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Educational Biology Games


The Pezman
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So for my research, I'm designing and implementing an educational biology game in order to teach players about the immune system. Part of that is discovering what's already out there so that we can be sure to be different. The biggest one I've found is Immune Attack, which was released just last month (and ONLY runs on XP x32, which has made it surprisingly difficult to find a decent machine to run it on). Are there any other games of this kind out there that you know of?

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Microsoft developed a game for PC in 1995 called AnnaTommy: An Adventure into the Human Body, a Fantastic Voyage styled video game for children, published by IVI Publishing, Inc. The game is still readily available and usually for under $5. It consisted of educating children about the human body as a whole, sectioning the game into the different systems of the body, i. e. nervous system, vascular system, etc. Each system was explained with a short introduction followed by a mini-game that had players completing a task normally carried out by the body, such as breaking up blood platlets, collecting oxygen molecules for blood cells, etc. I can't quite remember the task for the immune system, though I think it involved destroying contaminants with your ship's cannon. It wasn't particularly deep or lengthy, but did stimulate my interest enough in the subject.

After looking at that Immune Attack site, it actually did remind me of AnnaTommy, but it was solely a 2-D game, and not a 3-D one. As far as I can see, there really isn't a great deal of video games geared toward the human immune system. Still, of those that are available, they seem to share the common thread of acting out the immune system's tasks by having shrunken spaceships shooting foreign objects at a microscopic level. This approach seems a bit oxymoronic and is definitely a little cliche'.

Hope your idea is something more original and engaging.

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I was reading about this kid in the paper a week or two ago. He's 14, made his own TCG, and is in talks with Wizards of The Coast. It's a chemistry based battle system.

"Argon! I CHOOSE YOU!"

"Haa, fool! You fell for my trap! Oxidization! With this trap card in play, all metal-based attacks are nullified, and each turn weaken while in play!"

"No! I knew I should have believed in the covalence of the cards!"

... Or so I would imagine a game would go.

Maybe there is room for more educational games.

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"Argon! I CHOOSE YOU!"

"Haa, fool! You fell for my trap! Oxidization! With this trap card in play, all metal-based attacks are nullified, and each turn weaken while in play!"

Argon would be quite the powerhouse...very, very inert and resistant to reaction!

/nerd:<

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If it gives me an opportunity to say "Zinc!! Come back zinc! Come back!!" then maybe I'll play that game.

No. We need less Simpson's refs these days. I have had an entire conversation with someone, using only quotes from the Simpsons. I don't mean like, three or four quotes back and forth, more like ten. Each. It was odd, because using quotes in a flowing, coherent way was rather an odd sensation.

I never want to repeat that experience again.

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Microsoft developed a game for PC in 1995 called AnnaTommy: An Adventure into the Human Body, a Fantastic Voyage styled video game for children, published by IVI Publishing, Inc. The game is still readily available and usually for under $5. It consisted of educating children about the human body as a whole, sectioning the game into the different systems of the body, i. e. nervous system, vascular system, etc. Each system was explained with a short introduction followed by a mini-game that had players completing a task normally carried out by the body, such as breaking up blood platlets, collecting oxygen molecules for blood cells, etc. I can't quite remember the task for the immune system, though I think it involved destroying contaminants with your ship's cannon. It wasn't particularly deep or lengthy, but did stimulate my interest enough in the subject.

Thank you. I will look into this.

After looking at that Immune Attack site, it actually did remind me of AnnaTommy, but it was solely a 2-D game, and not a 3-D one. As far as I can see, there really isn't a great deal of video games geared toward the human immune system. Still, of those that are available, they seem to share the common thread of acting out the immune system's tasks by having shrunken spaceships shooting foreign objects at a microscopic level. This approach seems a bit oxymoronic and is definitely a little cliche.

Thanks. That's also good to know.

Hope your idea is something more original and engaging.

I'm a first time developer, so no promises on how engaging it will be, but I can say there are no space/body ships in this game.

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Hey man, don't knock Parasite Eve. I aced two of my 9th grade biology tests thanks to that game. True it wasn't the game so much as it was the curiosity of what mitochondria and cellular mitosis were really about, but if it weren't for the associations that I made through the game... Well I might not be giving a shit about biology at all today.

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If a game motivates you to learn more about a given subject, that's great. But unless the game itself teaches you factual information, it can't really be called educational. About the only true biology fact I gleaned out of that game is that the expenditure of mitochondrial energy causes aging (discussed in the "End of Aging" thread in offtop). I love the game (and am not knocking it), but can't consider it educational.

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I know, dude. I'm just goofin'. :P

But it's still true that a bunch of games can indirectly educate on a bunch of different subjects.

I don't know of any games that might help with educating students on biology save for the one that I helped write music for that the game department here on campus was working on. It was a cartoony RTS that took place inside the human body and you played as armies of antibodies trying to eradicate viruses and diseases trying to kill the body. Think Osmosis Jones meets Starcraft. It was a pretty cool concept, but it was just a student project that they were never able to finish from what I can tell...

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I'm a first time developer, so no promises on how engaging it will be, but I can say there are no space/body ships in this game.

That's great to hear that you're trying something different. As far as engaging goes, an interesting and thought-provoking story is a good start. (Of course that's easier said than done.) Anyway, good luck with the project.

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Hmm...I can't truly think of many biologically educational games that I've ever played, since most edutainment titles simply don't include great gameplay.

The only two exceptions I can think of though, are 3D Body Adventure (Which, oddly enough, I just found today over at a flea market for $4) and The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body. I used to love both of those when I was a little kid, toying around on my dad's old Packard Bell. Neither of them really had what I'd call great gameplay though, they're more nostalgic trips for me than anything.

Ahh, the good ol' days...

I was thinking though...for a game based on the immune system, might that include the lymphatic system? It's definitely intertwined with immunity. I just had a random thought that made me want to post this, and it's possible that it could be worked into the storyline of a game like yours, but isn't one of the effects of weightlessness (Such as being in space) that the lymphatic system no longer functions? I vaguely remember from a biology class that the lymph system relies on gravity to push that weird lymph....stuff...through the lymph...vein-things. Who knows, maybe the game could take place inside the lymphatic system of an astronaut, and the player is a...uhm...a nanobot or something, that's monitoring the astronaut's vital signs. But then, that really goes back to the cliche of the tiny ship inside the body thing that I know you're trying to avoid, and I can't blame you for wanting to stay away from that; it's been done to death.

It's just a thought though, and to be honest I'm really bored.

But yeah, best of luck to you on making this happen :)

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