Monsters in My Toybox- Complete 4-30-15

[Kate]

Here is the FREE complete game download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9u3d4i1s4j7mp ... l.zip?dl=0

**Special thanks to Laniessa for the artwork and coloring help! Without her help, I would definitely not have this completed game to share with everyone!**

This is my learning game that reviews grammar for fourth graders that I completed for my college class.

Plot:
You are playing as either a girl or boy. You enter your name.
Your teddy bear narrates as you wake up and discover that your toys have turned into silly monsters. You aren't quite sure what to do, but you agree to help Teddy answer questions and turn the toys back into their harmless toy forms.
End twist below:

The final boss (art still incomplete on it, that's the only thing missing) is a "blankie monster." Oh, and the secret is revealed: You're actually dreaming and you find out that you had this dream because you forgot to do your homework.

Topics covered:
Homophones, Synonyms/antonyms, Fact/Opinion, pronouns, relative adverbs and reflexive pronouns, Capitalization and Fragments/Run-ons/Complete sentences, punctuation and silly comma errors/meaning.
-Follows Common Core in the topics I picked for the game.

Features:
-Scores shown after the "final boss" final quiz, and at the end of each lesson.
-Extra practice questions that don't count against the student.

I worked so many hours on this, my brain is mush right now. Let me know if you find any errors and I'll correct them. Please let me know what you think and if you use it

[Zhyx25]

it seem interesting .. im going to try it right now ..

*downloading*

[Norbez]

Playing through this game. As someone who wants to be a teacher, I thought this game taught a lot to fourth graders. The material is covered very well, and with extensive effort. Nice work!

I did find some flaws, though. I felt some questions were a bit confusing, mainly for the synonyms and antonyms. There were some cases where two words qualified as a synonym or antonym, so I guess you want the student to pick the best answer? (I'll attached some pictures where I found cases like these, where two answers could be considered "right", when I finish the game.)

On one hand, I like the childness of the voice-acting. But I do feel that some students might want an authority figure in-game, an "adult" to listen to/follow. I know Barry was that figure, but since he was voiced by a child, he didn't feel enough like an authority figure; maybe consider him getting voiced by an adult? I also felt that the parts that needed to be read most (mainly, the text that taught the lessons) had no voice-acting.

You really covered a lot of grammar material in this game, and I really liked that. Your review questions before the quizzes were also well done, because some fourth-graders might know this, while others may not. Kids who don't know the material would find it very helpful; kids who don't may want to just take the quiz and save the toys. Maybe make the review skippable for those who know the material?

I think sound design would have done a lot for this game. Maybe a special music piece when you get questions right, and another when you get a question wrong?

Like this so far.

[Juno]

I agree with Norbez that having special music play when you get an answer correct, and another for when you get an answer incorrect, would be a nice touch.

Playing through the game--I really enjoy the concept of the game. My favorite part was using commas and the hints that followed.

There were a few areas in which I think could be improved for the sake of fourth grade understanding, but overall the game was very informative and good. I do feel like each section of the game needed to be broken up a little better. After you complete each section (because those sections are pretty long), it should prompt the student to save their work and maybe ask if they'd like to exit or continue with the lesson. Regardless, it should automatically save once the lesson is complete because fourth graders have smaller attention spans than us adults.

I thought the in-between scenes of each lesson could be a little bit longer, too. These kids will work hard to finish these lessons and should get a nice little break for a little longer, and a better reward for completing them. Maybe even give them collectable "trophies" or something at the end that they can see all together, and maybe go back and finish each section by itself if they are having problems.

I did not get a screen cap of the "jell-O" question, but I believe I put "capitalize" and it said incorrect although Jell-O is a registered trademark of Kraft.

Here is an attached file below of screen caps of specific parts of the game and some of my opinions.

[Norbez]

@Juno:

Wow, nice screenshot comments, and really good points. You got pretty much all the screens I was going to post, actually. Also, that save suggestion is a great idea! ^^

[Qeedy]

Hello, i just play your game. I really enjoy it, it really educative for me because my native language isn't English. I'm sorry i can't say anything about the grammar or something like that because i still learn about this and i'm not use to grammar.
Maybe one note : you make the Main Character floating in the screen, the first time i see it i think its is a ghost, but he/she is not. And nice voice over in there, they really cute.

[Kate]

Thank you for the wonderful and helpful comments! I will get to editing some of these questions and re-uploading when I have some free time. Also, I'm glad someone noticed the little flaws! I was very rushed to complete it (and completely human- definitely not an android, lol!). But I am very honored that you took the time to play through it and try it out This made my day! It's my first solo project coding-wise; I'm happy to say I'm taking a coding class to help improve the quality and variety I can add into my games. The game wouldn't have been so cute or possible at all without the generous artwork and voice acting. Thanks for the feedback

[EricaLee22]

I really enjoyed this one, it was so much fun and even though my native language is English, it was educational for me! The artwork is great too