XO ImageQuiz

The XO ImageQuiz is an open-source game for kids aged 6-14 running on the XO laptop. The concept is simple: one question, one image, one click. The main ambition is to connect fun, playful learning and features of the XO in as many ways as possible with a quiz game. And you could actually help building a public database!

The Idea

• Design and implementation of an easy and fun, educational image-quiz for kids.
• The goal is to connect a high fun-factor with as many educational aspects and features of the xo as possible.
• Internet user can generate content by submitting new questions, images and imagemaps online. All in one page.
• Some first ideas can be found here http://www.linuxuser.at/xoquiz
• Aim at playful learning instead of edutainment:
  • Built-in modes to contribute and share questions, ratings and translations
  • It can be used to gain specific knowledge about different topics with a high fun-factor
  • The game provides introductive reading and/or images in addition to the answers
  • Mixed approaches to picking questions (Categories, Flashcard System, Interests, ...)
  • Browsing through categories, questions and answers
• Open-source images only

The concept is still in development :-) ideas are welcome! (chris(at)linuxuser.at)

Description

Summary

It's all about the educational factors in the quiz project:

• Easy to pick up knowledge while playing (or submitting questions)
• Explanatory images, perhaps informative answers (text, introductive reading, maybe a second image)
• Flashcard System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashcard)

• Easy possibility to create and share quizzes by kids (image upload or xo-cam)
• Ability to use an existing image to create new questions
• Possibility to create and share translations
• Rating of other contributions
• At least 3 difficulty levels (maybe for different ages, ...)
• In-game translatable questions

• Categories like Arts, Astronomy, Food, Geography, Health, Technics, ...
• Single-Player as well as Multiplayer

• Including limited hd in the concept
• Modular structure of the activity
  • Exchangeable categories via Mesh or Schoolserver

Game Modes

This are just basic ideas; the concept is not finished yet. If you have any ideas or comments, please post them.

• Single Player
  • Quiz Mode
    • Choose any category (or all) and have a quick game
  • 'Educational' Mode
    • Get more background information
    • Get stats on which questions how often answered

• Multiplayer
  • Coop Mode (Teamplay)
    • How many clicked on the right spot
    • See the others cursor and all have to move to one
  • VS Mode
    • Challenge one or more player in any category and difficulty level over the Mesh

• Submit Mode (using the xo-cam or uploaded images)
• Rate Contributions
• Translate Questions

Ideas

A basic, high-quality database is crucial for the game as well as open-source images. An idea would be to apply web2 thoughts and let users contribute and rate the content - should be fun and easy too ;-). I can imagine three ways to generate a good database:

1. It could be possible to get a digg or such and have lots of people visiting the project and perhaps submitting questions
2. Some kind of content-jam
3. Contributions of a core team

Development

Overview

The activity for the xo will be written in Python using:

• Pygame / the olpc pygames wrapper for display and xo interaction (cam, net, mesh)
• Pysqlite as data-storage system
• Unicode

Source

You can download the current source code via git from dev.laptop.org:

git clone git://dev.laptop.org/projects/xo-quiz

Roadmap

* November 07: - Finishing the web-application
               - Start of Python Activity

* December 07: - Building basic high-quality database
               - Start of Single Player

* January 08:  - Single Player Mode

* February 08: - Tests and Multiplayer

* March 08:    - Final Design and Testing

* April 08:    - Release of version 1.0

Status

• The page for submitting and rating new questions, and for playing the contributions is online at http://www.linuxuser.at/xoquiz
• The python activity is currently being started:
  • It's already possible to use the web db
  • Image display works
  • Polygon creation works
  • Check if click is inside polygon works

The project is open for contributers! Leave a note in this page's Talk, or drop me a line (chris at linuxuser.at) if you are interested!

Involved People

• Chris Hager (Austria) (chris(at)linuxuser.at)
• Georg Witwer (Austria)

Related Links

• General
  • Game_development
  • Game_development_HOWTO
  • Development_issues
  • Flashcard Learning System

• Python
  • Python Quick Reference
  • Unicode in Python

• Pygame
  • PyGame Reference
  • PythonGameProgramming (Excellent, quick diy-introduction on images, sound, display, event handling, ...)
  • PyGame Tutorials Overview

• PySqlite
  • Usage Guide
  • Unicode and PySqlite