Bushudo:  The Way of the Radical

By University of Wisconsin-Madison

Student Category

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011 Special Emphasis Award:  Adaptive Force Training Winner

 

 

Skills and Ideas Taught:  Players learn the meanings of characters in written Japanese.

Goal or Challenge:  Players must survive on the island for 10 days after a storm but they must learn the meanings of written Japanese to defeat the challenges.

Primary Audience:  Youth and adults who are starting to learn written Japanese.

Assessment Approach:  Player learning is measured by their continued success or failure in surviving on the
island.  Successful play requires players to understand not only the individual character meanings but also the contextual situation in order to achieve their goals.

Description:  Bushudo is a single player island survival game.  Finding sufficient food, water, and protection depends on learning and exploiting the relationships between the flora and fauna of the island, all represented using Chinese characters as used in the Japanese language.  Though dehydration, starvation, and denizen attacks can lead to your character’s premature and permanent death, each game creates a new island to enjoy.

Game Engine:  Unity3D

Operating System:  OS X

Platform:  Personal computer

Special Hardware:  None