Click here to play Machinarium

I used this games as a speaking task. Students had to work together to play this games and discuss what they had to do. There's also a Digital Play blog about this and many more games at http://digitalplay.info/blog/?s=machinarium

Hapland – Reading Instructions

This is a very frustrating flash game.  I used it with my Level 1+/B1+ students to help them read for meaning.

Basically the idea of the game is to get the little man to safety byclicking on different parts of the picture in the right order.

 How I ran the lesson.

1. All students had a computer. I directed them to the ‘Hapland’ website. Click here http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rallen/hapland.swf I asked the students to play it for two minutes. Then I elicited their opinions, did they think it was a good game? Would they play it?

2. Now I handed out the instructions (below) . They had to read carefully following these to complete the game. I encouraged them to help each other.

Instructions

a)    Open all the windows and turn the red arrow around.

b)    Open the hatch on the right, click the yellow arrow to get a man out.

c)     Click on the man to fire one round in the low position to drop the bridge down.

d)    Click the cannon to move it up. Fire the second round up at the bell and click the spear thing so it goes the other way JUST after the round hits the bell

e)    Fire the next two rounds at the bridge, but click the bridge to as they hit it to knock them in the air and explode without causing damage.

f)      Click the light bulb a few times next to the man at the bottom to get him to smash it.

g)    Fire the last round in the low position, and the bottom man will pick it up and open the door with it.

h)    Now click the man by the machine so he gets in it, and click the yellow arrow to get another guy out, get him to fire the other man up at the bell.

i)      The man by the bell will move the tower over if you click him. Then click the spear thing. Now keep clicking the bell till it falls. No more land mine.

j)        Click the door in the bottom left so the man comes out and JUST as he goes in the door on the right, click the man at the bottom. A dog tries to chase him, but the falling concrete stops it.

k)      You did it!

How was it successful?

- students generated a lot of natural language when trying to help each other. ‘What do I do?’ ‘You don’t do it like that’ ‘How do you do that again? etc. This kind of helping language is really useful, asking for clarification or explaining is also vital in speaking English is a real context. Maybe I should have made that more the focus of this lesson.

- They really had to read the instructions to be able to complete the game. It was a good test of their comprehension skills. 

What went wrong?

- some people don’t like video games and without my help and explanation might have confused this task with- ‘having a bit of a laugh’.

- it was just too hard for some of the students although they were encouraged to ask for help from other students.