NuVu Game Title

NuVu TouchScreen Learning Studio

Arjun Bakshi

Silmar Bueno

Molly Hershkowitz

 

Summary:

Do you want to fight a battle that has been going on for thousands of years? Victory leads you to a healthy life and an endless amount of helpful tips. We wanted to create a game that will teach the children and adults in Kenya the importance of washing their hands. We came up with a tablet application that will remind people how to properly wash their hands for twenty seconds. The screen will have two giant hands that have germs on them. Using simple objects and tools like soap and water, students will have to thoroughly scrub the hands for twenty seconds and get rid of all the germs. We realized that generally people enjoy games with competition. This game makes the students want to have the best score, while at the same time learn an important lesson. We put a sidebar that had the different times of day the students should wash their hands to show them how many germs they can attain throughout the day.

 

The Problem: This is the Problem

The problem is many children and adults in Kenya and India do not properly wash their hands enough during the day. This causes many people to fall sick or develop diseases such as diarrhea. In addition, many germs can form on their hands like, E. Coli, Salmonella, and Rotavirus. These three bacterias are very common and can cause intense stomach pain. We are trying to inform children and adults the importance of washing hands. This game will also educate students on different diseases and bacteria that are common where they live. This is helpful because it warns them and teaches them to prevent getting bacteria.  

 

Game Description

This game will teach students the importance of washing your hands and how/when to do so. Students will learn that they should spend about 20 seconds washing their hands with soap and water. There will be music playing during that 20 seconds. They will also learn the important times to wash their hands: before eating, cooking, and after doing some type of chore like changing a diaper. It will teach them about how if they don’t wash their hands enough/correctly, they would probably get sick. There will be different kinds of germs on the hands that cause different diseases and things to happen if they aren’t washed off with soap and water.

 

How it Works

Players will start by reading brief instructions on how the game works. After, they will learn about the different types of germs and their effects. Then a message will pop up describing a

scenario that will cause you to wash your hands. You then start washing your hands. First tapping the water to turn on then touching the soap to  “load up on soap.”  You have 20 seconds to scrub all the germs off. All the leftover germs get added onto the hands for the next level. At the end of the rounds your score is added up and you win clean coins for how good of a job you did.You can then use the coins to buy better washing items in the store. These all have different power ups and cost different amount of coins.  

 

India or Kenya

This game tends to both India and Kenya. One difference would be the skin of it. The difference of the two games would mainly be the physical appearance like the water resource and the type of the sink. Also, the song playing in the background will be specific to the country and be a well known anthem.

 

Current Progress

At this point we are trying to improve and better our game with the feedback we received. Nivi brought up a point of how kids can learn during the game. The learning aspect seems hidden because of the set up. One example of that is how the timer is 20 seconds. The reason behind the 20 seconds is because that is the recommended time for a correct hand wash. Which is the length of the song Jambo which every kid knows. So our hope is that when kids are washing their hands they will sing the song and take the suggested time to properly clean their hands.  We also are trying to improve the little nuts and bolts that we come across with during the game.

 

Final

Goal of the game:

We wanted to create a game that would teach the children and adults in Kenya the importance of washing their hands and how/when to do so. They will learn the important times to wash their hands: before eating, cooking, and after doing some type of chore like changing a diaper. Students will learn that they should spend about 20 seconds washing their hands with soap and water. There will be music playing during that 20 seconds. It will teach them about how if they don’t wash their hands enough/correctly, they would probably get sick. There will be different kinds of germs on the hands that cause different diseases and things to happen if they aren’t washed off with soap and water.

How the game works:

Players will start by reading brief instructions on how the game works. After, they will learn about the different types of germs and their effects. Then a message will pop up describing a scenario that will cause someone to wash his or her hands. The player then starts washing his/her hands. First the player must tap the faucet  to turn on the water and then touch the soap to  “load up on soap.”  Players have 20 seconds per level to scrub all the germs off. All the leftover germs get added onto the hands for the next level. At the end of the rounds your score is added up and you win clean coins for how good of a job you did.You can then use the coins to buy better washing items in the store. These all have different power ups and cost different amount of coins. The red germs are worth 5 points. Yellow germs are worth 10 points. Blue germs are worth 20 points.

 

Process:

The first couple of weeks was all about learning how to think of games and planning what our game would be developed into. During the first week we did a lot of switching groups. One day each group created a game and the other groups would watch the game being played and try to figure out all the rules. In doing this, we learned that watching games is much for fun and engaging than just reading instructions. Another day we had to get into groups of two and create an educational game specifically for our partner. This helped us learn how to create a fun yet educational game that someone our age would enjoy playing, but learn at the same time.

Once we were put in our final groups, my group was assigned health. We first had to brainstorm what we wanted to teach about health. We originally decided to make a game to teach about malaria, the prevention of malaria, and treatments for it. On the last day of the first week, my group began to prototype our game. We started drawing it out and planning how it was going to look as a tablet and a board game. We took a break from that the skype with Nivi, our coaches friend who currently lives in Kenya. She told us a little bit about herself and Elimu. She also gave us some information on the education in Kenya. She ended up suggesting that my group think about making our game about hand washing because that is an important problem there. She wanted us to educate people when to wash their hands: especially before eating, cooking, changing a diaper, etc. We took her idea into consideration, and we tried to change our game so it would teach kids about the importance of washing their hands and when it is important to do so. Later that day, we had to start planning out our new game about hand washing.

During the second week, our coaches friend, Cody, came in to meet with each group and give some feedback. He told us that they don’t use sinks, but rather tanks and faucets. He also told us the name of a popular song in Kenya that all the children know called Jambo Bwana. A very catchy song that everyone knows. We then decided we wanted to have that song play as background music during the 20 seconds for each level to show how long the kids need to wash their hands in order for them to get clean. We also had to go through our whole game, find all the holes in it, and fix them. When we first sketched out the game, we drew the top of the hands, but we later changed it to be the palm of the hands.

During the third week,we learned how to make the game logic and  flow. We had to write what would happen for each choice someone might make.

On the first day of the second part of the studio, we had to create our Game Logic. We split the game logic into four sections: Objects, Points, Impact, and Cost. We had to figure out how much upgrades cost, what each power-up does to help, and how many points you get for getting rid of the different kinds of germs.

On the first day we worked only digitally, we downloaded Game-Maker and Animation-ish and used Game Maker to program a rough version of our groups hand washing game. After downloading the program and writing out a test code using a tutorial/instructions, we realized it was just a one day trial and we couldn't play the game. We had to then download another version of that program and re-write the code for the test game. We practiced adding different objects, sounds, clicking, etc. Once we got the hang of it, we began programming our groups game. We inserted a picture of two hands for the background and set the background music.

We used a program called Animation-ish. This program to make the sketch at the end of our game. The process of this hand washing sketch was basically a online flip book. Each from would be a drawing and the following from would be the same but with a small change so when the book was flipped through you would see things move slowly.

After testing out our game by having other people play it, there were some common problems. Multiple people said that it was too hard to click the target. To solve this problem, we made the germs a little bigger so there was a larger target to click. We also added a high score button so people will know what score they need get to beat the high score. That makes it more competitive and for the player.

We also added in facts about the specific germs, how they harm you, and other facts about hand washing. The other edits we did today was we made the germs look like bugs to make them look more interesting and fun, made the facts pop-up, made it so the score shows up at the end, and made some germs appear and disappear.

 

Side note:

This game tends to both India and Kenya. One difference would be the skin of it. The difference of the two games would mainly be the physical appearance like the water resource and the type of the sink. Also, the song playing in the background is specific to the country.