I’ve posted about my recent interest in using online video games for English language development.  The games that I have linked to my website (on the bottom of the Word Games category on my English for Intermediate and Advanced page)  have been met with great enthusiasm from my students, and I believe the games have indeed been effective as an English exercise (though they still remain activities to be used now and then and not regularly).  You can click on the Learning Games tag to see my previous posts on this subject.

I’ve now tried engaging students with video games on a different level — now they create their own games.  I’ve discovered a site called Sploder which allows students to develop their own simple games quickly (and for free) and then Sploder hosts their creation.  Students have to write instructions on how to play the game for players to read.  They can then play each other’s games, and then write comments about what they liked about it (the instructions and comments are hosted by Sploder).

I think it’s actually a pretty amazing site. 

Students can make their games public for anyone to play and comment on them.  However, for now, I’ve created one account that students can access and we can keep the games, instructions, and comments private.  I’m not sure how much Sploder moderates the comments that players make.  Until I have a better idea about that, keeping it private (with players and comments coming just from our classes)  makes the most sense.  It doesn’t cost anything to keep the games private.  After I have time to investigate the comment moderation policies further, I’ll let blog readers know if I’ve decided to make the games public.

Because the games are private,  I can’t post links to them on my website.  But I have posted the link to Sploder on my Examples of Student Work page under Student Video Games.