Adventure games are usually single player games in which the player controls the actions of the main character of the game (protagonist). All adventure games have a story or a narrative to it. The player is required to navigate and explore spaces such as rooms or landscapes to solve a puzzle or reach a destination. During the game, the player is faced with obstacles that they must avoid and enemies that they must defeat in order to proceed. Collectable objects are often placed in these spaces that help the player combat these situations and accomplish the assigned task. Unlike other gaming genres, you can get very creative when building adventure games. And because it is fun to play, it naturally becomes a great template for elearning games.
Adventure elearning game idea
'Feed the cat' is a simple adventure game that we designed for you to play and experience. It is an elearning game example in the adventure genre. The only action required by the learner is to click and help the main character (the cat) move from one point to the other avoiding enemies (the dogs) to achieve little steps (the fish). This game is easy to modify and adapt to different learning situations. We have used it to reinforce the 7 leadership styles. Play the game here below.
Characteristics of a good adventure elearning game
Fun elearning game
A good elearning game must be fun to play. A small story, a few characters, reasonably good graphics and sounds should definitely motivate a learner to play. Everything in an adventure game does not have to be logical. Also, since this is part of a learning course, you should not expect a learner to attain mastery on the gaming skills. So, you should keep the game play simple at the same time. If it is going to take an hour to figure out the mechanics or develop the gaming skill, it will demotivate the learner as it will prevent them from completing the learning module or course.5-minute game
When developing an adventure elearning game idea keep a tab on the length of the game. The intention of introducing a game is to provide relief from the monotony of the course and to make learning engaging. If the game is long and difficult to complete, it will divert the learner's attention, exceed the recommended course duration and make learning ineffective.Customizable game
Adventure games are by nature more customizable than card games or board games. Yet, you don’t want to accidentally introduce something so rigid that the game cannot be changed into anything else at all. The best way to check if the game can be customized is to mentally fit the game play into 2-3 other random learning situations. If it fits easily, it is usually an indication that the game is customizable to other scenarios. The elements that should be customizable are the background images / ambience, characters (player and enemies), obstacles and sounds.Adult learners and Non-gamers
Game mechanics refers to the rules of the game and how a learner interacts with the game to complete the mission. We already mentioned that the game mechanics must be kept simple. Remember that we must keep adult learners, genders and non-gamers in mind when designing the controls. Keep the controls very simple. Perhaps a click or a click-drag. You definitely don’t want to use a three key combination to perform a task. Additionally, reduce the number of enemies and obstacles and keep the game fairly easy to play. The action required by a learner must be limited. When the learner loses, see if you can have the learner start off from a previous successful state instead of resetting the game altogether, unless you think the learners will still enjoy it. This will give the learner the feeling that they are making progress and all is not lost.
E-learning content types
Several e-learning content types can be integrated into an adventure game, some of which are mentioned here below.
Training Reinforcement
Adventure games have collectables for the player. Create small messages from your topics and connect them to these collectables. It is okay to repeat them in the game. For example, clicking a bell on the adventure path could show one random textual information from a topic and award 5 points to the player. So, this will encourage the player to click it every time and the repetition will give reinforcement. This will work very much like a TV or web advertisement. Also, look at the ambience of the game and find where you could add information on the backgrounds. For example, in a training program for waiters, build a kitchen ambience with a note on hygiene on one of the doors. You should examine all the elements of the game to come up with other training reinforcement ideas such as these.Teaching Procedures
If you want to teach procedures, you could build an elearning adventure game that is divided into stages and explain one step when the learner completes one stage in the game. If you are doing this to teach something new, you must keep the game fairly easy to complete or you risk a learner not being able to view all the content.Check your understanding (CYU)
When the player reaches a particular stage in the game, use it as an opportunity to show a CYU (Check your understanding).Quiz
You could add a quiz on the game somewhere that learners can take to gain additional points when they fall short. You could serve this as a single quiz or as individual questions spread through the game.
Final thoughts…
It goes without saying that you should build on a game idea that you can use in several elearning courses. If your idea is generic, the new game after customization will have little or no resemblance to the original. You may also be able to change the game itself. For instance, the game in this post can be changed into an interactive maze game too. Do not forget that the learners of your elearning course need not be gamers. So, the game mechanics must be simple unless you think the learners are going to enjoy complexity. Start the learning adventure…