Proc. of 7th Int. Conf. on Education and New Learning Technologies EDULEARN15, ISBN: 978-84-606-8243-1, Barcelona, Spain, 6-8 July, 2015, pp.6943-6950. Abstract In last two decades, educational video games have been proven as a modern platform able to enhance substantially traditional e-learning in K12 and higher education. Many recent studies demonstrate using such video games tends to be effective in helping students to obtain new knowledge and to develop useful practical skills; however, lacking free tools and platforms for creation and customization of educational games hampers their mass usage. The paper presents an open software platform for easy creation and flexible customization of video games for teaching students in any subject based on 3D mazes and embedded mini-games for assessment or fostering visual skills and creativity. Teachers can construct easily customizable mazes in their educational domain as a non-restricted hierarchical graph allowing non-linear student gameplay and, next, customize maze nodes using a property editor by shaping each node as they like and by adding multimedia content to it. Playing such maze games, students can learn new ideas, concepts and theories while exploring the customized 3D maze at each hierarchy level for finding the final maze node which may contain some special gift for them. As well, they can play several embedded mini-games for developing fine-motor brain skills, visual and spatial thinking, context-based reasoning and entrepreneurial creativity. The reported results of first field trial are very promising in terms of high appreciation by master students of the created 3D maze video games.

1. Boyan Bontchev
Prof. at Fac. of Math & Informatics, Sofia University, Bulgaria
Marie Curie Fellow at Brainstorm Multimedia, Spain
(in the scope of the ADAPTIMES FP7 PEOPLE project)
EDULEARN15, Barcelona, Spain, July 6-8, 2015
CUSTOMIZABLE 3D VIDEO GAMES
AS EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE

2. • Serious games as a tool for adding fun to
teaching and professional training
• Game-based learning as a new teaching
paradigm with proven efficiency
• Many ambition projects using serious games
for education successfully finalized
• Many simple drill-and-practice games oriented
to curricular goals of the traditional classroom
Serious video games for education

3. • Educational games for higher education are
still not a popular mean for teaching
• Simple drill-and-practice computer games are
not enough
• Tools for creation of educational games should
be available for domain specialists
• Existing lack of customizable and cheap video
games/platforms for teaching young people
Some of the problems with
game-based learning

4. • To find new opportunities for practical and
massive exploitation of the serious video
games for higher education,
• by offering teachers and students a free
software platform for customizable video
game creation by non-software domain
specialists
Our goal

5. Imagine a maze as an educational game.
Intro
Cell1 Cell2
Cell3 Cell4
CellN
Cell5
Customizable video maze games for education

6. Now imagine 3D rooms instead 2D cells.
Intro
Room1 Room2
Room3 Room4
RoomN
Room5
Educational
textual
content …
forms &
textures
forms &
textures
forms &
textures
forms &
textures
forms &
textures
forms &
textures
Educational
textual
content …
Educational
textual
content …
Educational
textual
content …
Educational
textual
content …
Educational
textual
content …
Educational
textual
content …

7. Points =
So player moves from room to room but not for free.
Intro
Room1 Room2
Room3 Room4
RoomN
Room5
Educational
textual
content …
1008060

8. Points =
When Points = 0, what next? Game over?
Intro
Room1 Room2
Room3 Room4
RoomN
Room5
Educational
textual
content …
0 ?
3D Zoom
3D Match
3D Puzzle

9. A platform for generation of
customizable video maze games for education
Teachers can construct 3D video mazes by using
Maze Editor
Transitions table
Property Editor
Titles …
Texts …
Graphics …
Python
Scripts
Brainstorm API
3D Maze Game
Engine
Brainstorm
Run Time
Environment
Embedded
Mini-Games
3D
video
game
Property
Metadata
Graph Editor
>

10. The 3D maze alternates light and dark rooms, where
• 3D maze created and customized only by editing text files
(no programming experience needed)
• Customizable player help for each room
• Educational texts and graphics from papers about
Effectuation theory (http://effectuation.org/)
• 3D embedded mini-games for earning points:
– 3D matching game - for knowing/assessment of entrepreneurial
concepts
– 3D zoom ordering game (pictures by Istvan Banyai) – for context-
dependent thinking
– 3D cube construction using building blocks – for fostering creativity
(to be finalized until October)
Platform field trial: Pro-Effect – a video
game for entrepreneurship education

11. • Effectuation framework for guiding entrepreneurs in
unpredictable future - by Dr. Saras Sarasvathy, 2006/7
The Pro-Effect game content
Source: http://effectuation.org/

12. • Hall 0: Welcome to the Pro-Effect game!
• Hall 1: Introduction to Causation
• Hall 2: Effectuation vs Causation
• Hall 3: Effectuation principles
1. Bird-in-hand – start by “who I am, what I know, and whom I know ”
2. Affordable loss – to limit risk by understanding what they can afford to
lose at each step
3. Crazy quilt – by building partnerships with self-selecting stakeholders
4. Lemonade - experts interpret “bad” news and surprises as potential
clues to create new markets
5. Pilot-in-the-plane – to know their actions will result in the desired
outcomes - the future is neither found nor predicted, but rather made
• Hall 4: The effectuation process
• Hall 5: The Entrepreneurial method
The Pro-Effect labyrinth

13. In the entrance room player starts with 100 points

14. For passing to the next room, player pays by points.

15. Next room is about Causation.

16. In one of the next room (about effectuation principles)

17. Let choose the first option -

18. In this game, player has to match some

19. Next, in Zoom ordering game, players have to

20. In both the mini-games, players have to explore
• Develop 3D spatial thinking and skills
• Enhance context-dependent thinking
• Provides additional learning content
• Can be used for self-testing
• Have dynamic game play and make fun
• Can be used for player’s character-based
ADAPTATION (see www.adaptimes.eu)
Benefits of embedded mini-games

21. • Q1: Do you think that computer games can
be used as an efficient tool for technology
enhanced learning at all?
• Q2: Do you think that 3D maze video games
are very suitable for technology enhanced
learning in entrepreneurship?
• Q3: Do you find for appropriate winning
points in the game to be realized by playing
other video mini-games just for fun?
• Q4: Do you find for appropriate winning
points in the game (for spending it for
learning within the maze) to be realized by
playing other video mini-games with
didactic purposes?
• Q5: Do you find the 3D matching mini-game
as a good complementary educational tool?
• Q6: Do you think dynamic difficulty of the
3D matching mini-game has to be adapted
Field trial at Sofia University
Field trial with 23 master students,

22. • 3D graphics
– Rooms/flats/caves/…
– Small interior objects
– Gateways
• Graphic tool for:
– Maze construction
– Maze customization
– Advanced game rules
• Hierarchical mazes, with mini-games for each sub-maze
• Navigation map
• N-to-1 matching games
• Mini-games customization
• New embedded mini-games for creativity and motor skills
• Player-centric adaptation
Future enhancements
All the game enhancements

23. • A free platform for teachers to create their own mazes
with customizable embedded mini-games for any of the
maze levels in an easy and truly declarative way, without
any need of programming experience.
• Teachers can construct mazes with and without cycles for
non-linear storytelling in any domain and, next, customize
rooms using the property editor.
• Students can play for fun several embedded mini-games
fostering fine-motor brain skills, visual and spatial
thinking, context-based reasoning and entrepreneurial
creativity.
Conclusions

24. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdbKhRDwXWo
YouTube video
Video track of game play with the Pro-Effect game

25. • Questions and/or
• Proposals
Thank you for your attention!
http://adaptimes.eu/
e-mail:bbontchev@gmail.com