[kidsgames] Just Subscribed.

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Hi!

  I was just "invited" to join this list by Jeff Waddell
and I'm gradually wading through the list archives to
get a feel for the discussions so far.

So, by way of introduction:

  I'm the author/maintainer of the "Tux the Penguin: A
Quest for Herring" game - and the associated "Game Engine"
(I hate that term) "PLIB".

  http://www.woodsoup.org/projs/tux_aqfh
  http://www.woodsoup.org/projs/plib

  Tux_AQFH is a kids game (it was written for my 7yr old
son - Oliver - who ended up doing a fair chunk of the work
on it!) - but it's not what I'd describe as 'educational'.
(Although writing it was considerably educational to both
Oliver and myself!)

  It seems to me that someone with the right background in
education could quite easily add teaching elements into
Tux_AQFH to make a spin-off educational game based on it.

  We showed Tux_AQFH at Oliver's school ("Family Math Night")
and >300 children played it. On that basis, it's pretty
safe to say that even with a regular 'gamepad' joystick,
it can be played by Kintergarten through 10years old...
at least.

  If this group wanted to "get something out the door"
quickly (something that's important for freeware groups
IMHO) then Tux_AQFH might be a good first vehicle. Even
if you later decided it was inappropriate (eg because
it requires 3D hardware that schools are unlikely to
own) - I think the exercise of actually DOING IT would
teach everyone a lot and focus efforts more concretely.

  I've been thinking about hacking something into Tux_AQFH
to drill Oliver on his multiplications tables...but I
just don't know enough about the educational stuff to
know what would work.  By the time I get it done, he'll
have the tables down cold anyway... :-)

  Tux_AQFH is now distributed with several of the major
Linux distributions - so it'll be quite well known to
many Linux-equipped parents.  Tux_AQFH (like all games
that use the PLIB engine) is 100% portable to Windoze
and MacOS - as well as other UNIXen (BSD, IRIX, Solaris).

  Whilst I'm introducing myself, I should mention that
I've been using UNIX/Minix/Linux and programming in C
since c.1975 - I'm a professional 3D graphics programmer.
I also hacked Berkeley LOGO to work on Linux/X and have
been interested in pressing for the teaching of computer
programming in Schools.  One example of this is
'HICCUP - A Kid Powered Computer' here:

   http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1/software/hiccup.html

  I recently signed up to a new project at Hillcrest
high school in Dallas TX, they are thinking about
writing a text adventure with edutainment stuff in
it to run on their Linux network.  It's early days
for that - but the team leader seems fairly confident
of getting some pretty serious funding for that work.
I've notified that group of the existance of this
list.

  I also act as consultant for the FlightGear flight
simulator project...they are a major user of my PLIB
engine.

  Well, enough about me - I'm going to lurk for a bit
and see if I can be of any use here.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1@airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker@hti.com      (work)
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