‘Zingoshi Chronicles’ Uses AR To Help Children Build Confidence
AR brings an educational twist to conventional storytelling.
Video game platforms are teeming with adult-appropriate combat and adventure games that reward players with weapon upgrades and points based on the damage they instill. Understandably, parents are constantly on the lookout for games that will teach their young one’s creative problem-solving skills, leadership, and confidence through story and adventure as opposed to violence.
The New Zealand-based creators making Zingoshi are doing just that with a series of games and books they hope will empower girls and all adventuresome children. To do this, however, they need our help with their Kickstarter campaign!
“There was a real lack of good, wholesome and fun quality entertainment content for young girls,” spoke Co-founder Ronel Schodt in a statement. Out of the need for uplifting and positive gaming models sprung Zingoshi, a third person and top-down adventure and puzzle game for PC.
Zingoshi is a game that wants to embolden girls and boys 7 to 12 years old with imaginative, thoughtful, and non-violent gaming. The gameplay and narrative take young gamers to the exploratory world of Zingoshi in which they’ll participate in a series of confident-building adventures.
In a world of possibilities, kids are tasked with helping ‘Zingerals,’ flying characters that inhabit the world of Zingoshi. They then piece together clues to help their adorable companions solve puzzles that mirror social obstacles they may experience in their own lives.
Image Credit: Team Zingoshi
In an effort to guide girls into exploring areas of education they may not have thought they could succeed in, the Zingoshi game also weaves in STEAM-based areas of study (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) in the form of AR challenges they’ll activate on a second device, such as a smart phone or tablet. In one instance, players are tasked with designing the wings of their own Zingeral by drawing and coloring an image in real-life, and then taking a photo of it with the Zingoshi app; that pattern then appears on the wings of their in-game character throughout the experience.
The game’s co-founders, Bridget Ellis-Pegler and Ronel Schodt, are striving to create educational, aware, entertaining and interconnected content as part of a project called The Zingoshi Chronicles. The first novel tied to the series, Dragonfly, uses interactive augmented reality technology that connects kids to the game itself and also gets their malleable minds thinking outside the box and onto the pages of a book.
“Zingoshi is a video game that is played both on AND off the computer!” states the company on the official Kick-starter page. “Sometimes the kid actually has to get off the device and go and do something in the real world, as part of the gameplay. Most of these activities contain STEAM elements (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics).”
“We wanted to create an experience that would embolden girls to defy the conditioning that often leads to a lack of self-esteem; to lead with curiosity, creativity and courage, to become the best versions of themselves,” adds Ellis-Pegler.
Young gamers go on quests and earn inspirational quotes, videos, music, and other interactive rewards. The game really puts an emphasis on encouraging kids to be kind but also responsible for building a better world.
https://vrscout.com/news/ar-story-book-builds-confidence/
