Pixelingo • Byte-Sized Language Learning • Pixel Art Game Design
Uh, what's Pixelingo? 🤔
It's common for education products to "gamify" learning experiences by adding elements you typically find in games. Things like experiences points (XP), levels, health, are common in one form or another, and their purpose is clear — to make learning fun.
That's all good and well.
But why not just make a straight-up game?
A game with an educational purpose, to be sure, but a game nonetheless. And just pitch it as a game, because that's what it's envisioned as: a game with educational content.
This thought process has given rise to Pixelingo, a not-so-cleverly-named pixel-based RPG where learning language content is how you level up, make progress, and generally make your low-res character look cooler.
Pixelingo a working idea in progress.
Here's a 60-second summary of some features I'm brewing:
CHARACTER CLASSES. These are your typical DnD-like character classes that give the game an RPG feel. You can choose classes like mage, scholar, adventurer, etc. These will influence the kind of learning content the game presents you with. And as you learn more and "level up" you're character will progress within that class. Don't like your class? You can always switch to a different one (though you'll probably have to spend some hearts or gold or something like that).
LEVELING UP. Increasing your level allows you to learn increasing interesting and complex content. It also unlocks items you can equip to do things like increase your health, etc. Another RPG element at work.
LEARNING FOR EVERYONE. This is just about the content. No matter your level of language proficiency — from total beginner to advanced — there's content available for you to learn with. If you don't know the writing system, you'll be able to learn it. If you're already a seasoned learner, you'll encounter advanced learning content. That's the intention, at least.
