Six Swords Kids

A Fantasy Roleplaying Game for Kids: Screenless, Imaginative Play Available Anywhere on Alexa

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Inspiration

We wanted to create a screenless, imaginative experience for children. We took as inspiration our own experience with Roleplaying games (RPGs), Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories, mystery novels, etc.

What it does

It's an audio-only fantasy-based roleplayging game (RPG). The system used is based on OSRIC, an open source version of first Edition Dungeons and Dragons (tm). For a full demo of the skill, see this video: https://youtu.be/KToMLNCZ8ZI

How I built it

Very patiently. It's built on an AWS backend and stands at a behemoth 80,000 lines. Is there a prize for complexity? For richness of experience?

Challenges I ran into

  1. Audio Interface Standards
  2. Maintaining usability while building rich player experiences.

We like to think that we respect the spirit - if not the exact letter - of the law in terms of Alexa certification. We try to push the envelope a little bit to deliver more interesting experiences. We want people to notice and remember our skills. At the same time, we're very aware of how our community is in the process of developing audio interface standards. It's like developing for the early web, before anyone knew that they needed navigation bars or uniform places to put contact information. Early days.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We've focused on developing techniques to "train" players how to play without the steep learning curve. New players get the full tutorial experience - which lessens over time. The software tracks how experienced a player is, what functionality they've dealt with, what gameplay elements they've struggled with, etc. We streamline the instructions as players progress through the game to minimize interruptions.

We've also learned how much subtly counts with audio. We've spent a lot of time improving the sound quality and sound effects. We include little call-outs and Easter Eggs to lighten the mood with humor and parody.

What I learned

If a picture conveys a 1000 words, what do you do with an audio-only interface? We've invested time in finding natural ways to deliver relevant content: nesting information, unobtrustive audio cues, etc. We aim to give players control over how much detail they experience or consume. Beauty, after all, is in the eye of the beholder.

What's next for Six Swords Kids

We want to greatly expand the curated content and use our quest engine to create multiple storylines. We would like enable players to choose which storylines to experience and to affect the outcome of the gameworld itself. There is a plan for a interconnected series of tween/young adult novels.

Resources

For a full demo of the skill, see this video: https://youtu.be/KToMLNCZ8ZI For questions, technical support, or to talk to other players, please join the discussion board here: http://starlanes.freeforums.net/board/5/6-swords-discussion

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