Final Project

Terrarium Adventure

Download and Play in Minecraft Education Edition!

Terrarium Adventure was a team project completed by Tyler Bray, Dustin Muncy, Mazid Ul Hasan, and myself. Most aspects of this project were completed collaboratively during our in-class studio time. The actual game within Minecraft was created by Tyler, Dustin, and myself, while Mazid completed the evaluation plan.

Gameplay Screencast

Learning Aspects

Learning Aims

Our game will allow players to take the information that the game provides them and allows them to use that knowledge outside of the game to build their own functional terrarium. Throughout the game, we will scaffold the player by providing them with information about the resources that they are using and why that resource is important to the sustainability of the Terrarium. Using Minecraft education edition, we provide an area that players may be familiar with to supply knowledge to our players in a fun and engaging way.

Objectives

At the end of the game, the player will be able to build their own self-sustaining terrarium and instruct other students about the functions of different resources that may be included in a terrarium. Students will also learn specifically how the terrarium can develop and grow.

Students will be able to define self-sustaining, resources, terrarium, Plant pathology, and plant pathologist.

Learning Methodologies

Visual
This game will provide players with visual aspects that will help them grasp the concepts that come with building a functioning terrarium. With Minecraft education edition, the player is provided with a visual example of what the various resources may look like in real life. The player will also be provided with an example of how a terrarium can be built
Written
Players will be instructed through writing. The game will have chalkboards, signs, and NPC dialogue that will aid the player throughout their journey.
Kinesthetic
Throughout this game, players will be able to have a hands-on experience with visually handling the resources that they are learning about as well as placing the resources into the area that is the terrarium. Although the player is not handling the resources in real life, this game provides a safe environment for players to learn new things and take that new knowledge outside of the game.
Multimodal
Teachers could use this game in their classroom to support concepts that they are teaching in class.

The player spawns in front of a billboard that introduces them to the story of the game.

An NPC gives more insight into the player's objectives throughout the game. These objectives include collecting the six essential resources for a terrarium, completing an assessment, and building their own terrarium at the end of the game.

Learning Theories and Their Impact

This game will make use of the Constructivism learning theory to support players' learning. The player will take in the knowledge that they are given and be able to use that knowledge to make their own representation of the terrarium.

Throughout the game, the player will be getting new resources and learning about the resources. The player will learn about how those resources interact with each other as well as learn about how that resource will allow the terrarium to be self-sustaining. At the end of the game, the player will be encouraged to build their own functioning terrarium which allows the player to use the knowledge that they just learned and make their own representation of the terrarium.

This game will also scaffold the player by supplying hints if the player does not understand what to do next. These hints can come in the form of chalkboards, signs, or NPC dialogue.

Learning Context

Our game is placing the players within a world that provides the opportunity for the player to interact with the elements necessary to complete the learning objectives of the game. Since this is an educational game it’s important that the player understands the contexts in which they need to learn. “Context gives meaning to learning and learning gives meaning to context” (Kalmpourtzis, 2018, p. 53). Our game has a learning objective of understanding how to build a terrarium. Therefore, it makes sense that we are creating a world where the learner interacts with elements and characters that guide them to this learning objective. Minecraft provides the opportunity for the player to interact in the forested world we are creating that has all the necessary natural resources to build a terrarium that the player can learn about and interact with.

The introduction phase, activity phase, and debriefing phase are all important elements in game design that provide learning context for the player (Kalmpourtzis, 2018). The introduction phase will be a series of boards where the players spawn in the Minecraft world where they will get information on their objectives for the game and where to go next. The activity phase of the game is where the player talks with the NPCs to figure out where the terrarium resources are located and then gathers the resources while learning about them. The debriefing phase is two-fold in which there will be quizzes about each resource the player finishes after learning about them, and then the process of building the terrarium where the player puts together everything they have learned throughout the game.

Audience

This game is designed for elementary-level students in 5th or 6th grade. It can be used as a part of their science course or as an individual learning material. Processes of building a terrarium can be found in blogs and videos, but our game aims to help the students go through that process in a fun and engaging way. However, it should be noted that we assume the students have the necessary resources to play this game either at school or at home.

Needs and Preferences

Keeping the students motivated and engaged is always a challenge at any level. Especially for the students of our target age, it is crucial to teach them through activities that are interactive, exciting, and, therefore, motivating. Our game aims to serve that purpose by presenting a topic in a fun way that might become boring and demotivating in other ways. Moreover, video games are extremely popular among children of this age, and learning through a familiar game like Minecraft would certainly be preferred by some students.

Presentation of the Game

As we are building the game using Minecraft, it will be presented through the Minecraft Education platform. As some learners may need to become more familiar with the Minecraft world and control, we will provide a basic tutorial with the game.

Player Persona

Gameplay Aspects

Game Mechanics

For our game, one player plays at a time as they move through the story. The student uses the controls of Minecraft to go on a scavenger hunt to find the materials used to build a terrarium. There are four main sections of the game based on the essential parts of a terrarium. The player will talk to npc’s who will teach them about the different terrarium components. The student then goes on a trail to find each element, learning about what makes each element important in the terrarium along the way. When they return with the item, they are prompted to enter an assessment room where they are quizzed about what they learned throughout the game. The game has 2 “victory” conditions that must be met to complete the lesson. First, they must successfully answer the questions in each assessment room. Second, they must complete an in-game replica of a terrarium as an opportunity to flex their creativity and show what they learned.

Narrative Elements

Though we are using Minecraft, the game will be more of an embedded design in which the path the players need to navigate are relatively determined. From the beginning the player will be directed on what their objective is and where to go next to start achieving it. For younger learners this might be more beneficial since they can stay on task during gameplay.

Our game will have different thematic areas in the world that lead to some spatial narrative since there will be unique places to explore (Kalmpourtzis, 2018). Each resource will be in its own unique area for the player to learn about and gather that will hopefully help create a more engaging and immersive experience.

All narrative elements in the game will be driving the player toward the common learning objective in the game of learning how to build a terrarium. It’s important that all the NPCs, information boards, and spatial areas work together in making a consistent narrative. The boards will lead the player to the NPCs for information, the NPCs will lead the player to the resources for information, and the areas around the resources will provide information about them as they are gathered. This consistent narrative is so the players don’t lose any information or become confused about the information being presented as they go through achieving their learning objective (Kalmpourtzis, 2018).

The player moves throughout the map, collecting materials and learning information about the six essential terrarium components (charcoal, pebbles, moss, soil, insects, and water). Information is shared through boards and NPC interactions.

Game Characters and Their Abilities

The main character in the game that the player will be is the explorer. The explorer has been hired by the scientific team to go around collecting the resources and building the terrarium. The main explorer character has the ability to utilize all the Minecraft building, collecting, and destroying controls in the game. Their survival and exploring and building skills are why the scientific team hired them. The scientific team feel responsible since they were the ones who accidentally let the disease out into the world that is killing an important medicinal plant that the local population needs.

The other characters in the game will be the scientific team who will be the NPCs in the game. Their only abilities will be to give information to the player’s explorer and help guide them to the resources and teach them about them. They will not be building or collecting along with the explorer which will give the explorer an opportunity to drive the embedded narrative as they complete tasks toward their learning objective.

Connection Between Game Elements

Because our game is built inside of Minecraft Education Edition, the technology and mechanics are tightly linked. We are limited to the controls that are available inside of Minecraft. Although this may seem like a negative, using a pre-built game means that we can spend more time creating the narrative and learning aspects of the game, without having to program the game ourselves. Additionally, Minecraft Education Edition has all the tools we need built in already, which makes it the perfect medium for us. Our mechanics and aesthetics are also connected very closely. Because we are using Minecraft, we can create a world that fits the aesthetic that we need it to. Minecraft offers a sandbox type world that we can mold however we want to fit our narrative.

After learning about each aspect of a terrarium, the player enters the assessment building where they must answer six questions. There is one question for each element of a terrarium that they learned about throughout the game. Each room contains a flower that the player can take to put in their terrarium in the final portion of the game.

Technology Features

The student playing the game must have a computer capable of running Minecraft Education Edition. Additionally, they must have an account for Minecraft Education Edition. Ideally, the student should have an existing knowledge of how to play Minecraft, but this is not necessarily required as the Education Edition of the game includes an overlay that shows the player the controls. Outside of a computer, the student doesn't need any other outside materials. However, if the instructor wishes to supplement the lesson by having the class create their own terrariums, they will need extra materials. These materials include a jar to house the terrarium, pebbles to drain water, charcoal to purify the air, some sort of mesh to separate the soil from the pebbles and keep roots out of the pebbles, soil for plants to grow, plants, and optionally insects to eat decaying materials.

Once the assessment portion is completed, the student moves to the final portion of the game. The student must move to the large model of a terrarium. Here they are given more of the materials that they collected throughout the game, and they are tasked with creating a terrarium to house the flowers that they collected during the assessment. This section allows the student to be creative, and after completing the game, a class of students can all share their completed terrarium.

Wireframes

Wireframe 1

Created by Dustin Muncy

The first wireframe shows the opening scene the player will see when they begin. A board will outline the game tasks, and the options to begin exploring the world and resources will be presented in front of them. We want the player to immediately begin talking to the NPCs to find out how to collect the resources.

Wireframe 2

Created by Mazid Ul Hasan

The next wireframe shows the interaction with the NPC at the cabins that are in front of the player at the beginning. You also can see that at the moment the inventory bar is empty and this will need to be filled by the player as they collect resources to build their terrarium. The NPC will direct them to where to find the resources.

Wireframe 3

Created by Tyler Bray

The third wireframe shows the area where the player will need to collect their resources. If the player goes to the soil cabin first, then they will need to explore to find the soil resource to gather. While there gathering they will learn about soil and which soil is the best for building a terrarium.

Wireframe 4

Created by Colin Conn

Once resources have been collected the player will need to go back to the NPC with their resources to show them. They then will be led into the cabin which is depicted here and have to answer some questions to show that they are knowledgeable about the resource that they just finished gathering. Resources will begin to show in the inventory bar at the bottom.

Wireframe 5

Created by Colin Conn

After all resources have been gathered and all questions finished, the player will be tasked with designing their own terrarium with the resources that they have in hand. This will let them apply the knowledge they have learned throughout the lesson. After the lesson, the teacher will be able to assess how they built their terrarium to make sure everything has been placed and build correctly.

Playtesting Report

After building the game, playtesting took place to evaluate different components of the game. The learning objective of the game was to scaffold the players to understand the importance of different resources in building a self-sustaining terrarium. During our playtesting, we found that the instructions on different resources like soil, water, moss, insects, and charcoal were clear, and the orders for using them were also evident. The learning takes place in different forms in this game. The players learn through the description on the boards and dialogues of NPCs (Non-Playing Characters). Moreover, their learning is assessed through quizzes on the functions of different resources. The players can only go to the next stage if they answer correctly. Whereas this assessment expects correct answers from the players, it does not discourage making mistakes as the players do not face any negative reinforcement for the wrong answers. Eventually, the game provides an alternative final assessment where students place their collected resources in the correct order to build a replica of a Terrarium. We found that the learning aspect of the game works effectively through the description of the topic and a visual, hands-on experience.

We discovered that our planning of making the game fun worked well in terms of using a platform like Minecraft, which itself provides a fun environment to the players. Moreover, collecting the resources from different places in the game world worked properly during the playtesting. The scavenger-hunt-like experience which we intended to offer was present in the game. As our target audience is young children and it could be time-consuming to find the places in the large world of Minecraft, we provided directions and hints to the players, which appeared as successful. However, some instructions on how to find the resources once the player reaches these places could be improved in terms of clarity and specificity. We also noticed that some elements, like shovels or axes for digging, could be placed differently to improve the players' experience. The game maintained a good flow as it was getting harder with the quizzes and building the final Terrarium.

While considering the four basic elements (mechanics, story, aesthetics, and technology), we understood that the game worked well according to our design. In terms of mechanics, the game was straightforward, where a player needed to find different resources from the world and then come back to the base to go through two challenges. We understood through the playtesting that these rules were easy to understand. However, we found that some instructions could be modified to make the rules even clearer. The game's story is introduced to the players through boards and dialogues. We found the story embedded into the game quite well. Using the NPCs as some characters from the story was also effective. The game is built upon the aesthetics and technology of Minecraft Education. However, from the different worlds available in the game, we chose one that resembles forests by a lake. We found that this world worked well with the idea of a self-sustaining plant. Moreover, we used different objects in the game to resemble the resources of the Terrarium, and during playtesting, they served the purpose successfully. Also, the world was always in the daytime, avoiding the difficulty of the low visibility of nighttime. Finally, as we used the technology of Minecraft Education, we found that players with a basic knowledge of the platform will be able to play it. As the final game is in survival mode and we playtested it in this mode, we found that more restrictions than the creative mode worked well to focus on the tasks, move forward after completing them and keep track of the resources in the inventory.

The gameplay involved excitement from the beginning and continued throughout the game. The playtesting showed that it worked well in terms of holding the players' interest, being embedded into the story and game world, and using the basic rules of Minecraft. However, we also noticed that gameplay could be improved by fixing some issues, like being beaten by insects and using a different instrument to dig the soil. We noticed that most of the tutorials available on building Terriuams are articles that might not interest children. Therefore, the game intends to present this topic in a fun way. We discovered that the learning was effective as players could go back to the description of the resources anytime to reflect on their learning. Moreover, they can immediately put their knowledge into practice, which helps retention. Also, the scaffolding through hints was found helpful in making the learning successful.

Evaluation Plan

Phase 1: Prototype Playtesting Evaluation

Who is part of this process?

Game Designers - Will be walking through a portion of the game and considering the target user

What will be happening?

We will only be creating a small portion of the game for evaluation during this phase. During this playtest the designers will be analyzing the role of the target user for the game and also thinking about usability testing. Then we will be able to take the feedback and implement it into the rest of the design of the game as we finish developing it. With this feedback after the initial evaluation we will be able to adapt and adjust the game as we proceed to the final design. We would consider this more of a formative assessment of the game as it’s in the process of being designed and we are making sure that we are hitting all the necessary components of the game before spending additional time designing the remainder of the game.

Usability Testing

The designers will need to explore the game and everything that is being presented in front of them. All the mechanics will need to make sense and allow the player to achieve the learning objective.

Interview Questions

“Were you engaged with the game story and mechanics throughout the game?”

“Was the game effective in achieving the outlined learning objectives?”

“Were you able to follow along with the game instructions and what the NPCs were asking you to do?”

“What do you think about the aesthetics, mechanics, story, and technology of the game after playing it?”

“Did you find a good balance between the learning and gaming aspects of the game?”

Phase 2: Target User Playtesting Evaluation

Who is part of this process?

Target User - Will be playing the game

Game Designers - Will be asking questions and observing the target users as they play

What will be happening?

After the full game prototype is complete, we will have target users play the game to evaluate it while designers observe them. This will give us a better idea on how the learning objectives are being met within the game, and also any other aspects of the game that might need to be adjusted before the final prototype is complete. We would consider this more of a summative evaluation since the game is a complete prototype at this point and we are evaluating whether all of the aspects of the game are working together to meet the learning objectives of the game for the target user.

Focus Groups

This will involve target users for the game after they have finished playing. We are hoping this facilitated discussion between the target users might bring up some issues or ideas that were not thought of during the design of the game. The target users might propose some ideas and talk about areas where they enjoyed the game or became frustrated with the game. However, we are also hoping to evaluate more targeted aspects too. Some of these targeted aspects of the game would be: learning objectives, the learning aspect, the game aspect, the individual elements, the play experience, and learning impact.

Interview Questions

“Did you understand the game’s goals?”

“Was the game fun to play?”

“Did you easily understand how to play the game?”

“Did you get to explore the problems before arriving at a solution?”

Analytics

We will be analyzing the quiz scores in the game to see how the presentation of the information throughout the game is influencing the assessment scores within the game. This should give us an idea if the information presentation needs to be adjusted or adapted so the target users are passing the assessments.

Phase 3: Playtesting Final Prototype

Who is part of this process?

Target User - This will be the same group from Phase 2

Game Designers - Will be asking questions and observing the target users as they play

What will be happening?

After the feedback from Phase 2 has been implemented we will invite the target users back to play the game. They will analyze the game to evaluate the modifications of the game from Phase 2.

Group Discussion

This will be a moderated open discussion that is targeted with questions to the group that focus on how the game has improved and if the target users feel the game is meeting all of the learning objectives that it needs.

Interview Questions

“Has your perception of the game changed since the feedback has been implemented?”

“Are the learning objectives more well-defined since your last playtest of the game?”

“Do you feel like the assessments in the game helped you understand the topic?”

Reflection

Improvements

If I were to go back and work on this game further, I would have put more emphasis on better incorporating the learning aspect into the gameplay in a fun way. As a group we did this a little by having the player dig for stone and go into a cave to find moss, but I would have liked to make the game even more interactive for the student.

Additionally, I would like to go back and add more set pieces and buildings to the game. Some members of our group had little to no experience with Minecraft, so we decided not to create anything super complex. That way everyone could contribute to the buildings. However, I think that adding more aesthetics could help the player feel more connected with the world within the game.

Finally, I would have loved to utilize all of the abilities of the agents available in Minecraft Education Edition. With the exception of the Hour of Code module, I did not get the chance to see the potential utilities that the agents had. My first idea for using them in our game was to have a verification system to make sure that the student actually went through each section of the game, but I'm positive that there would be more opportunities for them if I took the time to play around with them.

Minecraft EDU

Although I believe that Minecraft Education edition was the best medium for us to use in creating our game due to creative mode allowing us to personalize our game space, it had its limitations. We wanted the player to be in survival mode for the main section of our game because they would not be able to access the unlimited resources that the creative menu allows. Also, survival mode was necessary to allow the player to collect materials from blocks that they made. However, for the end of the game where the student builds their own terrarium would be greatly benefitted by creative mode. Being able to access any block in the game would let players personalize their terrarium however they wanted. However, to my knowledge there is no easy way to force the player's game mode to change when they enter a certain area of the map.

Overall

In the end I was so impressed by our final game. We picked a very difficult topic to cover, but we implemented it in a way that was interesting and fun. If we continued to work on the game after the class completed, I truly believe that we could make a game that was usable in classrooms. This project finally gave me the opportunity to use Minecraft Education Edition, which I have had a license for through UC for years but have never downloaded. There is so much opportunity in this game for teachers and school districts to create and implement games into their curriculum.

References

Kalmpourtzis, G. (2018). Educational Game Design Fundamentals: A journey to creating intrinsically motivating learning experiences. CRC Press.

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