Educational games are great learning tools that can tremendously enhance students learning. There are tons of online platforms where you can access ready made educational games to use in your class (e.g., ABCya and Digipuzzle). However, you don’t have to limit yourself to these pre-made choices. You can create your own educational games using various tools and apps.
I already covered the different web tools for creating educational games. In this post, I share with you apps that enable you to design games on mobile devices. Check them out and share with us if you have other suggestions to add to the list.
1. TinyTap
TinyTap is a good app for creating educational games for free and without any coding knowledge. You can share your games with students and track their progress. The app also hosts a huge library of educational games created by teachers and educators from all around the world. Games can be downloaded and accessed anywhere anytime without the need for Internet connection.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
2. Scratch
Scratch helps students construct their own interactive stories, games and animations. While it is especially designed for ages 8 to 16, Scratch can be used by anyone keen on developing their coding and programming skills. Scratch offers a wide range of learning activities together with tutorials and step by step guides. Students can also use Scratch Coding Cards to learn how to create games, music, and animations. The app is free.
3. Bloxels
Bloxels make it easy for you to create amazing video games. You can design your own pixel art characters, decorate your game worlds, customize free to use assets, give your character special powers in the Character Lab, and configure everything about your game without the need for coding. Blocks provided include ‘terrain, hazards, enemies, collectibles, liquid, power-ups, action blocks, and story blocks for adding dialogue. Create logic puzzles with doors and keys, triggers, warps, and more.’
4. Kahoot
Kahoot allows you to create learning games and trivia quizzes on any topic and in any language. You can host your games live with questions on a projected screen or your can share them with remote players. Kahoots are games and challenges you create using the tools provided by the platform. Your kahoots can embed various types of questions and answers.
They can include media materials such as videos and images, and many more. Kahoots can be hosted live in class (Teach mode) or be assigned as self-paced learning challenges that students can play at their own pace (Assign mode). After kahoots are completed, teachers can access insights and stats on students performance and identify learning difficulties.
5. Codea
Codea enables students to create interactive games using their coding skills. With tons of example projects and games to learn from, students can experiment with various creations. The app supports touch code that allows students to tap on colors, images, or sound and adjust them the way they want.
6. Make It
Make It is another good educational game creation app. Teachers and students can use it to easily design learning games using a wide range of pre-made templates. They can customize the templates the way they want. They can use their own images, insert sounds, and add different materials. The app can also be used to create educational quizzes and creative projects.
7. The Infinite Arcade
The Infinite Arcade lets you create a wide variety of video games including “adventure games, platformers, lander games, pinball games, ball and paddle games, text puzzlers, and mazes. Create your own characters! Make games with zombie mobs, hot lava, disco bricks, crystal geysers, trampoline tiles, oil slicks, wandering stars, and more…
