Helios: An HTML5 game teaching proportional reasoning to child players

Helios was developed at the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) to teach proportional reasoning to children ages six through ten. The game features balancing and unbalancing levels which were designed with input from early childhood educators and learning researchers, and iteratively updated based on results of child play tests. Such feedback universally recommended making the balancing exercises less repetitive and introducing opportunities for more player engagement. Helios also addresses scientific inquiry steps of hypothesis formation and explanation and socio-emotional learning in terms of discussing with an in-game peer. This paper emphasizes the development process and presents problems uncovered during the evolution of the balance game and their resolution, contextualizing the discussion with references to intrinsic motivation literature. It reports on a specific formative play test with 17 children. It was developed using the ImpactJS game engine, allowing for use across major web browsers without additional plug-ins. Lessons learned regarding the formative test are shared, culminating in a series of next steps for Helios development.