Karl Hendrikse

Develop a video game to teach users concepts of rhythm in a fun, immersive way

Targeted to teenagers/adults of average gaming/musical competence

Rhythm is important – a fundamental human skill

People aren’t that great at rhythm I’m interested in rhythm

That’s what the kids are into these days Want to build on success of other

edutainment titles, investigate improvements

Play with plastic instruments...

...and match colored markers as they scroll towards you

They do get people thinking about music; make people a bit more rhythmical

Music is kind of presented in a blur Some bits can be pretty tricky/cerebral –

require practice Don’t reward the player for investing in

the musical content – not much immersion in the music

Commonly for kids, sometimes for adultsChildren’s math tutorsProfessional flight simulators

Generally developed on behalf of teachers to teach people things they need to know

Often give up a lot of the ‘tainment’ for the sake of ‘edu’

Generally quite narrow in content

More like ‘tools’ than actual ‘tutors’

With a teacherRequires a teacher

Without a teacherRequires effort and motivation from the

user

En

tert

ain

me

nt

Education

En

tert

ain

me

nt

Education

Bad teacher

Very good teacher

Good teacher

With

teach

er

En

tert

ain

me

nt

Education

Halo Guitar Hero

Bad teacher

Very good teacher

Good teacher

With

teach

er

Flight simulator

En

tert

ain

me

nt

Education

Halo Guitar Hero

Bad teacher

Very good teacher

Good teacherMath Blaster

With

teach

er

Flight simulator

En

tert

ain

me

nt

Education

Halo Guitar Hero

Bad teacher

Very good teacher

Good teacherMath Blaster

Textbook

With

teach

er

Tutor software

Flight simulator

En

tert

ain

me

nt

Education

Halo Guitar Hero

Bad teacher

Very good teacher

Goalarea

Good teacherMath Blaster

Textbook

With

teach

er

Tutor software

Flight simulator

Have been building the application in C++ using Direct3D 9

User interface built from scratch Very much styled as a video game

All the content is split into subject areas Within each subject area are a few

gameplay parts, which are short (say 1 minute) challenges

Various different gameplay modes ‘Slideshows’ explain new concepts with

musical examples Interactive bits – counting, rhythm

matching, drumming challenges Lots of examples of music using the

specific concept being taught

Like levels in a game – unlock one by one

Content goes from easy to hard as the user progresses

Subjects are split into intro, basic, intermediate and advanced

Drum kit (Wii version) has a Wiimote inside, connects via Bluetooth

Getting the Wiimote library all working and hacking it to support the drum kit

Initially used DirectSound for audio Latency was very bad – around 80ms ASIO library is better – around 30ms

80ms

Hit on snare drum

Audio response from program

Layout of gameplay sections, rhythms, slideshows etc. all defined in text files

Reload while running – easy tweaking of content

Demo goes here

More content User testing Achievements Polish