Achievment Unlocked: 8 x 7 = 56

It seems simple to me, the idea of creating games for students that are both educational and fun. Take what is already an essentially fun concept and add in educational elements. Maybe it's because I'm so obsessed with video games already, but there are some basic elements missing from the majority of educational games today.

I got to thinking about this as I've gone through the process of creating my own game. It first started off as a simple multiplication game.

• Answer as many multiplication facts as you can in one minute.

Students have done this for a long time now. Everyone remembers when you'd be handed a worksheet containing a hundred math facts. You'd have a minute to solve them and be scored out of 100. Basic, simple idea. Take this idea, and now lets add an element that cannot be done with a worksheet.

• Every five problems correct in a row you will get an extra five seconds.

Now it not only reflects a basic score, but that score can be increased based on your knowledge of the facts. It adds skill. With these two simple concepts I managed to create a game that my students thought was pretty "fun." They competed each other for the high score and I would keep a list on my board in class of the top five. But what if I didn't need to keep score? What if the game could do it for me? So I added this idea to the game.

• The top twelve scores would be recorded and displayed on the front page of the game.

As soon as I did this, I noticed an increase in the motivation to play the game. I had a few students who were constantly battling it out to see who could get the highest score. But there were those students who gave up because "they would never make it to the high score list." Well, now I had to add a personal best score option to the game. To do this, I would need to create a user account for each student to track this progress.

• Students had to log in to the game using an ID and password. They would then be able to see their personal best score for the game.

Now students had a record they could break even if it didn't involve getting on the high score list. This is pretty much as far as I've gotten with this game, but the potential is really there, not just for this game but any other I can think of.


Where are the educational games that have a community high score list? Where are the games that allow you to interact against other students playing the game at the same time? Where are the games that allow you to unlock items, titles, or pets by achieving educational goals? If educational game makers would tap into the potential of persistent and interactive features that normal game makers have, student motivation would be a lot higher to play these games. Soon, I'll be adding in achievements to this multiplication game. Seriously, what educational game do you know of that has achievements?

Mad Minute (currently in closed testing with my class. This is the link to the version without community features.)