Lure+of+the+Labyrinth

=[|Lure of the Labyrinth]= Platform: Any web browser (Flash-based game)

This is a moment by moment account of my game playing

 * First thing you select a pet. (Dog, Cat, Turtle, Lizard and more)
 * You see a small flash comic about how you lose your pet
 * While looking for your bet you fall in a pit
 * While looking in a pink slime filled sewer you find a winged girl.
 * Then you get to create your character (Making a disguise fit in with the monsters.)
 * You get a back of beans to plant in every room from the winged girl.
 * First gaming activity you are in a room with a top down view and no instructions. I click the screen to move my character
 * The arrow of the mouse turns into a hand at objects I can click on. [[image:Food.jpg width="393" height="230" align="right" caption="Cafeteria Tray Game"]]
 * Every time you click on an object you either get something (like a badge), or just a comment on that creature.
 * Wandering around in a room with A1 A2 doors, unsure of what to do
 * Finally clicked I9, which was given to me when I got a room clue. Took me a bit to put those together
 * Now that I understand the map it makes a bit more sense, but still not overly clear to young kids.
 * No Math at all yet (30 mins of playing), but interesting enough game, might be good for kids to get into before they get overloaded with math.
 * Food on cafeteria trays with no instruction. Pressed green button got a food with the label 15, put it on empty plate, wrong shot over to plate with 18. Maybe multiples of 3 there.. not sure about other plates.
 * Put the 16 with the 20 for multiples of 4, wrong, it went to the plate with 40...
 * Put the 20 with the other 20, got it right!
 * Put the 30 on the 15/18 tray for multiples of 3, said that is enough... seems two items is all. Totals are odd 56, 33, 40
 * Put the 2 with the 6 going for size of monsters to food numbers... worked, but that theory doesn't biggest monster has the 40 and the 16...[[image:Mixing.jpg align="right" caption="Concoction Mini-Game"]]
 * Just put the sushi down on a plate and it got rejected and said we all want 1/3 sushi as burger. No idea that is where it was going, but maybe I can figure out the rest now. The numbers are related on their plate via food item. (I only have one plate that had both a burger and sushi on it, so how I would figure that out is beyond me.)
 * That means the green mush must be the same as the blue chicken leg...
 * It gets easier as we go but that is just because there are less spots to put them...
 * It never explained the rules unless I got it wrong to many times. Not even after the game is over...
 * Room doors are multiples... A 1, 2, 3. B 2, 4, 6. C 3, 6, 9
 * Another set up with minimal explanation
 * Okay after some messing around I get it. We need to make the concoction while using the barrels given to get those measurements. Meaning if I want 6 I need to fill up the 15 and dump it into the 9 so I have 6 left over.
 * I clicked restart to start over and I got new numbers. I like that.
 * The next room I need to go to has coordinates start at 0,0 go up 3 and over 7. I like the use of a coordinate grid without making it seem like a coordinate grid.
 * Got confused for a bit, didn't notice the symbol for a new room
 * Okay so I am playing a vending machine game. All I get is three "coins". Anyway I figured out what they were, but got a no thanks wrong answer... Hmmm
 * Tried again, now after three turns I get one food highlighted. (I missed that before) So I got this fourth highlighted food. Got a right answer and then got another new coin and new food. Solved this too and got the whole problem correct.
 * Got my first access to the store. Like everything else in the game there is no explanation. I can buy a banana peel, a jar of eyes or a whistle, but would have no clue why. I will pass on buying things for now and come back later.
 * More math ideas sprinkled throughout the game. Very cool.
 * This last comic gave me a hint. Is it possible that I was very naive on the last few comics and didn't see obvious hints??? (Probably)
 * Playing the Mine Shaft game.
 * The first time I got the bombs in the right place, but didn't know to click the button so i clicked done and had to start over.
 * Another clue in another game, pay attention Mr. Waugh and the earlier game would have been easier.
 * I love that when you start a game over (Yes I made a mistake) you get a brand new puzzle.
 * Kept making dumb mistakes in this game. Not hard for me, but a miss-press and I had to start over.
 * Got it finally when I really slowed down and made sure to understand it.
 * More tips in the comic before the game. I should have always been paying attention.
 * Okay, i went back and read the first two comics, they really do not give worthwhile hints. I am not as bad as I thought.
 * A lot of guessing and checking to figure out what they want here.
 * Can't have gnomes in the fence. Okay
 * Fence needs to be perfect size to have no extra spaces without plants AND have the fence completely cover around the plants
 * There information on the right was a bit confusing to me on what they were trying to get across they hurt me at first, but once I got it, i got it.

The basic story is that you are searching for your lost pet. You are disgused as a monster to infiltrate the monster base and find your pet. You keep getting orders to do different jobs and each job is some sort of math puzzle. related.

Teaching and Learning
In this game I learned how to find patterns in related groupings of numbers. I also learned how to use subtraction and addition to get specifc values. I learned how to read their map which is like a treasure map. I made only two decisions, which animal was my pet and what did I look like. In the first game I needed some skill of figuring out the pattern, but trial and error helped me there along with a hint from the game. With the second game I was able to recall a problem similar in order to figure it out. I enjoy that the game did very little hand holding, while that might be frustrating to some younger players, most gamers would find it challenging. The game only taught me by giving a few simple clues and hints when I continued to mess up. Other than that it was just trial and error to figure out what the problems were and what they wanted. There is not much rewards you get for getting it correct, in fact you just click a done box in the upper right. a box I had to figure out where it was in order to move on. More lack of teaching, just figuring it out. I did get gold for solving problems, but never got to the shop to end up using it for anything. It was more rewarding just to figure out what it wanted and get it right then anything else.

The pace is a bit slow, but it is very forgiving and does help you along. In the first game when I got something wrong, it just put it in the correct spot. It did not tell me why so even though it corrected me I still had to figure out the why.

**Some of the Key Principles of Learning are...**
BUT
 * Discovery Principle** –You get a very basic hint before the games other than that it is up to you to figure out how to get to the rooms to play and how to play the game. It is really on you to try to figure out what the game is expecting.
 * Explicit Information On-Demand and Just-In-Time Principle** – When you make a mistake in a game it just gets corrected for you without an explanation in hopes to help you out and just before it gets way to frustrating it will tell you an explicit hint to help you along.


 * Semiotic Principle** – A lot of the game is symbols and signs that are very game specifc, you have to understand what the game is asking you in order to understand what to do.


 * Practice Principle** – You repeat games as the story goes on with slight changes and challenges, so you are getting much practice until you understand what to do.

Reflections
I really enjoyed playing this game. I am curious to see what it would would be like for students because of the lack of help. I am going to use this as my final project because I think it can be very helpful. While it doesn't directly tie into what we teach, I think it would be a really fun game to use during OAKS testing. We tend to show a video for those students who finished the testing and instead of some random videos we could keep them at the computers learning. I also appreciate how it limits the help, but does not seem like just math practice.