 players turn by turn writing words for scoring points
v1.120
adding answer panel so kids can check directly if they are correct.
v1.121
new intro , fix bugs, optimized, new icon app , store description
- new project guidelines for apps design :
deploy all flashcards graphics for all levels before getting on level design.
- drag and drop prefabs , so all levels and worlds are expandable, flexible , and easy to change in case the project
evolves in different activities and purposes after testing.
1.122
adding sound o , i
v1.123
added level selection , different 3d planets to explore - touch gesture to move camera in a limited space.
v1.124
, underlined the use of sound pattern recognition with vowel in red. //b<color=red>e</color>d // really before Microsoft word lol
- faster levels production with templates .
v.125
use of templates for color guides for sandwich word, and other sound pattern , which makes super easy to identify sound pattern.
-long -i, long a
v1.126
long -u sound , ( yoo and oo) .
v1.127
-long -e sound
v1.128 change the template to increase productivity *10.
v1.129
explore 11 planets in the universe , ( sounds)
v1.30 à 1.140
improved efficiency of template, manipulatives , writing + 11 planets flashcards,
-no sounds
v1.141,142
adding short u, sound and manipulatives, correcting light bug on planet , fix minor issue.
v1.143 ,
creating prototype for story telling for kids with words learned
v1.144
working model for creative story
v1.147
improve graphics on game template, ui redesign , give depth , add vfx to game, redesign level map with extra effects.
v1.148 ,
add more characters for creative stories.
v1.149
redesign writing game // finish prefab , and letters animation .
v1.150
add sound , vfx , ^particles, animation to letters,
v1.151
analyze performance drop due to particles
v1.152
testing creative with kids , and design different levels creative stories
v1.153
creative music
v1.154
adding clear panel to correct in the writing game.
v1.155 to 1.160
polished for publishing, correct bugs, multiples testing all levels, add long a manipulatives
v1.161 to 163
manipulatives , correct and finish long -a sound
v1.164 to 1.166
, board games ,more levels , fix bugs
v1.167 to 1.173
adding 3d cards, adding 3d sounds cards to cards game.
-rotating cards
-flipping cards
-memory games working with 3d pieces
-unique random pairs creation,
-adding more levels.
- update production to 1.170
v1.173 to 190
-word game
-memory game
-hangman
-store visual
improve manipulatives
- vfx
v1.191
fix screen resolution problem for 16 :9, 18: 9, works on most screen now with good background scaling.
v1.192
building 3d models for game
v1.193
win screen word game
v1.194
fix all bugs trough levels,
--scoring text
-resolution
-fireworks
-resolution
-scaling
-field of view 51.7
- writing colors and prefab.
button scaling
scaling until 2960 x 1440
1.195, 1.196
fix loading screen , for loading game and resolution
fix word game , missing restart function.
1.197 to1.201
word search game with cards to collect.
1.202
fix one time for all framerate problem on different devices with time.deltatime. ( finally)
1.203
fix saving with playerprefs , winscreen and code not synchro on word game. update template.
1.204
add scoring for 2 players playing memory together.
1.205
redesign flashcards code to be able to add UI FX animation with no drop on FPS.
solution , one prefab for all, then modify each copy with procedural generation to get excellent FPS.
1.206
making all flashcards 3d, for consistency and better visual.
1.207
automation for the creation of flashcards, pictures, audio , all ,
increase productivity of levels* 1000 .
1.208
making evolutive flashcards template. something wrong about the first version is there are not evolutive,
- new guidelines : always make template evolutive so you can add more animation, polish more easily at the end without need of any change on the code part.
1.209
making easy to change all recordings in game for future development.
-fix wordsearch restart.
-making all 3d flashcards levels with improved methods.
1.210
level panel improved with procedural and easier to select level, easier for future development
remove alphabet for the moment until better game .
fix nightmare of one prefab and loops together, use different prefabs for different game otherwise index 0 of an array with a loop don't get updated ????
1211.1.212
to remember , multiples layers that communicates together with different prefabs. i will definitely now reference all scripts in code and not in inspector, as it 's breaking when its getting too complex. So from now on , all referencing by scripts.
1.213
magic box handle 13 chars, but with weird graphics.
1.214 to 2.227
new levels ch, th voiceless, oy sounds, automatic for board games template,
updated to api 32 google, working.
-add american voices for new levels.
1.227to 1.230
all levels with american voices by default
1.231
adding 6 new levels
-ed(t)
-long oo
- ow/ou
-plural -es ,
-th voice
- aw
1.238
hard c
soft c
soft g
long e as -y.
fix bug on word game if the word is more than 10 letters, , last letters don't appear, absolutely check length on editing.
//reported bugs:
different sounds level for alphabet. t sound
no 3d light on level map: check no light , but camera light.//no check 2d game
score , wrong sound second player
remove scaling on manipulative 1,1.
problem on prefab creative story , erase one erase others, check prefab parenting
kids click on planet , not card to start level.
changed low resolution + better optimization on correct panel , change it with real panel
click too big on planets, zoom out too much on levels
- long -o sound not perfect, to improved.
-check reverse graphics raycast on ui to have sounds on both sides on 3d pieces.
-allowed to click more than 2 on memory game
screen not scaling correctly for16:9 resolution
fiel of view too large for some screen resolution
1.203
game 1 flash cards too big
sound on 1 st level
card to collect, some bugs on showing the wrong card, or not updated ?
- not restarting on game wordsearch, possible wrong index // fixed grid size and char letter dah
-
- memory game, uncheck possibility to click more than 2 cards.
-wordsearch bug, as it can get out of index for some reason, no restart...important. fix
-last level is first with loops ?? to be fixed 1.210
-fix light issue between game, improve light on magic box.
-chest game : some chest opening don't give cards, check int or list . ( reported on fire game)
-magic box, if you change game, animation is killed, restart animation method.
1.242
particles bugs
- smoke chests on wordsearch change unlit
stars around change unlit
- card game prticles
- bills on vault reward, change particles to unlit //ok
Classroom observation and elements to be added.
1.198
reading : ed , ou, oi
spelling ; digraph , br , c, k , spr.....
Conclusion :
For developers,
best experience about this game was about the framerate.
On computer :
example of flashcards with animation running at 90 fps with different prefabs.
-running at 270 fps with one prefab and procedural generation.
On low device phone:
the same game pass from 270 fps (computer) to 30 fps. so if your game run below 200fps on your computer, you need to redo the game lol. fps on computer /10 should be the golden rule.