Adventure Games for Technical Education and Training

This project seeks to develop the first in a series of computer-based adventure games for scientific and technical education, and the authoring tools needed to develop the games at an acceptable cost. The games will provide technical training to National Guard soldiers at home. The project builds on a recent Navy effort that examined the effectiveness of an adventure game, Electro Adventure, in a Navy School. Unlike popular adventure games, Electro Adventure provides instruction in technical subjects that have challenging qualitative and quantitative problem- solving requirements. This project will create a cost-effective system for developing games like Electro Adventure. Phase I will produce a specification of the features and capabilities of such games and a complete design of one such game. In Phase II, the authoring tools needed to create games specified in Phase I will be developed and used to implement the game designed in Phase I. Anticipated Benefits/Potential Applications - The games produced by this enterprise will bring known benefits of computer- based training to adult learners at an acceptable cost, helping them to master complex scientific and technical subjects. Markets for the games and the cost-effective authoring tools include military training, public and private education, technical training in industry, and home study.