Fun4theBrain - This School Year

Quick summary of what is in this Start of the School Year message:
- new games
- old games
- a whole new world (don't you dare close your eyes haha)
 Keep reading for more details....

Ten years ago, I started creating educational games and sharing them on my website. Back then it was called Exuberant Games! Then, on March 12, 2009, I opened Fun4theBrain! After over 24 million visitors and 250 million game plays, Fun4theBrain is still here! The past 8 years have had many ups and downs and brought many drastic changes in technology. With these changes comes the need for Fun4theBrain to alter how it does things. While I would love to keep things the same, technology will not allow me to grow stagnant, and that is a good thing. So, I am off to learn new programming languages so that you will be able to play Fun4theBrain games everywhere.

Old Games - I will be converting my old games into HTML5 compliant formats as quickly as I can. I am still hoping to be able to complete a new game each month, but it may be a month and a half with an updated game in between each.

New Games - I am going to do my best to keep you informed of smaller progress so you all can be as excited about the new games as I am. I have started using a productivity program called Productive Flourishing. It is awesome and basically made for creatives who tend to have a few too many ideas running through their heads at all times. It encourages to stick with a project until there is a sharable. So, I will be attempting this now. Because of this, expect more posts and updates on the games on which I am working. I plan on sharing artwork and game ideas as I work through my normal creative process. I do hope you enjoy hearing about what goes into each of these educational games.

A Whole New World - I know how much we all love Murb; those little monsters are just so cute! With the technology changes, it will be a massive undertaking to re-do that entire town, but it will eventually get done. But, there is something new around the corner! This new world deserves a blog post all its own, so stay tuned for more information next week! (I am really excited and can't wait to share the news with you!!)

So, there you have it. This school year you can expect old math games made new, new educational games with lots of updates along the way, and a whole new world beginning! Tell your friends and enjoy Fun4theBrain!

How do we get kid's BRAINS involved, not just their minds.

The way our brains function has not changed much over the years. Our brains may still think we are living in a cave, trying to find food, and the only things that can keep our interest have to be important for survival.

Our minds have changed, most definitely, over the years. We know what is important, what is required,... and it no longer thinks of rabbits as dinner. But, how can we get our brains and minds to communicate better?

Have you ever been studying for a test, and your mind really wants to study for the test, but your brain did not seem to get the message? Even if the topic is interesting, the textbook is dry and you keep reading the same pages over and over again. Your mind may be motivated, but the brain is thinking that it is boring. Your brain and your mind are in an epic battle.

In a recent conference I went to at SXSW, I listened to very interesting talk on how we can help to engage the brain in our lessons. Here are some of my notes:

Chemistry - make the brain know what matters - that which you feel is what the brain senses is important. Anything that causes a chemical signal to go to the brain, helps the brain latch onto the thoughts.

Things that are novel, strange, or a little weird, last longer in your memory. Even extreme emotions of any type help to concrete the memory. Faces really help the brain wake up!
Mystery, things that are not fully formed, the brain is tuned to figure it out.

Brain does not care about cliche', code, boring...

Talk to the BRAIN NOT the mind... they are in an epic battle.

This really got me thinking. As an educational game designer, I have the benefit of having pictures and animations to entice the brain, but am I using them to their best ability? This has challenged me to try to incorporate some of the chemistry of the brain into my future games. I would love to create a mystery, where the student is actually working through the process of solving a proof, but in a way that he/she does not even realize it until the end.

Would engaging the brain make my games different or is that the basic difference already between game-teaching and book-teaching? I know many teachers who are great at engaging the brain in the classroom. My daughter is a definite tactile learner, and she has found ways to engage her brain when it comes to learning boring information.

So, I guess that is my challenge of today,... let's engage the BRAIN, not just the mind!

New Games on Fun4theBrain

I have added a new game to Fun4theBrain! Enjoy the new Aquatic Speedway game that has you racing different aquatic animals. The faster you answer your question correctly, the faster you fish will go. Then, see what place you end up in on the winner's stand!

Addition - Aquatic Speedway
Subtraction - Aquatic Speedway
Division - Aquatic Speedway

Pizza PIzzazz - Educational Game Update

Another new game is ready to play! Serve pizza to a bunch of hungry mice! Get enough correct and you can design your own pizza! My favorite is the donut pizza! This game requires you to do your math problem to figure out to which table you should deliver your pizza. Have fun!!

Pizza Pizzazz - addition
Pizza Pizzazz - subtraction
Pizza Pizzazz - multiplication
Pizza Pizzazz - division

Math Monsters - New Educational Game Update

Another new game! I did not want to only have the Math Models, so I also created Math Monsters. Kids can have fun practicing their math facts while they create crazy, cool, or scary alien monsters. Everything from wacky to super cool is possible with this fun math game!

Math Monsters - addition
Math Monsters - subtraction
Math Monsters - multiplication
Math Monsters - division

Math Models - New Educational Game Update

Hey there everyone! I posted a new game today. This one is a great game for the girls as they can put together fun outfits after they finish their math problems. It can be quite funny as outfits are randomly put together while they are doing the math. I am sure the girls will love it!


Math Models - addition version
Math Models - subtraction version
Math Models - multiplication version
Math Models - division version

Games to Teach or Entertain?

As I design each of my games, I need to consider the weight of both the education portion and the game portion. I want kids to want to play the games, but I want the teachers and parents to want to let them play the games. Too much fun, very little education and review seems to happen. But, too much education, and the kids do not want to play the game.

So, where is the magical line. Recently I have been trying a new method with some of my math games. When they are working on the math, that is all they do. There are some fun graphics, but not a ton of interaction and movement. However, once they finish a certain number of math problems correctly, they get the reward of playing a game. I have found that some sort of time limit is required on those sections or the kids will never get back to the math.

So far my most popular games of this style are my platform games. Super Stars and Beach Rush both use the reward of climbing through a platform game, similar to Mario Bros style, as their motivation to do their math problems. Before the student finishes their game levels, or their lives, they will have finished at least 30 math problems. At this point, these have been quite popular.

I am looking forward to trying different methods to combine the fun and education. I will keep you posted as to what I come up with for my experiments.