PLAN B
Teachers Guide
These notes are designed to explain how to play and use Plan B as part of formal and informal learning for visually impaired students. It provides teachers, support workers and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators information on how the game works; it addresses anticipated technical issues and gives suggestions for its use inside and outside the classroom.
What is Plan B?
Plan B is an online soundscape puzzle game. The game is aimed at visually impaired and partially sighted teenagers aged 11-14, partly to give them an enjoyable and challenging gaming experience but also to help develop their thinking and logic skills.
The idea of the game is for players to explore the game’s environment using sounds, and solve puzzles by combining the objects that they find in order to escape from the room they find themselves in. The sounds and objects in the room give clues as to where and when the player finds themselves. The environment and objects hint at a storyline and more game levels to come. Sounds and combinations of objects follow logical sequences, players will be able to think about what objects they could combine, in order to be able to complete the game.
The player explores the game environment by using the arrow keys to move around and the Z, X, and C keys to pick up and combine objects they find.
Although not strictly an educational game, i.e. a game with underpinning content linked directly to curriculum and learning outcomes / objectives, Plan B has been developed with thinking skills and broad curriculum models in mind, and is mapped to pertinent areas in the Scottish and English curricula.
About Plan B?
Plan B has been conceived and developed by DESQ (www.desq.co.uk) and funded by BBC Scotland Learning (www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning).
Plan B is a prototype game with one level to complete. The game will be trialled over a number of months and the developers will gather feedback from visually impaired learners that play it. We hope to then build a game with more levels that incorporates feedback from the prototype game.
The intention of this prototype game is to create an entertaining online game experience for visually impaired teenage students (although anyone will be able to play it). Ideally the project will help draw teenage blind people into supportive online (gaming) communities who play entertainment/edutainment games, or who provide informal peer support and an online community for visually impaired people.
Starting the game
To begin the game, the player clicks the ‘Play Plan B’ button at the bottom of the first page. Alternatively they can tab through the page until they are over the ‘Play Plan B’ button and press return/enter.
First screen
The player will then be directed to a second page:
Second screen
The player will need to tab into the second screen until a piece of audio starts, indicating the beginning of the game. This audio will explain how to play the game and instruct them to turn their screen readers off for the duration of the game. For more information on how to turn screen readers off and on please refer to the Screen reader document, located on the first page, www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/planb.
Once the introductory audio has completed, the player is automatically taken to the game screen. The player will need to turn their screen readers off here, refresh the browser and then tab until they hear ‘You are in the game’. They must then press return/enter to begin the game.
The player is now ready to start the game.
NB: the game is set as default no graphics. If you would like the graphics on during the game you must click the button below the game which reads: ‘Toggle visuals on/off’
Game Navigation
Key / DescriptionArrow Keys / Use the arrow keys to move around the game.
Z / Examine an object. (Players must examine an object before they can interact further.)
X / Pick up or swap one object for another.
C / Combine one object with another, and to walk through doors.
H / To hear the game controls when inside the game.
The Game Map
The player will start in a train station waiting room, with an adjoining open door to a luggage room. Players will find that the door to the station’s platform is locked and guarded by a growling dog.
NB The on-screen graphics will only show one ‘room’ at a time.
The ‘soundscape’ and setting
The player will find themselves in the waiting room of a train station in the 1930’s. They will discover where and when they are by clues in the sounds around them. NB Players may not fully appreciate the significance of the time period or the location, as this is intended to be the first level of a game with an unfolding narrative adventure.
There are three ‘rooms’:
· A waiting room – An open window early morning birds, distant sound of a waiting steam train, a ticking clock, a door swinging open and shut, a growling guard dog.
· A Left luggage guards room – there's a snoring, sound asleep luggage attendant, a shelf, a key cabinet, a coffee cup, a pot of coffee about to boil and a radio playing 30’s music.
· A deserted platform with a steam train waiting, with a locked carriage door; a telephone rings on the station wall.
The player will be able to hear several sounds around them at any one time, depending on where they are in each of the game’s rooms. Some of the sounds are of objects in the room and some are environmental noises to help set the scene and help players with orientation.
Waiting Room
The sounds in this room belong to the following objects:
The Object / The sound / Direction sounds come from (if the player is in the middle of the room)Birds singing / Birds outside an open window / Behind the player
Steam train / A distant sound of a waiting train / In front of the player
Clock / A Clock ticking / To the left of the player
Open door / A door closing shut / To the right of the player
Growling dog / A Growling dog / In front of the player
Small key / A bunch of small keys / In front and to the right of the player
Luggage ticket / The rustling of paper / Behind and to the left of the player
The Chair / A chair sliding across a wooden floor / Behind and to the right of the player
Luggage Room
The sounds in this room belong to the following objects:
The Object / The sound / Direction sounds come from (if the player is in the middle of the room)Radio / A radio playing 1930s music / To the right of the player
Open door / A door closing shut / To the left of the player
Coffee cup / A Coffee cup being stirred with a tea spoon / Behind and to the left of the player
Coffee pot / Coffee pot coming to the boil / Behind the player
Key cabinet / A key cabinet door closing / In front and to the left of the player
High shelf / A person jumping trying to reach a high shelf / In front and to the right of the player
Luggage attendant / A snoring luggage attendant / Behind and to the right of the player
Platform
The sounds in this room belong to the following objects:
The Object / The sound / Direction sounds come from (if the player is in the middle of the room)Telephone / A telephone ringing / To the right of the player
Carriage door / A person trying to open a locked carriage door / In front of the player
Game walkthrough
The following describes the quickest way to get onto the platform of the station and complete the prototype game level.
· From the central start position in the waiting room, go through to the luggage room to the right.
· Find the coffee cup and combine it with the coffee pot, to create a full cup of coffee.
· Take the full cup of coffee and combine it with the sleeping luggage attendant to wake up the luggage attendant.
· Go into the waiting room and find the luggage ticket.
· Take the luggage ticket into the luggage room and give it to the luggage attendant. He will then give the player a parcel.
· Take the parcel into the waiting room and swap the parcel for the chair.
· Take the chair into the luggage room and combine it with the high shelf. The player will find a pocket knife.
· Take the pocket knife into the waiting room and use it to open the parcel. Inside there will be a bone.
· Take the bone and give it to the growling dog. The dog will take the bone and run away, leaving access to the locked door.
· Take the small key into the luggage room and combine it with the key cabinet. Inside the player will find a big key.
· Take the big key into the waiting room and use it to unlock the door.
· The player must walk through the door to enter the platform.
· The player will then need to answer the telephone. This will read a piece of audio to the player.
The player has now completed the game.
Once the telephone audio has finished, the player will be directed to an end screen and instructed to turn their screen readers back on.
Game solution
This diagram shows how objects need to be used to complete the game.
NB It is possible for players to combine objects and then drop them to come back to later. For example players can combine the coffee pot with the coffee cup before or after they combine the chair with the shelf (to reach the pocket knife). Objects will need to be combined at some point in the game in order to ultimately progress through the level, but there is not a particular order that players need to do these combinations in.
Educational rationale
The game is not directly linked to any subjects or learning outcomes / objectives, but is aligned with both the Scottish ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ and to the main aims of the Key Stage 3 English National Curriculum.
The intention is for the game to be a playable and enjoyable experience first and for there to be some educational benefit, but designed so that the educational benefits do restrict the gameplay. It may be that students between the ages of 11-14 years are new or unfamiliar with using ICT or computers and the game is intended to be an ice-breaker to other learning activities.
The game is based on players combining objects with other objects in order to achieve a logic action or reaction. The player is required to think through a logical sequence in which objects are combined and what actions might occur. At its simplest, ‘picking up’ a key and ‘combining’ it with a door means the door will unlock. Objects and the game scenario have been chosen to reflect logic or commonplace combinations of objects.
The intention of the game is to create an entertaining online game experience for a predominantly teenage visually impaired audience. Ideally the project would help draw visually impaired teenagers into burgeoning online (gaming) communities who play entertainment/edutainment games, as well as those who provide informal peer support for young blind and partially sighted people.
Learning & Curriculum
This is the first draft of curriculum mapping and we warmly welcome feedback and comments.
The overarching aims for players of the game are to:
· Have an enjoyable yet challenging gaming experience using sound.
· Be introduced to playing online ‘soundscape’ games.
· Become familiar with using a keyboard to navigate a game environment and select chosen objects.
· Become aware of online communities of visual impaired people and visually impaired gamers.
Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland)
There are four key values that underpin the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland and we have highlighted how the Plan B game helps to deliver these.
CfE values / These are met in ‘Plan B through:1. Enable young people to become successful learners, for example, being able to use technology for learning and to make reasoned evaluations. / · Use a web browser based application/game.
· Use a keyboard to navigate the game’s environment and interact with the game objects.
· Interact with screen reader features to turn off and on.
· Make decisions about how to navigate in-game, orientating themselves around a virtual space using sound.
· Solve a series of logic-based puzzles, combining objects to resolve a problem-based puzzle involving:
o Associated sounds with meaning and purpose (of a series of objects).
o Making a series of interconnected decisions based on logic and general knowledge, improving pattern recognition.
2. Inspire learners to develop into confident individuals able to make informed decisions. / · Become more confident in using software and audio to navigate an ICT-based environment.
3. Encourage learners to evolve into responsible citizens, capable of making informed choices and decisions.
4. Empower young people to emerge as effective contributors by being able to communicate in different ways and be able to solve problems. / · Communicate with peers and/or teachers/support workers.
· Share experiences of gameplay with peers and/or teachers/support workers.
Learning across the English National Curriculum