#Non game version for education / training

17 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

cobalt pawn
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Maybe sold for more as a DLC or a separate product.

May help with video games restrictions in some countries.

May keep some gamification aspects like scoring.

fierce wind
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You could argue the TC we have is a learning tool, not a game

shell gyro
# fierce wind You could argue the TC we have is a learning tool, not a game

While I agree, the problem is that it’s sold on Steam (edit: and GoG) as a game and it has a number of elements of game-like design and styling. In some places where games have different regulations from educational software, it might be hard to convince someone that TC (in it’s current form) shouldn’t be considered a game (this applies to several countries, but also would matter for school environments- something that’s explicitly branded as an educational tool will likely go over better with administration when asking permission to install TC on school computers)

tl;dr I think this is a very good idea

spring lava
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Perhaps list out some ideas of what should be removed in order to meet the standards of an "education tool"? Is it simply a matter of slapping "education edition" on the Steam page and the title screen and moving on or are there specific elements that would intrinsically defeat that label?

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Or I guess things that could/must be added..?

cobalt pawn
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non game version for me this means the whole alien story needs to be removed and replaced with introduction / self teaching guiding content. Maybe the progression logic should be changed to allow to access any "content/level" from the start.

spring lava
# cobalt pawn non game version for me this means the whole alien story needs to be removed and...

I'm not sure how either of those would make it more "educational". Lots of teaching content has motivational stories, and I don't know that the alien is any worse than other similar examples. As for being able to skip ahead.. I guess I could see that if a teacher was trying to use TC to teach an advanced course and didn't want the students wasting time on "simple" content.. though I would argue that the game diverges from useful teaching mechanics fairly quickly (basically with the switch and delay lines, as there's not really comparable components in real digital design - at least not on the level TC is working from.. switches "kind of" emulate certain things you can do by dropping to the transistor level.. delay lines are just kind of hokey and nothing comparable has been used in real world practice for decades).

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but still, I could see some use for having a teacher-controlled unlock mechanism.. which brings up perhaps a more important "educational" aspect - licensing.. I don't know that its particularly functional to require all students to individually have steam and/or gog accounts so some sort of class/school licensing would be required.. no idea how that would look but I can see it being a fairly large blocker for most educational institutions

heavy glen
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"Nothin comparable (to delay lines) has been used in the real world in decades" is just wrong: they wre exactly D flip flops with a hidden clock input. This can easily be reframed for an audience where this is important information

spring lava
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with a hidden clock input
Soo.. not really a flip flop (see discussion from months and months ago).. we could say the switch is "exactly an AND gate with a special output state". I mean, yes that's technically true.. but I'd still argue its not really comparable. But anyway I think #semantic-pedantics if this conversation needs continuation 😛

fierce wind
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I can definitely see some room for changes with an educational version - for example, my school's internet has Steam blocked and the teacher who manages the network has no control over that

manic kayak
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This is a valid concern, not just in bureaucratic terms but also in terms of social suitability. For example, I don't think my kids school is going to like the idea of telling kids that they're kidnapped by aliens and will be eaten as animals if they can't build a computer. Won't go over well in the average educational environment. Even if it's a joke it wouldn't be viewed as one.

still swan
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It's important to have motivation but I'm not sure there is an optimal story. Too many cultures. It could be abstracted out tho - add a layer/framework to the edu version for arranging or selecting the puzzles, setting the rules between puzzles, and providing a story.

tight dagger
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this is more school-friendly I guess?

spring lava
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or they need your help to save them from .. something .. despite even their lowly interns being capable of adding entire chunks of functionality to circuits for zero cost

heavy glen