Alien, Ninja, Bear

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  Alien Ninja Bear logo

Inspiration

When teaching students during Hour of Code, we wanted to teach them about 'if statements'. To teach the concept, we played a game in which all of the students stood up but had to sit down if they matched with one of the statements. For example "If you have brown hair, sit down." We found that the students responded well to this game so we wanted to make an even more fun version for all kids to play!

What it is

Alien, Ninja, Bear is a fun game for kids of all ages. To begin play, every player in the game stands up and someone says "Alexa, play Alien Ninja Bear." Then, the players individually choose to be either an alien (pointing their fingers on the side of their head), a ninja (striking a ninja karate pose), or a bear (displaying their bear claws). The skill will countdown from three and will then choose one of the three options. If the pose selected matches Alexa's choice, you're out! If players are still in, someone needs to say 'Next' to keep the game going. A winner is determined by becoming the last player in the game. Alexa can be alerted by someone saying "We have a winner!"

Special detail

Part of the challenge in a kid's skill is overcoming the attention span, so we came up with a creative idea to solve this problem. Instead of using the standard Alexa voice, this skill uses music and pre-recorded sayings to help keep the interest alive and make the game feel more fun. There's even a catchy theme song!! (Warning: It will get stuck in your head!!)

Accomplishments that we are proud of

We had never used custom recordings in a skill before, so it was fun to figure out how that works and hear it working successfully in the skill.

Uses for this skill

Sure, this skill is loads of fun for any group of kids, but we like to think big. We see this as a great resource for classrooms, icebreaker games, and even teaching kids about coding and if statements as the inspiration speaks about.

What's next for Alien, Ninja, Bear

This is just the beginning for Alien, Ninja, Bear! We really hope to see this expanded into classroom settings or birthday parties - any way we can give parents and teachers a break!

Built With

• amazon-alexa
• lambda
• node.js
• s3