World of Words

World of Words

World of Words is an innovative educational Mixed Reality game, designed specifically for children worldwide with enthusiastic about practising basic English spelling. This immersive game combines the physical and digital realms together with educational elements, aiming to practice word spelling in everyday environment, providing an engaging and efficient language skill enhancement platform.

In this game, player is tasked with returning disappeared items back to associated traditional cultural festivals scenes. Each missing item is secured with their incomplete name card and those lost letters are scattered throughout each scene. Player can activate those scenes through scanning corresponding physical game cards, unlock and return missing items by accurately filling in their spellings. Those process of word completion, including integrating word learning into specific scenes and searching for missing letters, aids players in enhancing and reinforcing their comprehension and recollection of the words.

Through those interactive challenges and adventures, children are introduced to a wide range of vocabulary, encouraged to spell words correctly, and motivated to explore the English language in a fun, captivating environment. WOW not only focuses on spelling but also aims to enrich the children's vocabulary and exploration of the most efficient strategies for word memorization, making it a comprehensive educational tool. Designed with young learners in mind, this game offers an intuitive interface and vibrant, child-friendly graphics, ensuring that learning English becomes an enjoyable and rewarding experience for children worldwide.

Development Tools

World of Words was tailored for Meta Quest 3, based on Unity 3D 2022.3.7f for its superior optimization in MR development performance. The whole game is built upon the Mixed Reality Toolkit, which supports hand tracking, touch-based interaction and pass-through capabilities. Moreover, the incorporation of Vuforia and an external webcam made the function of AR physical scan in the MR environment possible.

Target Player

In terms of the regulation of Mixed Reality devices for younger generation, based on Meta Safety Guidance, considering the potential effects of prolonged exposure to 3D digital information at close range on the visual development, along with the likelihood of children, whose cognitive abilities are not yet mature, blurring the boundaries between virtual and real world, WOW adheres to the recommendations and guidelines proposed by leading device manufacturers. Therefore, it is strongly advised that WOW be played by children aged 13 and older under parental supervision.

Gameplay 

1. Tutorial Level - Hand Tracking and MR Interface

Hand-tacking tutorial and two gameplay level compose the whole game flow of WOW. Player with the help of tutorial, initially familiar with MR interface, practicing basic operations in gameplay such as pinch, zoom, move an so on, preparing for upcoming game levels.

Hand Tracking Instruction

Players will first see a general explanation of gesture interaction with intuitive and easy-to-understand animations for children.

Movement

After pressing START button, player will initially learn how to move “W” to target spot from animation and text prompts.

Scale

When successfully complete movement, player will be taught how to scale target object according to animation and text prompts.

Practice

Before starting the gameplay levels, player will try to respond given task base on those operations learned before: grab “W” to target place with appropriate size.

Once all of those completed, we assume that player are capable of handling upcoming game levels. A “Scan to Play” interface will appear to guide player scan game cards to proceed into next level.

2. Game Level A - Halloween

After completing tutorial, they will enter the official game levels. Players will choose one of the physical game cards, scan and activate corresponding scene. There are three missing items for each, and player is tasked to spell them out correctly. After fill in the blanks on their name cards with missing letters hidden in the scenes, this missing object will come back to their original position. Considering various cultural background of players, the game scenes are chosen from different culture’s traditional festivals. 

If the player chooses scanning the "Pumpkin" game card, the Halloween scene will be activated. Compare to Level B, it is easier that the missing letters were just above the word cards. All lost items were replaced to this scene successfully when correct letters placed.

Here are three target items:

After finish those three spelling correctly, a congratulation game interface will be activate which guide player for next card scanning. 

3. Game Level B - Cherry Blossom Festival

Compared to Level B, this level’s difficulty progresses gradually. Those missing letters will be hidden in this upgraded level. Player will be taken into this scene if the Pagoda game card is scanning.