Carl und Cari: Trubel in Tierstadt

Overview

With Carl and Cari: Trubel in Tierstadt, we are trying to build a bridge. On the one hand, we want to provide children with information in a playful way, free from the pressure of tests and at their own pace. On the other hand, we want to record important information about the child's achievements and interests.
Our solution to this problem? The "Profile" system.
The child doesn't have to do anything but play the game and doesn't even know that anything is being learned. While jobs that the child has enjoyed are saved as a "profile" file on the PC at the end so that they can be sent to the parents/teachers. These "profiles" are summaries of all relevant information about each job, which the parents/teachers can then use for evaluation.
In the game itself, the player slips into the role of Carl or Cari and has to help Tierstadt prepare for a festival. You do this by helping the inhabitants of Tierstadt with their jobs. While helping them out, children learn about the various jobs in a playful way and then receive a letter of information for teachers or parents about all the jobs that the child found interesting. The aim of this is to counteract the lack of training and to educate children at an early age about possible future areas of interest.

Game mechanics

2,5D Level:
We try to arouse children's interest in the game primarily through its visuals. Inspired by titles such as Paper Mario, we have opted for our own 2.5D visuals, in which the player will spend most of their time.

Minigames:
We use mini-games to illustrate the usual everyday life of the jobs. We always represent several jobs in one category with a job that is more tangible for the children. Example: Ornamental plant cultivation, landscape gardener, cemetery gardener, orchard gardener... are all represented by the "gardener" in our game. The mini-games are usually played in a first-person 2D view.

Dialog:
Dialogs are used to tell the story of the game. This is there to bind the player to something so that they try out even more jobs. Furthermore, dialogs are mainly used to explain game mechanics and to provide background knowledge about all the jobs. All dialogs are set to music to make it easier for children to read. There is also a picture and a name for each character.

Map with progress:
The map features a hub where players can move between levels. This is also our main narrative location for the game's story. Players can freely choose which level/job they want to play next on the map. As a reward for completing a job, the map is then embellished piece by piece and thus "prepared" for the town festival, which is what everything revolves around.

Help-Button System:
Throughout the game, the player has a help button at the bottom left of the screen that gives him a tip in every situation when he clicks on it. This then tells him where or what he needs to do next. If you are playing Cari, the help button is represented by Carl and Vice Versa.

Profile-Export-System:
After each game, the child receives a "profile" for the respective job. These profiles can be called up from the map and are always a sheet on which everything you need to know about the respective training occupation is summarized. If the child now clicks on "Download", the respective profile is then saved on the desktop. These profiles are specifically addressed to the tutors/parents, so the child is simply informed that they should please show these profiles to their teachers/parents. They can now initiate educational measures and, for example, encourage interest in the areas in which the child has attracted positive attention.

Didactic framework

Who is the target group?
The game is designed for kids aged 9 to 11. This corresponds to fourth and fifth grade students and is exactly the age at which children become aware of the job search. They know that they will have a job later on. However, they still have no idea what jobs are out there.

What are the learning objectives?
Das Kennenlernen von neuen Berufen, mit einem Einblick in den Berufsalltag und mögliche Berufsfelder für die Zukunft herauszufinden stehen bei uns im Vordergrund. Dabei vernachlässigen wir jedoch nicht den Lerneffekt für die Eltern/Lehrer*innen, welche natürlich mehr über die Interessen ihrer Kinder erfahren.

What is the learning content?
Getting to know new professions, gaining an insight into everyday working life and finding out possible career fields for the future are our main focus. However, we do not neglect the learning effect for the parents/teachers, who naturally learn more about their children's interests.

Didactic conditions
The game is used in a school context and is designed for use during one or more teaching units. Each child uses their personal school account, as the game statuses can be saved and continued in later lessons. In this way, children get to know all the training occupations and their training opportunities step by step.