How does a player successfully set up a seismic sensor?
To set up a sensor, players navigate around the city using wide sweeping arm motions to choose a building for sensor installation. After selecting a building, the player is presented with a randomly selected earthquake minigame that they have to complete quickly and correctly. Our 20 minigames cover a wide range of tasks required for each deployment. By introducing these tasks individually, the player learns a single concept for deploying without repetition for each deployment. If they successfully complete the challenge, the sensor is installed in the chosen building. If not, they return to selecting a new building. Once the sensor is successfully installed, the player continues quickly choosing locations and setting up as many sensors as possible. The game ends after the first aftershock. The player's score is calculated according to sensor placement, where sensors placed closer to the epicenter of the aftershock net more points.
Motivated by obtaining a high score on the in-game leaderboard, players automatically begin to test successful deployment theories. There was no need to officially assign players the task of exploring different strategies because the game play structure provided that automatically. Observing numerous people play our game, we noticed many players would hypothesize how to receive the most points. Some suggested deploying all their sensors in a clump in the hope the first aftershock occurred near the clump (i.e., relying on luck not scientific strategy). Others recommended distributing the seismic sensors uniformly throughout the city to increase the probability of a having a deployed sensor close to the first aftershock location.
Who is the intended audience for your game?
We specifically target 8-12 year olds because research indicates early exposure to science is an effective way to refute protests of "math is boring" and "science is hard". The controller-free environment makes the game accessible to players of all ages and is user-friendly to those who don't have videogaming experience.
What is the purpose of your game?
The purpose of the QCN game is to explore to what extent videogames can be used to entice a student to continually play and learn. Our program merges socially relevant topics (what to do when a large earthquake strikes) with scientific topics (how do seismologist study earthquakes). This approach increases our chance to engage students who might otherwise fall through the cracks because of frustration with learning difficulties, and/or students who lack the self-confidence to excel and ask questions. The gaming platform allows the student independently choose where to go and what to do, which increases motivation and potential. This type of learning is particularly important to students who do not excel in traditional learning environments. The overall purpose of our QCN game is to help players enjoy science in an interactive format and learn about earthquakes and the field of seismology. Our goal is to merge laughter and learning within the five minute duration of the game. This short time length allows our QCN game to be deployed in museum exhibits, informal learning centers, afterschool programs, science camps and classrooms.
How does your game make a visual impact?
Our game makes use of a variety of visual media including 3D interactive models, numerous 2D cartoons, and engaging video scenes. These visuals complement the fast paced gameplay. The vast 3D landscape initially shows the earthquake location and then encourages dynamic visualization of potential sensor deployment locations. The 2D images within the minigames each have their own unique art style to help keep player's attention and interest. The video scenes that help explain the details of the seismic topics are comedic and fun to watch. The Kinect takes photographs to capture the players' looks of determination and enjoyment as they play the game. These photos, which are often amusing because the game requires so much physical agility, are then shown to the player as they complete the minigames. With this wide variety of visual media in our game, the QCN game's fast pace competes well with non-educational videogames.
This type of gameplay learning is more appealing to the majority of children in our target age range than lectures, standard homework assignments, and memorization. Although we are aware that earthquakes can cause horrible tragedies, we wanted this learning experience to focus on learning and safety. To inform rather than scare the players, our graphic artist created a unique art style in the form of zany cartoon characters and other brightly colored visuals for our game. These range from the bizarre to the ridiculous to help maintain a very positive and exciting mood during gameplay that is conducive to learning. By practicing deployment and safety measures in a lighthearted environment, students have imprinted the experience of what to do in a real earthquake.
What will a player learn from your game?
Our QCN game allows players to interact with earthquake and seismology themes in a simple and intuitive manner. Similar to today's seismologists, when the player becomes aware that an earthquake just occurred in their city, they must act quickly to deploy seismic sensors to record the impending aftershocks. The gameplay then begins and players must complete a variety of objectives in the form of minigames. Each minigame is designed to interactively teach the players about a seismology related concept. These minigames communicate: safety themes, deployment techniques, information about seismic equipment, and how to read a seismogram. To learn about these concepts the player has to actively participate in the testing and safety procedures by, for example, ducking under a sturdy table, correctly securing a seismic sensor to the ground, and gathering items for an earthquake survival pack. Learning is most effective during these minigames since player interaction is required in the form of both physical and intellectual challenges. There are also minigames that test the player's cognitive abilities through traditional learning techniques such as seismology quizzes.
What makes your game original?
Using brightly colored cartoon characters to engage the players in an urgent time-sensitive response to earthquakes is a novel approach to teaching seismology. Additionally, the Kinect motion sensor provides a unique game experience by incorporating body gestures and movements such as ducking low, jumping high, running in place, and using arm motions for location selection and other game challenges. These physical demands depart from standard educational electronic games that only involve a traditional game controller. Our game requires the player to be physically and mentally involved in earthquake science research with the side benefit of sneaking in some science learning as well.