Games That Make You Smarter

Educational Games

I’m frequently told that I’m wasting my time talking to teachers. Investors tell me that. Other entrepreneurs tell me that. On occasion, even teachers tell me that. Their very logical point is that teachers often aren’t the ones who make the decisions about buying educational software. While an individual teacher […]

Why I want to talk to teachers

January 2, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / Game Progress by AnnMaria De Mars

It’s Friday and that means that it’s time for the Freebie Friday. Today isn’t just any regular Friday, it’s the last Friday of the year! Hope everyone has a great weekend ringing in the new year. But before then, we have another freebie for you. Today’s freebie is from Aztech […]

Freebie Friday – Aztech Clip Art

December 29, 2017 in 7GenGames / Educational Games / Educational Resources / Freebie Friday tagged 7 Generation Games / Educational Games / Educational Resources / Freebie Friday by Diana Sanchez

Going through our archives, we came across this great post by Dr. AnnMaria De Mars from December 13, 2013 “Demo of Spirit Lake: The Game” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. This is my day job. For those of you who thought […]

Throwback Thursday – Demo of Spirit Lake: The Game

December 28, 2017 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Educational Games / Throwback Thursday tagged 7 Generation Games / AnnMaria / EducationalGames / Throwback Thursday by Diana Sanchez

In Spanish: When are we? Where are we ? — Life is sweet. After months of revisions, translations and testing, Aztech: Meet the Maya will be submitted to the app store by the time I get done drinking this martini. Champagne would be more appropriate but it was after midnight when we made the last mandatory change and all the […]

Eating my own dog food: Learning Spanish from a game

December 21, 2017 in AnnMaria / Dog food / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

Characters on snow background — I’ll confess right up front that I’m not as organized as I’d like to be when it comes to game design or, well, anything. However, let’s pretend I was. In that case, I’d start out by considering what assets I need for the Caves and Ladders game I discussed in […]

Game Design Basics: Assets

December 21, 2017 in AnnMaria / Code Talk / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

Game Background — As you may have heard, I will be heading to Santiago in about a month to be part of Startup Chile, where I’ll be expanding our line of bilingual games for the Latin American market. First on the agenda is to do a Latin American version of Making Camp. The […]

Designing my way to Chile, Part 1

December 20, 2017 in AnnMaria / Code Talk / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

The holidays are coming and you’re probably already stressed out about your Christmas list- family you like, family you dislike, friends, coworkers, teachers, etc. Then, once you buy everything you have to wrap it! UGH! That’s the worst part, especially if the gift is oddly shaped. Wouldn’t it be nice if […]

Top Reasons to Buy Digital Gifts This Holiday Season

December 13, 2017 in 7GenGames / Educational Games tagged 7GenGames / Digital Gifts / Educational Games / Holiday Season by Victoria Moll-Ramírez

I know what you’re thinking, “Giving Tuesday was last week.” I know, but who says that giving has to be restricted to just the Tuesday after Thanksgiving? Giving is a practice that should be done throughout the year, especially during the holiday season. That is why at 7 Generation Games […]

Holiday Giving: Any Day is a Great Day to GIVE

December 5, 2017 in 7GenGames / Educational Games tagged 7GenGames / Educational Games by Diana Sanchez

cards with prompts — Whether it is teaching statistics, software design or writing, I think you need to remember that everything is easier once you’ve done it a bunch of times. I was talking to a couple of teachers I know about the software design project we are doing with a couple of local […]

Teaching Software Design with Writing Prompts

December 5, 2017 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / Educational Resources / New earth by AnnMaria De Mars

Girl about to set off on path — As you know, if you’ve been paying attention, I’ve been meeting the past few weeks with high school students helping to improve the design of our games. Today, I asked students to submit cards with answers to prompts. They played Crossroads, a decision-making game that is still in prototype, Fish […]

Student design team results, continued

December 2, 2017 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / New earth by AnnMaria De Mars

Angie, from Forgotten Trail — Part of making a good game is having believable characters, whether it is Mario, Zelda or the dwarf-hunter in World of Warcraft. If you had watched our Characters Behind the Characters video, you’d know that the voice of Angie is my daughter, Julia De Mars, and the “look” is a […]

Meet Angie: Character development in Forgotten Trail

November 28, 2017 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / Game Progress by AnnMaria De Mars

If you follow this blog somewhat regularly, you may know that we started a software design project with a couple of alternative schools. How is that going? Thanks for asking. It’s going pretty well. The students have come up with a lot of specific suggestions, not just for improving game […]

Game Suggestions from Student Design Teams

November 27, 2017 in AnnMaria / Educational Games / New earth by AnnMaria De Mars