Taalwereld 1 - Letters in het zand
Development: Springlab
Software: Unity
Role: Game design, Interaction design, UX design, Level design, Narrative design, Interactive storytelling, Voice actor, Dialog director
Target audience: Age group 4-6
Released: 2020
In this game the players travel in their spaceship to the Taalwereld, together with Skip. After they have landed they meet Wolter Wobbel. He is the oldest and smartest Wobbel living on the Taalwereld.
He remembers that there used to be letters everywhere in the Language World. But all the letters disappeared ages ago. That's why he has trouble remembering all the letters! It has been so long since he has seen them! He asks Skip and the kids if they could help him with teaching him some letters. Skip and the kids of course want to help him, so they accept the challenge!
How it works
During the game Wolter draws the shapes of a letter in the sand with his cane. The children take a close look at the shape and subsequently they 'fill' the large letter shape on the floor with their bodies. The players have to communicate and collaborate and together fill in the letter shape by standing, sitting, crawling or jumping in it.
When the shape is filled enough, it changes into a real letter. After playing with one letter for a while, Wolter will draw two or three letter shapes in the sand at the same time. Wolter will tell them which letter he is looking for. The children then have to fill in the shape of the letter Wolter is looking for.
But beware! The children have to pay attention while playing, because the sand Wobbels could suddenly appear and wipe all the letters away! The children can prevent that by chasing them away on time.
The game adjusts itself according to the results of the players. The pace goes up when things are going well and goes down again when things aren't going well.
Didactic content
With this game the children practice their phonemic awareness and play with letters. They discover that certain sounds and symbols are linked to each other. The children are also challenged to be solution-oriented and to work together.
For example, they have to discover for themselves that the letter shapes are only completely filled when they are in the shape with several children at the same time. They have to collaborate in order to progress in the game.
Each game focuses on one specific letter and will go through three levels of difficulty.
Covered letters:
- a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, z
Levels:
- Level 1: Get to know the letter. 1 letter shape is shown.
- Level 2: Learning to recognize the letter (easy); 2 letter shapes are shown.
- Level 3: Learning to recognize the letter (difficult); 3 letter shapes are shown.
My role
For this project I started to research which way letters are taught to children. Which steps are taken in order to teach them what they need to know? Following this I developed the concept and tested out prototypes with the target group. In multiple iterations we improved the game and created a fun, balanced experience for the players. While teaching them letters we alternate between learning and having fun. Furthermore I did all the narrative design and interactive storytelling for the game. I was the dialog director for all the voice actors in the game and I myself did the voice of Wolter Wobbel.
