Advisor

• Dr. Min Liu

Degree

• Masters

Abstract

Educational games are digital games designed specifically for education. Educational game developers need to take pedagogy into consideration when designing games for learning. Otherwise, students will fail to recognize the curricular value in the game. In 2017, Alien Rescue (AR), an online problem-based 3D immersive learning environment for sixth grade science, released its 6th iteration. The stability that this version of AR has provided is welcomed by schools that collaborate with the AR team. However, the AR team wants to offer more than just stability in the long run, but to also better address students’ learning in science. As a member of the AR team, I intend to review university-created educational games to gain insights so that we can make better enhancements for AR. Through comparing four university-developed educational games, the report summarizes four points that the AR team could consider in making improvements: (a) evaluating the necessity of switching to Unity3D based on future development needs; (b) continuing to prioritize web support; (c) extending the implementation of current game mechanisms with new features; (d) developing derivative versions based on Alien Rescue.