First of all, I think there is too much empty running in the game. It’s tedious enough in shooter games from my quite limited experience with FPS, but in educational games you do want a smooth transition from one spot to another. The exception is of course if the surroundings are of lovely detail, with people, children and domesticated animals milling about in a milieu with good looks which you don’t mind running around a lot in. There should preferably be the noise of the crowd, with talk, animal noises and occasional laughs and sounds from craftsmen working, as well as the patting of feet on the ground. Then one won’t mind running about as much, because all around there will be ancient city life proceeding.

Of course, the later levels of the game might very well be impressive and detailed, as the pictures of the Assyrian palace shows. This leads me to a question. Is it possible to get past the Neo-Sumerian level in Ur? I reached the point where the time travelling professor disappeared from the ziggurat of Ur, but then the game ended with a message which stated that an update was predicted to be released in late 2007, some five years ago.

The running would have benefitted from a “sprint” option, to cut down on the time it takes to travel from spot A to spot B. For future educational games it might be worth to look into the pyramid game for ideas. It’s in 2D, yes, but for these games 3D isn’t really necessary as long as the impression is good.

Secondly, if you plan to update the game my advice is to improve the user interface. For computers it might be best to say goodbye to the Playstation key icons, and for any user it would be good with a “mission objective” option in the menu for looking up objectives if you’ve been absent for a time or simply forgot what to do. It was easy enough to find out the next step, so a mission objective isn’t crucial, only an advantage.

Thirdly, and perhaps as part of a user interface overhaul you consider to introduce a diary or notebook where all the information uncovered along the journey through the game is collected or readily available for the player to go back and read. As you hopefully will find out, the notebook with facts about ancient Egypt in Sierra’s pyramid game is very good, with some drawings and pictures to go along with the textual pages.

To finish writing, I’ll give you a thumbs up for a quite good educational game with some positive surprises in the two first levels. Aesthetically the ziggurat of Ur was pleasant, although darker than I expected. If you continue to develop your educational games, I’m sure you’ll find a most enjoyable and also facts-filled concept which leaves the players (i.e. the pupils of schools for the most part) wanting for more.

I am sorry if I have sounded forceful and demanding in my comments, but I was and still am most glad to have found an educational gaming project, and wish for this genre to expand. As there already are alot of good precedents in Sierra’s pyramid game from 1996 alone, I thought it best to make you notice this, in order to build upon the succesful concepts of earlier “generations”. After all, that’s how development in history works!

Cheers.

Please excuse me for the caps lock letters, but it is necessary that you read my message, for the betterment of educational games in the future. Perhaps you’d like to spread it to likeminded colleagues and maybe even computer game companies. You’ll be the judge of that.

On Babylon: This educational game (which I’m in the process of downloading) seem quite promising, and although I expect the effort put into it by the developers to have been substantial and skilfully done aesthetically I also expect the experience to be somewhat mediocre in comparison with Sierra’s old classic Pyramid: Challenge of the Pharaoh’s Dream game from 1996.

I, my brother and actually even my parents played that game much when I was a child, and besides being educational and pedagogical the game was also very enjoyable and had a sensible gameplay with several mini-games that let the player discover ever more aspects of ancient Egypt. (There were some Swedish games as well produced by Levande Böcker, such as Svea Rike, which could hold a candle to Sierra’s Pyramid.)

I’ve long been surprised that no more games of that calibre and kind seem to have been released since then. The power of the Pyramid game was the strength of its gameplay, which actually enhanced the learning process. I’ve especially missed a Mesopotamian and Viking version of the Pyramid game, although I expect it would be hard to maintain a storyline which was so centered around the construction of the pyramid and the burial of the Pharaoh.

It’s hard to make history live as much as it may do in the best of games. If carried out well, games may capture much of the depth and room for imagination of books, as well as the visual goodness of movies. If carried our expertly, history (and perhaps other educational areas as well) may come to life more in games than they may do anywhere else.

For Discover Babylon, and especially for future educational games, I not only recommend you, but insist that you take the trouble to track down a torrent or physical copy of the game Pyramid: Quest of the Pharaoh’s Dream.

Developer’s homepage: http://www.webflight.org/samples/mhhi/product/sky.htm

The possibilities with computer games for learning are endeless. A dedicated team of developers (and scholars) is as necessary as economic backing for it to work, however. For one, if the educational games are well made they’ll be able to compete on the market, and children, youngsters and adults will even be eager to play them at home, and in the process learn more!

There are some small chances for money flow here, given the interest in historical movies and video games (most notably the Total War series), although of course for any true scholar the financial aspect shouldn’t be the most important. Seize the medium of computer games to educate people. It truly have great potential.

Unfortunately, I get a message that what I’m trying to download is not there. I guess I’ll try back another time.