Well-designed games can engage players not only with content, but also skill development and empathy building
Wreck Seeker New educational game uncovers underwater mysteries
A crashed World War II Bristol Beaufort bomber is just one of six underwater sites to explore in Wreck Seeker. ANMM image
The museum is a leader in producing educational video games for students. Peter Tattersall profiles its latest game, Wreck Seeker, which allows students to research and explore shipwrecks.
THE MUSEUM RECENTLY LAUNCHED WRECK SEEKER, a new online game developed for classrooms across the country. In it players will research, hunt for and explore the final resting places of six semi-fictionalised wrecks from Australian and international waters. Wreck Seeker, developed over three years, is a gamified learning platform with a direct focus on helping teachers to explain, develop and refine student historical skills explored in the Australian curriculum. Using the backdrop of wrecks from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, players will speak to historians, eyewitnesses, local fishers and other subject experts before deciding which sources offer the most reliable information. They will then overlay this research onto a map before diving, in 3D, on six beautifully re-created underwater environments. Important tools for the classroom
It is now well established that gamified learning experiences can provide meaningful educational outcomes. This is as true for K–12 education as it is for tertiary, vocational and workplace learners. Perhaps more interesting is the role that well-designed games can play in engaging players not only with content, but also skill development and empathy building. 52
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Unique to video games is the capacity to transport players into powerful scenarios while giving them agency to interact in these spaces and deal, in a realistic way, with the consequences of their actions. Further, such games allow players to replay scenarios a number of times and refine their reactions and skills to reach a desired outcome. A side-effect of the remote learning practices forced upon us during COVID-19 has been a growing comfort with digital learning technologies from both teachers and students. At the museum we have seen this play out in the skyrocketing popularity of our online games and resources over the past 12 months. An exciting challenge
As we are a maritime nation, shipwrecks hold a special place in the minds of Australians. Further, due to the complexity of uncovering what lies beneath the surface of our oceans and seas, mystery persists. Given these factors, the topic is fertile ground for a video game. The development of Wreck Seeker follows that of two existing successful games (The Voyage and Cook’s Voyages) and five years of game development experience.
