I don’t hold educational games in high regards. Most are neither fun nor educational. Many are not games at all, but rather interactive slide shows or quizzes. Even more common, and even worse, are traditional games dressed up in a cloak of science. These mainly appeal to gamers already fascinated with scientific subjects and won’t help anyone learn anything (see our typology).
There is also a distinct lack of educational games for older people like high school and college students or adult lifelong learners. There is no video game Khan Academy or Great Courses (formerly The Teaching Company).
Athletic Design is trying to address that and is currently working on several simple but effective educational games concepts. They may not be the most entertaining of games – but they work. They offer an alternative and highly efficient alternative to videos and textbooks for learning a specific subject of modest scope.
Educational games have been around forever of course and I hope to shed some light on common design problems in my reviews here. I won’t review games for small kids but as adult titles are so rare, mid school level is unavoidable. If nothing, else they will at least offer education in form of design lessons.
Ola, Athletic Design