Ludo Labs
Overview
A former co-worker and I were given an opportunity to create a game tabletop game for kids at a local middle school. We designed a card game that would teach the students vocabulary words and figurative language and wrapping it in a fantasy roleplaying framework.
Role
Creative direction, Game design, UI/UX design, Asset creation, User research, A-B Testing.
Vocab word cards
Players were given a series of word cards that needed to be used in a sentence to either, decribe an action they would take, or something their character would say when performing an action.
"Your boisterous attitude will not intimidate us!"
"Your boisterous attitude will not intimidate us!"
Action Log
The Action Log was the equivalent of a worksheet for a normal school assignment. This was created so the kids would have something to turn in at the end of the exercise. Players would record the sentence they came up with and write down the vocab word as well as the part of speech. Teachers would be able to assign XP to the students characters based on how challenging the sentence was that the student used. This created a system where the students were encouraged to push themselves to use difficult words for greater rewards rather than just enough to finish the worksheet.
Monster Cards
We created a series of monster cards for players to fight while they were exploring a dungeon. The players would all be on one team and playing against the monster they encountered by using vocabulary words and rolling dice. This created great teamwork and strategizing between the students since they all failed or succeeded together.
Figurative Language
Players would also encounter situations that required the use of figurative language to overcome a challenge. While there wasn't truly a way to fail these encounters, the sentences the students came up with were incredibly funny and the kids were very excited to share what they came up with.
Pictures
Overall, the test was a wonderful success. The kids were very focused the entire time and it showed just how well using games to engage with students could work.
