Game that improves social skils

This project was a project for the subject Research & Design. I needed to come up with a game that improved social skills of young children. My client was Rik Janssen, a worker within Parnassys designteam by Topicus Onderwijs. Janssen is in charge of many ICT projects, that are focused on primary education. At the start of the project, I had done a lot of theoretical research. Out of these results, I made the program requirements and started designing. The end result is called ‘Better Together’.

“In Better Together there are all kinds of achievements. The children can achieve these by playing minigames and gain XP. They need to get a specific amount of XP to level up. If a child played and won a minigame, he/she can also get some money. With their money they can buy stuff in the shop to personalise their character. Examples of this are: hair, clothing and accessories. A minigame can be played multiple times and the children can improve their own high scores.

A minigame plays men with other players, each with a different profession. At the start of the game men can choose a profession and each minigame needs different professions to be played. Therefore, children won’t only play with their friends constantly, because they need to socialize with others to find the professions they need for that specific minigame. As a result of this interaction, the children develop the social skill cooperating. If the children don’t find all the professions they need for the minigame they want to play, they can choose to replace a profession with another. This action will cause a lower amount of gained XP and money after the minigame.”

To illustrate what the game would be like, I made a representative in Marvelapp. The menu responds in the same way it would as in the real game. However, every change is an entire new image. It basically is a interactive slideshow. However, it illustrates the mechanics exactly like a real game would do.