Activities/Blocku: Difference between revisions

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 ==Bugs/Fixes==
 ==Game Suggestions==
+Benjamin M. Schwartz (via email)
+ I think it's great.  Three points:
+)  Users probably don't want to play many games of the same operation
+ (e.g. x+y=10), and the teacher probably doesn't want to create a new game
+ for every operation.  You should allow users to select a range of
+ operations (e.g. numbers up to 12, + - and *) and have the game select a
+ random operation from the set for each game.
+)  There are some interesting possibilities for using network collab
+ between users and teachers, but work on that last.  To start, users should
+ just punch in the operation (or range of operations) when the activity
+ launches.  Teachers can just tell the students what settings to use, and
+ then look at the screens to verify.
+)  The visual structure of the game seems almost identical to Gnome's
+ Tetravex.  In the spirit of Open Source, you should consider reusing the
+ Tetravex gameboard display code.
+ --Ben
+Wade Brainerd (via email)
+ Looks great Mark!  Feel free to get in touch with me if you need any
+ help with implementation.
+ I agree with Greg that this would be a good target for PyGame.
+ Regarding the game design, you should consider adding some sense of
+ progress, or else players will get tired quickly. Some ideas:
+ - Start with two cards, gradually ramp up to 9.
+ - There needs to be a good "snapping" mechanism when dropping, so
+ users don't get frustrated by trying to line the cards up.
+ - Adding the ability to rotate the cards in 90 degree increments would
+ add to the challenge.
+ - Your notion of customization seems limited to replacing the square
+ with a graphic, which might obscure the number.  Is this really a good
+ way to customize it?
+ - I agree with Ben that when you start the game you should first
+ select which types of puzzles (* + - / etc) you want, how many
+ squares, whether rotation is allowed.  No need for the teacher to be
+ involved.
+ - Why limit it to numbers?  E.g. how about comparisons like "X is
+ heaver than Y" and on the sides of the cards are things like
+ "elephant", "bacteria", etc.  Or "X is newer than Y", etc.  This is
+ where customization would be cool.  Let the teacher define a
+ relationship, and input a series of terms, and define which pairs meet
+ that relationship.  This would be called a "set", and could be
+ exported to the Journal.
+ Good luck with your project!
+David Farning (via email)
+ Very clever.  I just cut made a cut out of the game out of paper.  My
+st grade niece played with it for over half an hour.  It will be a
+ hit on her XO.
+ david
+Greg DeKoenigsberg (via email)
+ Mark, this looks like a brilliant little activity.  Simple, fun gameplay, extensible.  Really great.
+ Some thoughts:
+. I'd love to see this as primarily a PyGame activity, with just enough "Sugar" to run it on Sugar
+ easily, but also easily available as a Windows or Mac activity.  If done well, this is precisely
+ the sort of activity that could cross over.  (Which is, in fact, how I'd like to see most Sugar
+ games built.)
+. Always think a little bit (but not too much) about assessment.  The student knows they're
+ getting better because they are "leveling up".  The teacher knows the kid is getting better
+ because... how?  Game data is pushed up to a server... somehow?  Dunno if anyone is paying
+ attention to this   question, but it would be great if there were a simple way to allow teachers to
+ aggregate "high score" data, which really doubles as assessment data in cases like this.
+ A great start.  I look forward to seeing what it becomes.
+ --g
 ==Comments==