Complex game design approach help needed

Mar 07, 2015

Greetings Storyline warriors! Many many years ago I created an award winning eLearning game with Dreamweaver but because of the html changes and advancement of browsers, it no longer works. I am looking to rebuild the course using Storyline 2 (because it requires path motion). Most of the stuff is fairly straight forward, but there is one design element that has me scratching my head. The game screen is divided into 2 parts, the game board (which includes the game board with roads, a game spinner, and card deck) and the other part is the content book (which has tabs for each chapter). Each part on its own is easy to program. BUT each part needs to be individually functional without affecting the other, AND both must be live at all times so the learner to go back and forth between the game and the book.  If that's not enough, there is an icon on the game card that the learner can use to open the book to the chapter and page that contains information about the question currently being displayed.

Solution: I have considered using one slide for each question with the book and all its contents as layers on that slide. But since there are around 50 game questions, the layers would be duplicated 50 times. This will be a real maintenance nightmare if I ever have to change any content on a page in the book.

Anyone have a design approach that would allow me to have one book section (maybe a scene) and one game section on the screen at the same time but still meet the original game approach?  BTW, a standard lightbox won't work because it reduces the size of the lightbox content and overlays the calling slide content.

BONUS!!  If anyone here comes up with a working solution and I'm able to build the game maintaining the original game design without massive duplication, I'll be glad to share the final solution with the community.

HINT:  In the original HTML design, I used a frameset structure with different HTML files being loaded into each frame and scripts allowing the learner to control the content in one frame from the other frame (allowing the learner to open the book to a specific page while still in the game frame).

THANKS TO ALL for reading my dissertation and considering the problem.

2 Replies
Russell Lash

Greetings Tom - Excellent point. I have attached 4 screen captures that will give a feel for the layout. Basically, the game is played in the top portion while the "Travel Guide" (subject matter content) is in the lower portion.  Once past the intro part of the game, the Travel Guide is available at any time for the learner to explore.  When a card is shown in the game play area (top), the Travel Guide icon in the lower right of the card will open the Travel Guide to the appropriate tab and page so the content shown in the guide is relevant to the question being asked on the game card.

I hope that helps a bit with the function I'm trying to achieve.

Cheers,
Russ

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.