Rohini Krishnamurthi

I have two cousins, kids, in 3rd or 4th grade. They were at my place today, and I had the usual fun time talking and playing with them. I mostly make only worthwhile talks with them, of course appropriate for their age. Something that has to do with science, thinking, creativity or some fun aspect that has alteast a bit of learning. I purposely avoid topics like movies, tv, video games etc. So, depending on their mood, they enjoy spending time with me, or avoiding me. Today was the former. For an extra reason. Today I introduced them to an online game. Something totally not my type. So obviously they were happy.

I came across this game, BrainNook, an educational gaming product for children. I came to know of this, when their beta launch was announced here recently. At that time, I only had a brief look at the site and what they do, and did not spend much time, simply because its based on Flash. I neither had the patience, nor the time for every page to load (I blame only my flaky internet). But somehow the product as an educational fun tool, remained in my mind and today I put that memory to good use.

I introduced my cousins to this “online game”. Honestly, I too got a first look at what exactly it is, only then. Risky move? perhaps But only because I clearly remembered it as tool for kids. And these kids just loved it. Its a fun gaming tool for kids, they’ve got a bunch of interesting features, a multiplayer environment, Games on Language and Numbers skills, a skill meter to evaluate how you move up the levels, very interactive UI, which of course is the backbone of the whole product, or for any Flash based interactive game. They also have a chat room, which kinda disappointed me, I have no idea why thats needed. Anyway, did not explore it to comment on.

Even though Flash is heavy on the client, and a bunch of other things I could list for staying away from Flash, it clearly makes the right candidate in this business case. And the characters are very creatively made. I also found the tool very intuitive. I mean, for the kids. I let them play and I was only a silent spectator. I could see how they were excited to explore and find their ways out to earn stars and clear different levels. They also have a checkpoint at the time of new user registration. That you must be a kid and you give your parent’s email id, so they take permission from your parent (via email) and then let you use the tool to play. Few things here. First of all, how do you verify this? It plainly is for name sake, just like how R rated sites ask you to click ‘yes’ if you are above 18. But to think of it, there’s nothing much you can do about it anyway. Secondly, this checkpoint feature is broken. It really doesn’t stop you from playing the game even if the parent hasn’t approved it. And the site crashed a couple of times saying the server was being unresponsive or something.

But overall, for the time I spent watching the kids clear a few levels, I think its really a great tool, makes learning absolute fun for kids. Kudos to you guys at Nunook!