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[Supermikhail]

This year I've got a term paper on what in English would probably be... Teaching Methodology. For Chemistry Teachers.
And, incidentally, for a year I've had an idea to make a game, based on chemistry, so that people could learn something from it. Like, a chemistry engine. So that players could dick around with it and have fun.
I'm far from developing a prototype, and am not too sure on what principles it will work. Although I've got some ideas.
But it's one side of the problem. Another problem is that I need to put it into a term paper. That is I need to make it look like not too video game nerdy. For that I plan to show the effects of video games on mental functions, how games motivate players to do even menial tasks...

And I thought maybe you'd like to help me?
~~~~~~
What I've got:

(from a sort of design document I tried to make)

Chemical reactions.
People fall in love. Marry. Have children. Feed them and nurture. Give them presents.
On the screen these acts are illustrated, graphically and with chemical reactions. For example, with child's growth - proteins formed from aminoacids. With presents - a formule of plastic. Also, pheromones and milk.
A child goes to school.
A player is in school. S/he is explained controls.
Studies the world around him, interacting with it.
Studies chemistry.
Studies how some compounds interact with others.
But he graduates and pursues his ambitions.
And forgets chemistry...
Yet, sometimes it could save his life.

Fade in.
The PC wakes up in an unfamiliar room.
A compound with a formule, displayed on the monitor before you, has been introduced into your bloodstream. It is a poison which, if left not neutralized, will kill you in five minutes. But you can save your life, if you're clever enough. On the table on your right there is a formule for the antidote. Beside it there are several compounds together with formules and names. You just need to find the correct combination. Remember some chemistry. Or die."

^It's half a year old, and now I've changed my opinion on what a fun game should be.

For the engine, I've thought about emulating atoms in a given formule, or giving tags to groups of atoms. Now, however, I think the best way to use would be to employ the second law of thermodynamics together with Gibbs energy (I think I've got an equation somewhere around here). This would require enthropy and entalpy values assigned to many compounds... It's stupid. I mean what's written out here. OK. There are several laws, that I think can be employed, but I'm a bit rusty to bring them up now. Later.

Now, about my term paper.
I know, there are a million of internet articles about effects of video games on mental health. That's why I'm so reluctant to cite them as references. Maybe there is something with more weight and substance. For example, I've got this. And it doesn't look too big. Maybe someone here knows of something academic. I'm interested in good things about video games.

Also, I think I should make a point about what makes a good game in my paper. And maybe say that a video game is essentially an educational enterprise where the student learns stuff that isn't useful to him in real life.

Finally, I'm not sure that it's right to place this topic into General Discussion, maybe it's more Creative Projects, or Other Games, but I'll just be cautious.
More finally. I haven't started the paper yet. Maybe I'll get the necessary momentum here?

[Cthulhu]

Make the formula a reaction, and make them balance it.  Make it one of those really annoying ones that just breaks more every time to you fix it. 

Also, that's a really specific term paper subject, are they all like that?

[Supermikhail]

No, that's the point. I don't want it to be annoying. This is an experiment about devising an educational game that not only 5 year olds can enjoy.

And maybe term papers here in Russia are a bit different than in other countries. My major, so to say, is chemistry teaching. And methodology is the subject.

[Cthulhu]

Oh, that makes more sense.  The way you phrased the subject of the paper sounded like it was something you didn't want.

[Supermikhail]

Eh... My desires and their relation to my education is a completely different story.

I've realized that I haven't written much about the game itself. Partly because I don't want to detrack attention from the main subject. But that must leave people who view this thread a bit disappointed.

So, some of my ideas about gameplay.

First, chemistry-based game is simply a hidden gem for 100%ting. Beginning with "collect all the chemical elements".
Second, a great potential for makeshift weapons. Say, you've got a glass golem opposing you. You could go chipping him with a crowbar. But instead you bring out your syringe pistol and load it with a clip of hydrofluoric acid. And melt your enemy away.
Later in the game you finally get your hands on organics. And are rewarded for your efforts with a web gun (and learn that spider web is made of proteins)...

[eerr]

glass golem= videogamey.

[Vertigon]

But surgeons who play video games generally have better hand/eye coordination.
DF teaches micromanagement, along with dreaming big and getting it done, and other stuff.

Sometimes they're useful. I was saying this because I think you said something about them teaching skills that are unneeded in life.

[eerr]

which part of chemistry is the game focused on?

and how does it line up with a class you took.

[Supermikhail]

Well, my grandiose idea would be to have several difficulty levels corresponding to the player's level in chemistry. The more grandiose side of it would be to have a scientific system of determining the level, i.e. through a series of choices made by the player... Hm, in hindsight it doesn't seem too grandiose. Well, the point here is, chemistry teaching games would be most useful for motivation when a student meets his first formula. But you can't throw at him puzzles made for a 20+ year old game nerd, because he might not have developed yet the necessary psychological facilities... I don't know, abstract thinking is a bit earlier, I think. But still.

@Vertigon: In short, play an FPS. Notice, how the monsters become more difficult as the game progresses. And sometimes it is even against the logic of the story. That's one side (of the uselessness) - slowly learning how to fight different monsters. Well, aside from coordination and tactics (which aren't always present). DF, with its lack of tutorial, and almost without any difficulty curve (esp. with the current release), is a completely different story. At this point it should probably be more correctly called a fantasy world simulator with rogue-like and strategic elements.

@eerr: Obviously, I'll have to omit the golem idea from my paper

[Supermikhail]

Topic, resurrect yourself!

Nothing much to look at here, but I think I've figured out what sort of sort of interesting game could involve chemistry.

CHETRIS! THE CHEMICAL TETRIS.

Basically, you've got chemical compounds instead of your regular blocks. But there's more!

How is it decided which blocks disappear? Well, you've got to make place together compounds and substances that can react. Then, you've got a background, or in what medium it all happens, and the compounds naturally "disappear" in it. For example, you've got two oxides - acidic and basic, water as medium. You place them together, they form a salt, which, hopefully, dissolves in water.

I personally think that the depth and the fun could be very big. First, you've got your explosive compounds, then you've got special blocks like electricity or heat, you've got board-sweeping chain reactions. The difficulty doesn't come from speed-up, but is based on the difficulty of demand to your thinking and memory. You start with elements and go, probably, to organics, from single easy blocks to... well, how huge and complex they could be should probably be determined via testing.

So, I officially declare myself a genius and don't look at me like that.

The reason why I've moved the topic to Creative Projects is that I've come to believe that it's my doom to learn programming and devote the rest of my life to the development of this amazing game. Wish me luck.

[Talanic]

Well, my university asked me to lecture on video games last year.  Not much came of it, but I can direct you to a great source on demographics of video gamers - it's a book called "Grand Theft Childhood", and its conclusion is that video games are not measureably harmful to kids.  I also recall encountering works by James Paul Gee, a professor from UW-Madison that studied learning and video games, but they weren't directly useful to my lectures at the time.

If you'd like to see another game that was made to be educational but not stupid, check out Cellcraft.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Topic, resurrect yourself!

Nothing much to look at here, but I think I've figured out what sort of sort of interesting game could involve chemistry.

CHETRIX! THE CHEMICAL TETRIX.

Basically, you've got chemical compounds instead of your regular blocks. But there's more!

How is it decided which blocks disappear? Well, you've got to make place together compounds and substances that can react. Then, you've got a background, or in what medium it all happens, and the compounds naturally "disappear" in it. For example, you've got two oxides - acidic and basic, water as medium. You place them together, they form a salt, which, hopefully, dissolves in water.

I personally think that the depth and the fun could be very big. First, you've got your explosive compounds, then you've got special blocks like electricity or heat, you've got board-sweeping chain reactions. The difficulty doesn't come from speed-up, but is based on the difficulty of demand to your thinking and memory. You start with elements and go, probably, to organics, from single easy blocks to... well, how huge and complex they could be should probably be determined via testing.

So, I officially declare myself a genius and don't look at me like that.

The reason why I've moved the topic to Creative Projects is that I've come to believe that it's my doom to learn programming and devote the rest of my life to the development of this amazing game. Wish me luck.

I think you mean "Tetris". But seriously, I think that's a neat idea, if a little heavy on the difficulty side. Also, you might want to use the Columns approach instead of Tetris (lining up chemical compounds is difficult enough without having to worry about getting Z-blocks).

You can also do it Cellular Automata-style. Like games based off Falling Sand. For example, you could track "heat" of individual blocks. An endothermic reaction would cool both neghboring blocks and the medium, resulting in blocks that refuse to fall when there's an empty space under them, or impenetrable crystalline medium that you have to heat up to remove. Likewise, an exothermic reaction would heat up neighboring tiles, making them "flow" if the substance in question would turn liquid, or even "fall up" if it would be turned into gas.

[Blargityblarg]

The Tetris idea is a good one. Maybe have different levels of difficulty, i.e. ionic only, where you just have to try to balance out charges. The transition metals that have various states of ionisation (iron, copper, I think lead) could add some nice wildcardness, as could trying to avoid precipitates so they don't clog up your playspace and eventually make you lose.

[Grakelin]

But surgeons who play video games generally have better hand/eye coordination.

Source?

[Supermikhail]

Yup, I meant Tetris.

@Talanic: Yes, any statistics on the effects (not necessarily negative) of videogames on people's health would be great. I'm also interested in the topic of why there are game genres that there are - what games are the best to make to appeal different ages, sexes etc... Although, probably not the book, unless it's been published in Russia... And if it hasn't, but I still could find it, I kind of feel opposed to translating everything for my paper Just statistics, or little over statistics, I could handle.

Cellcraft is very good. I see why I couldn't go the same way - it's much harder to identify with a substance instead of a living thing. It occurred to me that Chetris could be ported to a variety of platforms, from PC to cellphones, including java-apps on the Internet, provided the chemistry mechanics are light enough for the platform to handle.

@Sean Mirrsen: Looking back at my standard selection of Ubuntu games, there are many different games that could be used as a prototype. At higher levels the game would require quite a bit of thinking, and turn-based tetris doesn't seem to me as the best idea. Falling Sand would be good if only fun mattered, because I'm afraid that with the degree of unpredictability it has, it'd be hard to learn anything, although it works around my problem with associating the formula with the appearance of a compound. Another thing is that Falling Sand seems to be much less popular, and one of my goals is to make a fun chemistry game (I assume popularity is connected to fun). However, I may be interpreting your idea wrong, and anyway I'd love it if you elaborated.

What do you mean by "heavy on the difficulty side"? The difficulty of implementation, or the difficulty presented to the players? If the latter, I figured, even though the game is aimed at people interested in chemistry, or kids, gamers learned the weapons and the tactics of enemies in Halo, why can't they learn a couple of things here? The drawing factor I intend to be explosions, once again.

@Blargity...: Yeah, there's a great opportunity to make a game with the highest number of really distinct difficulty levels, because of the way the science itself is structured and taught.

Alright, I should thank you all for the great ideas. I already feel like starting a design document, although there are other commitments that I must attend to before that. A great improvement over my previous idea, which might make the whole endeavour possible, is that the game's got discreet dimensions - 2d blocks, which, I think, makes the process of figuring out the chemistry engine a lot easier.

While I was thinking for a fitting conclusion.

@Grakelin: I thought it was a generally accepted fact that video games improve hand/eye coordination, and not just for surgeons.