Other Games: Puzzles

Puzzle games like Tetris tap into quick thinking skills, and visual spatial abilities of the player. Physics puzzles like Angry Birds, Construction Fall, or Amazing Alex offer the opportunity to work a problem over and over again, testing, assessing, and revising the plan of action. The standard system of offering stars for the quality of the level completion, and locking certain levels until certain prerequisites are met also increase motivation and replay opportunities.

In my classroom, my physical science students recently completed a group project in which they had to design, construct, and test a Rube Goldberg contraption, which incorporated a number of simple machines. I could see incorporating a game like Construction Fall as either an introductory activity, to get students thinking about different creative ways to incorporate elements of the machine, or challenging them to recreate a complex level in real life. As an extension, I would possibly have them work with a game design system, like Sploder, to create their own levels, which would have to meet certain criteria, and then challenge their classmates to complete the levels.