ReproMania
A Card game that teaches types of reproductive systems to children- 13-16 years old
We redesigned age old Tic-Tac-Toe in our first assignment for our Game design module at IDC school of design, IIT Bombay. You can read about that here. The second assignment was to create a new game that would have an educational content from the NCERT textbooks of children from classes 6-7-8. We chose an unconventional topic of reproductive systems (which is most of the times never taught in schools and left for 'self study')
Images from NCERT textbook
To begin with, we wrote down the content that was covered in the textbooks. We took the examples given in the books so that children found it easier to relate. The many types of asexual reproduction systems like fission, vegetative propagation, budding etc. and two different kinds of sexual reproduction in plants and animals each (differing in the way of pollination and type of fertilization respectively). As we saw the different steps that exist in the systems, a game-play slowly started emerging. A game that asks the players to arrange the reproductive systems in the correct order. Some of the systems had more steps than some. Creating a sequence of the complex reproductive system could give more marks than the simpler ones (with just 2-3 steps).
Early sketches and Visualizations based on the types of reproductive systems from in class 6-7-8 NCERT science textbooks
ReproMania v1
We looked at existing card games for inspiration. Rummy is a game played with playing cards in which Players have to form sequences of numbers or make sets of the same deck or the same number. Initially some cards are distributed to the players and the rest of them are kept in a stack in between. The players take turns to pick one card from the stack and see if it helps form a better sequence with the cards in hand. If not, the card is dropped and the next player can choose the dropped card or from the stack. We decided to try playing this game with the content of reproductive systems. We made quick prototypes using simple white paper and merely writing step description on each of them.
The target of every player is to collect all the steps belonging to one reproductive system and then that particular organism is formed. Depending on whether it is a complex/ simple organism, you get respective points. After creating one organism you can start another round with more cards and create another organism. The player with maximum points wins!
Quick and Dirty Prototype no 1
ReproMania v2
After playing with Prototype v1 we figured out the reason behind using portrait format for playing cards! When held horizontally, you cannot see information clearly. Apart from that the prototype worked and so we made a better looking version of cards.
Pretty Prototype v2: Step numbers and brief description of the step written on the card
Levels
Rummy is not an easy game for a beginner.
A game inspired from that game-play with complex educational content is even difficult to teach.
A game inspired from that game-play with complex educational content is even difficult to teach.
To counter that, we decided there would be two levels of this game.
In level 1, all the cards are distributed and the players have to form the entire system on the table. This allowed the children to get familiar with the number of steps and types of reproductive systems beforehand.
These two card games were play-tested with children of class 6 and we found that they were able to follow concepts which were not there in their textbooks as well. Since the game covered some higher classes content, we had made a booklet that was used as a reference while playing. I tried out this game in a higher age group as well (18-22 years old) and they enjoyed it too.
Players playing Level 1 of ReproMania
Feedback from Play-testing
The players initially matched only the step numbers without reading the description mentioned on the cards. That hampered the learning aspect. When we removed the Step numbers from the cards, we found that even then the children did not read the description. This showed us that we had to make the cards rich with visuals and minimize the text.
An important we got from play-testing was a suggestion from the children. Once the steps were collected, some children got upset for not finishing earlier and they demanded that the Player who had finished an organism tell the proper order of the steps and if s/he gets the sequence right, only then will s/he get the final card! This proved to be the best game dynamics that emerged from the game and took the game spirit to another level!
In this last version we decided to make an entire deck of 52 cards. So we added some organisms to make a final set of 13 (with 4 steps each). The cards had minimal text and prominent visual cues that along with engaging the children, also kept them informed of the details of that particular step. This made them educative and yet not boring.
In the last version, we introduced three special cards- Exchange card, My turn card and a Joker!
ReproMania v3
The final play-testing was successful. The children played the game for two-three consecutive rounds without getting bored. In place of tiny cards, we made stickers of the 13 organisms which were given to the children once they completed an organism.
Here are some glimpses of the Play-testing and a video to show the Game mechanics.
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The 13 organisms with their reproductive system
