One of the games on display in the Indie Megabooth area at PAX West this year was Eco. At first glance, it just looks like a prettier take on Minecraft. While it does share the same basic gameplay loop of harvest and gather, plan and build, Eco is designed to teach groups of kids to collaborate and solve problems with technology while being mindful of protecting the environment. A meteor is going to destroy the planet unless the players improve their collective technology, but if they take too much from the land, it won't matter if they stop the cosmic calamity headed their way.
Eco is not the first educational game developer Strange Loop Games has put into the world. Making educational games is their thing, but their approach isn't centered on drills and repetition. "We want to create a platform for an 'augmented classroom', so that every subject can have a simulation running alongside it that students play in and apply their learning, giving social context and meaning to everything they do," says developer John Krajewski, who has worked at companies like EA and Midway.
"School has a history of being terrible at showing students why they should care about a subject," he says, "and our goal is to give an immediate, social answer that connects directly to the classroom, adding to it rather than distracting from it. Students play from home (like a flipped classroom for games) in shared, evolving worlds, and discuss the results in class, with...