Games for children in Dutch
This site should be finished by July 2007
If you wish to contact me, my email address is in the title above
8 - 12 years: an exploratory game
Developed with Ralph Kok for a subject in our masters in Media Technology programme.
An interface about 'potentially familiar' events in the life of a school child, where the player is encouraged to take the initiative, to learn about the consequences of actions or choices, particularly in relation to interactions with others.
The player's aim is to gain points. At the outset the player knows that 100 points is the maximum. A maximum no one could ever reach, because no one is perfect. Another goal is to show that the world around is not as static as it might seem. If you notice more, in this game, you have more choices.
These "choice" moments occur when you move towards signs, animations or other people. You get a message above or a menu pops down on the right. Then you need to make a choice by clicking on one option to proceed.
The timer pauses while in this 'choice' mode, so consideration or delibration is not penalised. Teachers could use these moments for a group discussion.
A mouseclick then causes the window to shrink upwards, the timer restarts, and mouse movement is enabled.
There are also random possibilites so that if you wander onto the street, you could die, be injured, or just lose points if there was no traffic. Most of the random possibilities are with children in the playground and the player's character becomes more human-like as the player gains points.
Play the game in Dutch on the Nieuws uit Natuur website.
8 - 12 years: A crossword on the Crusades
Made for the Dutch schooltv website history programme for children, Vroeger en zo ("The past and stuff"), this crossword game can be updated each time by just making changes to a text file. Each time the "nieuwe puzzel" button is clicked a random arrangement appears, so children can play it over and over until they learn all the facts. The amount of questions and length of answers affects the complexity and variation of each puzzle.
View the Vroeger en zo website.