Learning by playing Games is an en-masse concept now. But, did you know that this mass dynamic dive of educational game development for kids is a result of a serious issue? No, we are not talking about the universal paradigm shift on ‘Play-to-learn’ for kids, of course. It is a knowledge paradise as we would say it, that educational game apps brought in a colossal sunshine in the form of Educational Game Development.
Well, we are talking about the pressing issue amongst the kids. Where the kids who fall in the 5-11 year age group, those little brains who are glued to 35 mins long periods in schools with 4 such back to back periods. While all they have is the 11-30 mins attention span. And, these sprints for sure have caused the dropping concentration and creativity influx. (all this while). Neurologically Speaking: Boredom is a primary cause of distraction and pretty well-known amongst kids. But, for the longest time distractions were clubbed to technological advancements.
Coming to that million dollar question, how to tackle the development of short attention spans in kids at an early age? Educational Game Apps. Right from accelerating interest, sparking creativity, and making learning fun in a way that kids concentrate on their studies rather than dreading to study. Without a doubt, educational games are a progressive solution to these modern problems. But! But! But! How do you make learning games for kids that don’t suck? Well, we are here to answer that for you using this blog, So, Read Along!
The Rise of Educational Game Development for Kids
We’d go with the experts, statistics and flashy market reports here. Educational game apps are the best thing since sliced bread (in the learning genre). We mean this and we promise even you’d confirm once you unravel the pool of benefits it has via this blog.
Why an Accelerator? Just like VR games blurs the lines between real life and virtual gaming experiences. Educational games have occupied that pioneering position where it vanishes the gap between learning and playing. It is the symphony that accelerates learning and knowledge gaining, without the kids having to go that extra mile of drilling themselves down to mainstream learning. A constraint free approach, indeed.
Why Constraint Free? Technology might have been subjected to a ‘Step-out’ for kids for the longest time. But, it’s not always that technology will stand on the vices when it comes to kids or learning. It is scientifically proven that games are a positive pick for the kids and is actually pivoting the learning journey for them.
The Pool of Benefits: Before starting with the pool of benefits let us tell you the educational games market is to hit a shinny hike of USD 20.58 billion by 2030. And, this is not based on any shaky ethics. Because it is surrounded by cognitive, emotional and other benefits quadruply.
Cognitive Benefits | Educational game apps have a multifarious facet that slingshot the capabilities and potential in kids. While making learning fun and easy for the kids, it helps them develop reasoning skills, hand-eye coordination with in-game challenges, multi-tasking by having to score up in games and rightly defeat the enemies, to build up their concentration levels. Besides these, crucial traits like logic and strategic thinking is driven up whilst the kids play the games and develop strategy to follow in order to win through. |
Emotional Intelligence | Coming to Emotional intelligence, educational game apps will have a bigger share. Because it has gone beyond ordinary in terms of developing traits in kids via games. Right from boosting their self-confidence at an early age through solvable challenges to rewarding them for mini-victories. Not just that, it has drilled in their way to equip the kids with real-life skills like stress management, encounters to failure and defeat. More like educational games are a holistic set-up. Something that |
Other Benefits | Beyond the creative spins, that accelerates the creativity amongst kids. Educational games peak up the traits amongst little humans like memory building, higher imagination levels, grip over spatial activities. But, apart from all that and more. Educational game apps are dynamically designed as a skill-set-store for the kids, but with a dollop of fun. |
It is true that all work and no play makes a human ho-hum. And, it is also true that modern problems need modern solutions. So, unequivocally the solution here is educational game development for kids, in both the scenarios.
However, that’s there! But, what actually goes at the foundation level to accord the kids with all those above mentioned benefits? And, over that to usher up from the sea of such intellectual game apps, you need to keep certain things in mind.
Guide for Educational Game Development
To be precise, educational game apps are a playground for kids. A modern age playground where intellectual lessons are wrapped up with games. But, to develop these games is not a walk in the park. Especially not when you are not well-versed with what types of games you want to build + what features are you aiming + what gap exactly are you trying to fill by pitching your educational game.
1. Decide the Type of Game
- There are a myriad of types when it comes to educational games. And, each stands true to serve the purpose.
- Right from Puzzle games where skills like problem solving and critical thinking is boosted. On the other hand, there are language games where on the landscape of interactive challenges kids are set onto the path of learning languages.
- And, that’s not all. There are other myriad of games like number games for math skills, creating and connecting games to polish up their creativity & cognitive abilities. Plus, there’s those quiz games with a standard approach of building decision-making abilities.
2. Design a Storyline & Platform
- Storytelling in casual games is a non-negotiable part. Your educational game should have an apt storyline as a base. And, decide the platform for your app, cross platform or mobile apps.
- You need to develop an adventure or a game that rightly draws the kids to the required purpose or lesson.
3. Select the UI/UX
- Let us give you a secret – while getting into the nitty gritty of educational game development. You need to make sure that educational games are not like any other games. And, likewise the UI/UX should be tweaked to approach the kids.
- Don’t miss the plot here. The games that you are investing into are pitched to the kids and the parents. So, make sure the navigation is smooth, creative and garbs the kids in no time.
- At this stage, you can unleash your creativity to the max. Make it as wonderland-ish as possible to make it to the list of favorites for your target audiences.
4. Fix the Player Modes
- It’s all about whether kids can play with their friends or not. So, if your educational game development for kids is not a multiplayer game. Then this is a bad sign, or even worse.
- Take note of this: Educational game apps of yours should be open to multiplayer game modes. This will work dually- it will fetch in more users on your app and on the hindsight help the users to learn while playing together.
5. Create the Challenges & Reward Section
- When it comes to educational games for kids, you need to have a proper distinction between challenging levels. Yes, you should set a degree of difficulty, and simultaneously rewards for the same.
- However, rewards should be imperative on your games. Mainly, as rewards will work as that little piece of motivation amongst the kids.
- On the other hand, what these challenges and regards section will inculcate is problem solving and sense of accomplishments amongst the children. But, there is a condition precedent for this– the challenges have to be creative and engaging which make it comparatively simpler for the children to adapt to it.
6. In-Game Mechanisms
- It is the in-game mechanisms that create a fun infused learning environment for the kids.
- Primarily it is the boredom-kickers in your game that will lead the kids to distraction-free immersive environments. Where your in-game mechanisms will let them dive into a learning environment without any deliberate or conscious efforts.
7. Set up a Monetization Bar
- We know it’s quite obvious that you’d be sourcing out streams of returns on the app that you invest in. But, let us tell you there are plenty of lucrative ROI streams that can be plotted on your app just like on any other app.
- Having said that, on the app you can have advertisement bars, premium game levels, in-game purchases etc. Voila this will fetch you the returns ancillary to the primary pitching of the app.
- Plus, you can add any such modern stream of Returns that comes into the educational game market.
How much does it Cost to Develop an Education Game App?
Cost is a crucial factor as we all know it for a fact. And, while the app is multi-clustered with benefits and surging in the market. We for sure know that you’d be pondering on how much it would cost to get such an app developed.
So, in that case let us hand you out the factors that will influence the cost of development. Factors like in-game mechanism, the UX/UX that you choose to go with on the app and the complexity of the game at the core. Now, those are the factors that affect the core but then there are other factors too like the levels, the graphics, the dynamics and the game engines you choose. For example the VR infused game would cost a tad bit more than the usual educational game app would cost. But, then again the features will be unique and dynamic.
The Icing Advice: if you want to build educational games that empower students and encourage them to adapt to innovation easily you can connect with business experts and pitch your idea to get an exact quote. They know the ins and outs of the educational game market and will be able to cater to your requirements sufficiently.
To Wrap Up
Educational game apps are undoubtedly the future. And, if you drop a view on the market share that is colossal currently and data suggest an even bigger hike at a 22.59% CAGR by 2030. Well, the flashy future of this stream is no brainer right there. Now, this is again imperative considering how big of a benefit bank these apps are. So, this is a big deal of progressive genre to invest in by connecting to an Educational game development company. Because, the swap from mainstream learning to game based learning will continue to be a modern survival mode fostered and powered by factual promises. And, you should plot your margins by your app in this upscaling market as soon as possible.