“Situations of Substance” is a game-based e-learning solution for supporting substance misuse education for adolescents outside of a school setting. The game aims to give adolescents the chance to experience potential real life situations and encourages them to learn from their mistakes and make informed decisions when it comes to substance use.

 

"Situations of Substance" was created as part of my thesis for my MA in E-Learning Design and Development in order to answer the research question “To what extent can a game-based e-learning solution support substance misuse education outside of a school setting for Irish adolescents?”

 

Educational content for the game was sourced from “Putting the Pieces Together” a drug and alcohol education manual and website Drinkaware (https://drinkaware.ie). Both have a lot of information on the effects of substance use as well as what to do in different situations. 

 

In the game players can choose a character’s story they want to play through. Each character caters for a different age group and involves a different form of substance use. I chose to create a game centred on an 18 year old girl called Ciara and the substance of alcohol.

 

Graphics for the game were created using tools Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. I used the game engine Unity (https://unity3d.com) along with the extension Fungus for creation of the videogame. Fungus (https://fungusgames.com) is a Unity extension for creating 2D videogames. The Fungus scripting system is built around the concept of a flowchart and so is ideal for creating branching storylines/scenarios in games. 

 

I have created a screencast (without sound) of the game to show all the possible outcomes in the game which you can watch below.