As part of my Instructional Technology Masters program at Bloomsburg University I attended a class on instructional game design.  Throughout the class we were challenged with developing a series of proposals for instructional games that could be developed for a variety of devices and needs.  It was an absolute blast and one of my favorite classes out of the entire program.  

Over the next few months I'm going to post the top three games that I proposed for a few reasons.  First, I enjoyed creating the proposals and want to share them.  Secondly, in the interest of sharing if you're reading this and interested in creating non-commercial work based off of them...feel free.   Thirdly, I'd like to hear your feedback.  What could I have done better or included?

With the exposition taken care of...let's get started.

Cast:
Dr. Quentin Dentin: Dr. Dentin is the world’s greatest dentist.  He thinks you have potential and has hired you as his assistant!  A long the way the good Dr. will help you play the game and learn how to properly care for your patients teeth as well as your own. 
Dr. Quentin is good-natured and will initially help you understand how to use the tools of the trade.  In the end you can challenge him to a head to head battle to see who can identify and clean the most challenging of patient’s teeth.  

Patients:  Your patients suffer from a number of gross particles that plague their teeth.  It’s your job to clean their teeth and make them happy!  A patient’s emotional state will change as you clean their teeth.  A bad job will make them angry or sad while a good job will make them happy.  All patients start out in a neutral state. 

You:  You are Dr. Dentin’s only assistant and you are well on your way to becoming the world’s greatest dentist yourself.  Learn all you can from Dr. Dentin in order to learn how to properly care for your patient’s teeth!

Plot:
While the game loads a sequence of animations will display showing your graduation from dental school, seeing a job post for the world’s greatest dental assistant, calling Dr. Dentin, getting the job, and then finally traveling to Cavity city.    
When the game begins Dr. Dentin will provide a hands on tutorial showing you how to use the dental pick, toothbrush, and floss to clean a patient’s teeth. You can practice as long as you like until you’re ready to begin. 

When the actual game play begins you will be given a certain amount of time to clean each of your patient’s teeth.  You must be able to identify which tool needs to be used to remove each type of particle before the time runs out.  You must also use the tool properly or your patient will get mad at you and cost Dr. Dentin a customer. 

At the end of each round an animated Dr. Dentin will review your work and either congratulate you or express his disappointment with any missing particles.  These are his patients you’re working on and he wants them all to have the cleanest teeth possible. 

In the final round of the game you can go head to head with Dr. Dentin to claim your title as the greatest Dentist in the world!  If you win Dr. Dentin will pass the title to you.  If you lose he will make you practice on more of his patient’s before accepting another challenge.

Suggested Components: 

• iPad touch interface: flick, drag, drop, tap, slide 
• Save/Load UI 
• Hit detection and speed monitoring affecting game play 
• Can’t hit mouth with tools or use them too quickly or slowly. 
• 2D rendering

​Next on my list is a game developed to teach children math based on Matlock, a popular daytime TV show.