Starfall Catalyst for Students

Downloading the game is fairly straightforward if a somewhat lengthy process, but with 1.49 GB of space taken up by the game this is not surprising. The space should not be an issue once you experience the three dimensional nature of the programme and the excellent graphics; coupled with the fact that the game is stand alone and does not need to be connected to a WiFi.

 

The journey begins with a cinematic, dramatic scene of what the purpose of the game is about, no need for a help guide! Theos, the intrepid Space Cadet is accompanied by his trusty friend, Oya a rather small flying creature who appears naive at first but they will come into their own as the game progresses. The first task is to go into a locked room and neutralise the Annake who has been infected by an acidic substance. In true gaming style you are provided with a weapon and as you enter the room you are automatically put up to speed with a useful hands on tutorial.

 

Once the first task has been completed a further tutorial is provided about how to interact with doors and objects. Moving through the customary sliding door reveals another much larger room that looks like a futuristic space lab, which in fact it is. Further exploring reveals an acid vat that needs to be neutralised with the gun and then Theos can walk through into another room where questions have to be asked to progress to the next level, with another shutter door opening to bring up new challenges.

 

On the top right of the screen is the Library that offers useful information for both tutorials and the particular chemical experiments and mixtures that are necessary to help Theos through his travels. Theos and Oya are not the only characters; Arches, Kryx, and Faye are there to help to ultimately find Tarque, all these characters are carefully biographed and are excellently illustrated, the scenes are numerous and draw imaginatively, all designed for children to happily immerse them in the game.

 

With over 20 levels and three worlds to explore, combined with quizzes and mini games this is certainly an exciting third person shooter game that fully embraces the ‘game’ with an important educational purpose. Whilst many developers manage some diluting of either the game or the educational content when writing edutainment games this developer has gone to the leading edge with one of the finest examples of edutainment. I got one of my grandchildren to play the game and was impressed with the immediate concentration and genuine interest and excitement shown, this is rare. As always the acid test (sorry for the pun) is the follow up of the chemistry that they had learnt and, as I had suspected, my grandson had picked up information about chemistry seemingly by accident, but of course it was by design.

 

This team of developers are the one to watch and I believe they are producing more games which my children will be anxious to get hold of. This app is certainly an important one to have in the teacher and parent toolkit and will delight when you discover children are learning important facts and concepts by accident!