In designing Mentira, we have striven to cobble together something that feels unified and stylized, fitting the ARIS platform, the local context, and our own skills and time constraints as designers. Some basic notes about our design in general: A friendly, minimalist, but not childish art style This is Benjamín, one of our principal NPCs. Spanish 202 and NM appropriate dialogue (i+1, Krashen) and language-based interaction model A moment from a simulated phone call with Javier, another NPC. The three sentences with arrows to the right are player dialogue choices. Natural transition between off-site and on-site portions of the game Importantly, we feel this design does a greater service to exploring the educational possibilities of mobile technology than the already standard mobile study aids, such as mobile versions of flashcards. To solve our mystery students must do more than regurgitate vocabulary and grammar rules. They must participate in a naturalistic situation that requires the use of the Spanish language. |