need flash game ideas 1

[kempis555]

I've been asked to make an online flash game.
Only problem is, it's for an environmental information site for kids, put up by the U.S. government! Oh joy!

The game must involve some species' populations over a period of time.
Fr'instance, the number of alligators in a county from 1985-1990.

The area is the Florida everglades.

I'm at a total loss as to how to make a fun game out of statistics.

Any ideas?

-k

 

[nichole]

Okay, this is early-on in the ol' brainstorming session I'm having, but here goes...

background is the everglades
time period is displayed and illustrated (modern = plane flies by, etc.)
two species are shown in foreground
"Which was there more of in this time period?"
They click on it.
If they're wrong, they go again.
If they are right, they get a piece of the animal there was more of (ex. alligators tail) to use to construct a new animal to the side of the game.
So they go through the game, acquiring pieces and parts of these animals, which they can drag and drop to the side to construct some new crazy species.

Man, that would be a little too complicated for me to take on, but maybe you can use it somehow? I'll keep thinking.

Good luck

(extra idea: the game could calculate how many turns they've taken, so one kid has constructed a species in 10 turns, while another did it in 5) - nichole

 

[kempis555]

Thanks Nichole, I like the idea of having a goal to work towards... putting the whole animal together.
Comparing numbers doesn't sound very fun though, unless I can make it so that they have to read a chart. O'course, that doesn't sound like much fun either. :-(

I wonder maybe if I can get them to build the chart by picking animals and dates?
Ugh, this is tuff!

-k

 

[nichole]

This idea is half-baked, but the chart you mentioned made me think of the memory card game, where you put the cards in rows and columns and then take turns trying to find matching pairs. I'm still trying to figure out how to merge the chart idea with the memory card idea, but maybe someone else can make that connection? Maybe instead of matching two alligator cards they match the alligator with the date? So they're revealing the chart as the match the sets?

Boy, this is tough. Whatever happened to that saying, "That's good enough for government work?" Government work seems a little hard to me.

I'll keep thinking... - nichole

 

[kempis555]

Hey Nichole,
That's a fabu idea!
I'll make the memory game that matches the animal with it's population number.

But they aren't just given the number, they have to figure it out off of a bar chart.

Sweet! This has been a corker of a dilly of a pickle.
You get a star!


-K