Last month I put a post up asking people to try my game Deserted Island Adventure for free, so long as they got back to me about how the game was and if I worked for them or not.
I sent out 4 of games and got back 2 responses in total, so far. Let’s take a look at each and what they had to say about the game.
I sent out 4 of games and got back 2 responses in total, so far. Let’s take a look at each and what they had to say about the game.
ESL in Kiev, Ukraine
Kiev I got an email from Markus, an American teacher working at a British school in Kyiv. Markus tried the game with his Saturday English Clubs. He reports that they “enjoyed the game” and “liked the aspect that they were able to ‘die’ in the game. It added to the tension and fun of it.”
Markus also mentions that some of the students that don’t usually talk as much in class struggled with the game, the game moved too slow at times, and most thought it should have been longer. Dice for each group was another thing that Markus mentioned might be a good idea.
Overall it sounds like there’s a lot of room for improvement. Many of the students that struggled might have done better with more pictures, and many that wanted the game to last longer could have done with more chances to explore the island.
Overall it’s a good place for teachers to start, and once you get the game you can easily add in more slides yourself to make it longer and more interesting. It also gives me some ideas of things to work on.
Markus also mentions that some of the students that don’t usually talk as much in class struggled with the game, the game moved too slow at times, and most thought it should have been longer. Dice for each group was another thing that Markus mentioned might be a good idea.
Overall it sounds like there’s a lot of room for improvement. Many of the students that struggled might have done better with more pictures, and many that wanted the game to last longer could have done with more chances to explore the island.
Overall it’s a good place for teachers to start, and once you get the game you can easily add in more slides yourself to make it longer and more interesting. It also gives me some ideas of things to work on.
ESL in Qingyuan, China
Qingyuan Another teacher that contacted me was Gregory in Qingyuan, China, which is a city that's not far from where I taught in Shenzhen. Hey, small world, huh?
He had to modify the game quite a bit because he used a Mac, but once he did that the class thought it was “great.” Gregory did go to a lot of extra trouble, however, mainly be adding in a lot of sound files. I’ll let his own words tell you since he does such a good job:
He had to modify the game quite a bit because he used a Mac, but once he did that the class thought it was “great.” Gregory did go to a lot of extra trouble, however, mainly be adding in a lot of sound files. I’ll let his own words tell you since he does such a good job:
I also added some sound effects for storm a short intro video (the intro to Gilligans Island) and they were fantastic add ons. The intro video really set the mood and all the students get real quiet when you play a video clip.
So it was a great lead in to the rules of the game. The class would get quite noisy with all of the groups discussing what they want to do and such.
So the sound effects at the start of key slides really got their attention and quoted them down for the next set of decisions they needed to make. I added in some wind and lightning for the storm of the first night, some squealing pigs for the boars and a few others.
Really top-notch work and the kind of stuff my old bosses at EF would love, but of course never pay you for. Still, being an ESL teacher often involves spending a lot of your free time coming up with interesting and creative ways that make English fun.
Obviously Gregory here spent some time with some extras and really got a great experience out of it. A few of my other games use sound files (Desert Escape and Escape Shenzhen), but I’ve always found it a little difficult to move those from USB drives to computers if the files aren’t embedded in the game.
Anyway, Gregory also reported that the game got a little confusing toward the end, just like Markus saw happen in his class in the Ukraine.
Obviously Gregory here spent some time with some extras and really got a great experience out of it. A few of my other games use sound files (Desert Escape and Escape Shenzhen), but I’ve always found it a little difficult to move those from USB drives to computers if the files aren’t embedded in the game.
Anyway, Gregory also reported that the game got a little confusing toward the end, just like Markus saw happen in his class in the Ukraine.
It got a little confusing towards the end, so I posited it up and broke it down day by day so each morning they had to eat food or subtract health points while they were building their boats or out at sea.
I’m going to try it out again today with another grade level. It is the end of the term and things are winding down so it is a nice change of pass from the instruction lessons I’ve been doing.
Very good feedback on these games and I’m glad I decided to give a few out for free. I was offering 20 games and only about 4 people emailed me to get one. A few people actually bought the game while I was giving them out.
If you’d like to read more about Deserted Island Adventure you can read the blog post here. The 21-slide game can be yours for $0.99 right now.
Trust these teachers – this game will give you a fun and exciting ESL class!
If you’d like to read more about Deserted Island Adventure you can read the blog post here. The 21-slide game can be yours for $0.99 right now.
Trust these teachers – this game will give you a fun and exciting ESL class!
