Designing an Intuitive and Appealing Video Game for Children Aged 6 to 14

Abstract

It is undeniable that most kids play video games since a young age. We live in the digital era. Why not to take advantage of this situation and bring something of value to children by making them learn outside the school while they are having fun playing games in their free time. Every game needs to be designed taking into account the target audience. What they like, how skillful they are and how the game could be designed to have its audience get the most of it. Young kids are still learning and developing, this means that as designers we need to be especially careful of what contents we add in the game. We also need to be aware of the fact that children don’t think the same way than adults, so the way the content is presented also needs to be adapted and tested. This project focus on the creation of a quality game for kids that enables learning. Quality will be defined as a game that is easy to learn (intuitive), fun to play and of course adequate for kids. The project consists of two parts. On the one hand, an individual theoretical part that includes a state-of-the-art of educational video games, the identification of the stages of cognitive development of kids from 6 to 14 years old, the conceptual design of a game targeted at this group of age and the testing of this game. On the other hand, a group practical part that consists in the development of the designed game by a team of 6 people using Unity3D. This game will be installed in Techniekmuseum HEIM and CREA (Hengelo, Netherlands).