[Tux4kids-tuxtype-dev] Tux4kids-tuxtype-dev Digest, Vol 16, Issue 18

[Zach Elko]

Hello,


2009/3/21 sreyas k <k.sreyas at gmail.com>

> Hi,
>
>
>>
>> Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:31:38 -0400
>> From: Zach Elko <zachelko at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [Tux4kids-tuxtype-dev] GSoC Potential Student Introduction
>> To: tux4kids-tuxtype-dev at lists.alioth.debian.org
>> Message-ID:
>>        <35d671480903201831w3877d6e9k3df7cdbf7c8b2f0f at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>
>> Hi Folks!
>>
>> My name is Zach Elko, and I'm a 4th year Computer Science student with a
>> concentration in Game Development at Ball State University in Indiana,
>> USA.
>> This would be my 3rd year doing GSoC, working for OpenMRS and Mixxx in the
>> past 2 years.
>>
>> Being a game programmer, my interest in Tux4Kids is obvious, and I
>> actually
>> applied last year as well for those of you that may remember (some of your
>> names are quite familiar to me), although I wasn't accepted to this
>> organization.
>>
>> I'd like to apply for the hangman game within TuxType, as well as the
>> configuration of the word lists that accompanies it. I feel these 2 items
>> can be strongly linked in that having a nice way to configure word lists
>> would make the game experience a lot better.
>>
>> The great thing for me is that I've actually developed a command line
>> hangman game a number of years ago in C++, and have been meaning to
>> convert
>> it into a graphical application using SDL or QT 4. Having an opportunity
>> like this to continue work on a project that I created myself, but at the
>> same time have it benefit others is quite a luxury!
>>
>> If anyone has any questions/comments for me, feel free to shoot me an
>> e-mail, either privately or via this list.
>>
>> I look forward to hearing back, thanks!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>  Zach J. Elko
>>
>
> Hi  Roy and Zach,
>
> Good to know that you are interested in tuxtype.  The hangman game is added
> into the tuxtype game so that  kids could start learning the spelling and
> the meaning of different words of the language of their choice. What we plan
> to add is something different from hangman. Since it is an educational game
> for kids, we  could not add games which involves hanging (especially Tux).
> So we plan to add something different. What I have in my mind is maybe a
> snowman which melts with each wrong answer. Also this game is not just a
> simple hangman. We first provide the meaning  of the word to the user as a
> clue. For this we add a dictionary support (from openoffice maybe) and words
> should be taken from this dictionary. This game should support all the
> languages. Anyway, start learning the tuxtype code if you are interested in
> doing this.
>
> You could also give in your ideas about the game.
>

I like the idea of giving some context to the hangman-like game. In fact,
after I had my prototype version of hangman written, I began to think about
how I could do just that. Given, hangman by itself isn't too useful, so the
first thing I thought about was using it to teach, whether it be word
meanings or spellings, I wasn't sure. However, implementing this style of
game into TuxType makes a lot of sense because you essentially achieve 3
things at once: You introduce kids to new words and their meanings, You
teach them how to spell them, and you improve their typing skills. This is a
very transparent learning process and I'm of the opinion that this form of
learning tends to be one of the most effective.

As for the gameplay, I totally understand the need to do something "else"
rather than hanging! I like your idea of a melting snowman. A twist on that
could be that instead of a snowman melting, with each correctly
spelled/typed word, they build a snowman. Then, the motivation is to get the
biggest and most complete snowman they can, whether this be height wise, or
all fitted out with snowman accessories, like a hat, nose, etc... An idea I
had for the melting snowman was that we could have Tux on the screen with
him and maybe Tux is keeping the snowman cool with a fan or something as
long as the player is performing well, but if they slip up his fan loses
power or something of that sort. Something like this may make the experience
more immersive if they can see the interaction between their performance and
Tux as they both try to keep the snowman cool.

I hope to have a formal application in by the weekend. My school work has
picked up right at the start of the SoC process, so it is a bit frustrating
to not be able to devote large chunks of time to this, but I'll make time!

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Cheers,
  Zach J. Elko
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