Sid the science kid games


Science Games | PBS KIDS

Science Games | PBS KIDS

Science Games

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Elinor Wonders Why

Elinor Backyard Life

Choose bugs, worms & ants to make your own habitat!

Play Now!

Elinor Wonders Why

Elinor Ari's Wonderful Ideas

Science

Design your own animal-inspired vehicles!

Elinor Wonders Why

Elinor Nature Sights & Sounds

Science

Make your own music nature scenes

Hero Elementary

Push Pull Puzzles

Science

Fur Blur need help getting to her snack. Can you make a path for her?

Team Hamster! & Ruff Ruffman

Team Hamster! Splash Dash

Science,Computational Thinking

Use tools to fix the water pipes and have a hamster pool party!

Elinor Wonders Why

Elinor Hide & Seek

Science

Hide and seek with Elinor & friends, play by yourself or with a friend!

Hero Elementary

Super Seasons Snapshots

Science

Observe and snap photographs of animals, plants, and more throughout the seasons.

Ready Jet Go!

Rover Maker

Science

Build & drive your own rover on Earth, Moon and Mars!

Ready Jet Go!

Jet's Planet Pinball

Science

Play pinball and collect all the planets!

Nature Cat

Nature Road Trip

Science,Mathematics,Social Studies

Go on road trip with Nature Cat and the gang!

Nature Cat

Lost and Found

Bad Dog Bart has stolen all the toys! Can you help find them?

Nature Cat

Nature Art Box

The Arts

Use your Nature Art Box to create art with natural materials!

Nature Cat

Fine Feathered Feast

Help Nature Cat feed the birds in the forest.

Nature Cat

Hal's Big Dig

Science

Dig for fossils with Hal! What will you find?

Nature Cat

Racing Rapids

Science,Social & Emotional Growth

Design and build a sturdy boat to race along the rapids with the Nature Cat crew.

Nature Cat

Nature Cat Adventure

Science

Go on missions to help the animals and save the day! Tally ho!

Nature Cat

Seed Soaring

Science,Social & Emotional Growth

Help Nature Cat and send dandelion seeds as far as you can!

Nature Cat

Park Builder

Science,Social & Emotional Growth

Help Nature Cat and friends build a park by earning materials as you play!

Dinosaur Train

Dino Dive

Mathematics

Dive in with the dinosaurs!

Dinosaur Train

Dinocar Designer

​Design your own dinocar! What will yours look like?

Dinosaur Train

River Run

Race down the river and collect as many insects as you can!

Dinosaur Train

Roarin Relay

Mathematics

Race with the dinosaurs!

Dinosaur Train

Buddy's Big Campout Adventure

Science,Mathematics

Practice being good friends by gathering items to get the campsite ready.

Dinosaur Train

Bridge Builder

Help build bridges so the dinosaurs can get around Troodon Town. Measure carefully!

Dinosaur Train

Rail Rally

Science

Play as all the different engines on racing day!

Dinosaur Train

Leaf Leader

Mathematics

Tug-of-war with dinosaurs!

Dinosaur Train

Dino Drink

Mathematics

Help! These dinos are thirsty.

Dinosaur Train

Dino Flight!

Fly along with Buddy and Jackson as they play an exciting game of catch!

Dinosaur Train

Chow Time

Help feed the dinosaurs by using a scale.

Dinosaur Train

Fossil Finder

Science

Head underground in the Drill Train to search for fossils.

Dinosaur Train

Air Show

Mathematics

Join the dinosaur air show!

Dinosaur Train

All Star Sorting

Put the dinosaurs in order by height and find their house!

Dinosaur Train

Pinecone Pass

Mathematics

Play dinosaur football!

Elinor Wonders Why

Elinor's Nature Adventure

Science,Mathematics

Use binoculars, magnifying glass & more to observe and discover Elinor's world!

Dinosaur Train

Opening Ceremony

Science,Mathematics

Play on a sports team with dinosaurs!

Sesame Street

Ready Set Grow

Science

Plant seeds and tend to a garden with Abby and Elmo!

Sesame Street

Seasons Spinner

Science,Social Studies

Spin up some fun with Abby and Rudy while exploring and learning about all four seasons…winter, spring, summer, and fall!

Sesame Street

Cookie Monster's Foodie Truck

Literacy-English Language Arts (ELA),Social Studies,Computational Thinking

Find out where different foods come from to make apple pies, tacos, and more with Cookie Monster and Gonger!

Sesame Street

A Job For Me

Social Studies

Explore the jobs that make up a community!​

Ready Jet Go!

Space Scouts

Science

Earn badges to become the ultimate Space Scout!

Ready Jet Go!

Jet's Bot Builder

Science

Create a robot and travel the solar system!

Ready Jet Go!

Mission Control

Science

Build a mission controller to control robots and spaceships.

Ready Jet Go!

Food Farmer

Science

Grow giant vegetables on Earth, Moon and Mars.

Ready Jet Go!

Base Builder

Science

Build stable bases across different planets to protect your toy astronaut.

Ready Jet Go!

Cooking School

Science

Unlock all the recipes by designing kitchen contraptions!

Ready Jet Go!

Space Scouts Lab

Science

Make your own engineering play with Space Scouts!

Ready Jet Go!

Mission Earth

Science

Take photos and explore all the amazing things on planet Earth!

Ready Jet Go!

Mindy's Moonball

Science

Learn about gravity while setting the best course for the ball to reach each basket!

Ready Jet Go!

Sydney's Astro Tracker

Science

Learn about different asteroids in this fast-moving, asteroid tagging game!

Ready Jet Go!

Jet's Rocket Ship Creator

Science

Build a rocket ship and complete space quests!

Ready Jet Go!

Sean's Rescue Quest

Science

Explore different planets and fix Sean's Rover in this space exploration game!

The Cat in the Hat

Spina-ma-jigger

Science

Spin to play games using all your senses!

The Cat in the Hat

Builda-ma-loo

Science,The Arts

Build your own painting contraption with The Cat in the Hat!

The Cat in the Hat

Sounda-pa-looza

Science,The Arts

Construye un instrumento especial - un Sounda-pa-looza!

The Cat in the Hat

Arcade Escapade

Science

Arcade Escapade with the Cat in the Hat!

The Cat in the Hat

Clasificalo-todo

Science,Mathematics

Ayuda Nick y Sally a ordenar las diferentes cosas en Toborrowland!

The Cat in the Hat

Bridge-a-rama

Science,Mathematics

Build bridges to help the Dragon get to the party!

The Cat in the Hat

Invention Engine

Science

Help the Cat in the Hat engineer items for the birthday party!

The Cat in the Hat

Slidea-ma-zoo!

Science

Help Nick and Sally design and race slides at the slide park.

The Cat in the Hat

The Great Space Chase

Fly the space-a-ma racer around planets to get to rover!

The Cat in the Hat

Corn Maze Craze

Science,Mathematics

Help Cat in the Hat find Nick & Sally in the corn maze or make your own!

The Cat in the Hat

Super Cleaner Upper

Science

Help Cat in the Hat clean up the neighborhood, by recycling and composting items

The Cat in the Hat

Camp Time

Set up a campsite and roast s'mores with the Cat in the Hat!

The Cat in the Hat

Marbleous Marvel Coaster

Science

Use your creativity to design your own coaster!

The Cat in the Hat

Welcome to Beaver City

Mathematics

Build a beaver lodge!

The Cat in the Hat

Hermit Shell

Find the right shells for the hermit crabs!

The Cat in the Hat

Deep Sea Follow Me!

Science,Mathematics

Find these fish a home!

The Cat in the Hat

Deep Sea Follow Me!

Science,Mathematics

Find these fish a home!

The Cat in the Hat

Sketch-a-Mite

Mathematics

Draw shapes and build towers with the Cat in the Hat!

Plum Landing

Plum's Creature Connector

Science

Solve puzzles to help plants and animals get what they need!

Plum Landing

Break It Down

Science

Help Plum decompose the waste!

Plum Landing

Seed Racer

Science

Help Plum collect all the seeds!

Plum Landing

Invaders!

Science

Help Plum rid the habitats of invasive species!

Plum Landing

Feed the Dingo

Science

Build your own desert ecosystem!

Plum Landing

Make a Mangrove

Science

Build your own ecosystem in a mangrove!

Plum Landing

Jungle Rangers

Science

Find Amazing Creatures in the Jungle!

Team Hamster! & Ruff Ruffman

Fish Force

Science,Mathematics

Help save Ruff's plushy from the penguins!

Team Hamster! & Ruff Ruffman

Dress That Rhino

Science,Mathematics,Computational Thinking

Dress Fluff the Rhino!

Team Hamster! & Ruff Ruffman

Hamster Run

Science,Mathematics,Computational Thinking

Help the hammies build a pathway to the yummy snacks!

Team Hamster! & Ruff Ruffman

Ruff's Cookie Creator

Literacy-English Language Arts (ELA),Science,Mathematics,Computational Thinking

Create cookie recipes with Ruff!

Cyberchase

Rescue Ecotopia

Mathematics

Save Ecotopia from Hacker disasters by adding animals and plants to keep the ecosystem healthy.

Cyberchase

Space Waste Odyssey

Fly through cyberspace collecting and sorting trash.

Cyberchase

Buzz and Delete Save the Day

Mathematics

Travel to different worlds with Buzz and Delete to save Botopolis!

Cyberchase

Mission Motherboard

Mathematics

Help Motherboard defeat Hacker, play puzzles, and collect things!

Design Squad

Fidgit Power

Help Fidgitville by designing wind turbines that make electricity and keep the air and water clean.

Design Squad

Feed the Fidgits

Science

Design a system to grow and harvest plants to feed the fidgits!

Design Squad

Fidgits to the Rescue

Science

Design ways to deliver emergency supplies to Fidgits after a natural disaster.

Design Squad

Don’t Flood the Fidgits

Science

Build a city for the Fidgits that will stay safe and dry during a flood.

Wild Kratts

Photoshoot Game

Science

Travel through the world's different environments and snap photos of wildlife!

Wild Kratts

Creature Mobile

Science

Use different creature powers to engineer a vehicle to outrace the Zachbots!

Wild Kratts

Creature Power Suit Underwater Challenge

Science

Help Chris search the sea to find lost parts for his creature power suit.

Wild Kratts

Aviva's Eel-Ectric Challenge!

Help test Aviva's Electric Eel Creature Power Suit!

Wild Kratts

Aviva's Powersuit Maker

Science

Help Aviva engineer the perfect creature power suit for Martin and Chris!

Wild Kratts

Wild Kratts Baby Animal Rescue

Science

Baby animals have been captured and it is up to you and the Kratts to save them!

Wild Kratts

Amazin' Amazon

Science

​Explore the levels of the rainforest and use new powersuits to save baby animals!

Odd Squad

Agent Check-Up

Mathematics,Computational Thinking

Help Dr. O diagnose and cure the agents' odd diseases.

Odd Squad

Code Breaker

Mathematics,Computational Thinking

Crack the code and get into top secret areas in headquarters.

Molly of Denali

Veggiezilla!

Literacy-English Language Arts (ELA),Science,Mathematics

Grow giant vegetables with Molly and Trini for the Alaska State Fair!

Molly of Denali

Alaskan Adventure

Literacy-English Language Arts (ELA),Science

Explore the Alaskan wilderness with Molly, her mom, and Nina. Take photos of amazing animals and record what you find in your notebook.

Sid the Science Kid

Sorting Box

Science,Mathematics

Get sorting!

Sid the Science Kid

Crystals Rule

Measure crystals with May!

Sid the Science Kid

Weather Surprise

Science,Mathematics

Match items to the right environments!

Sid the Science Kid

Vegetable Planting

Science,Mathematics

Let's plant some seedlings!

Sid the Science Kid

Snowflake Match

Mathematics

Match snowflakes with Gerald!

Sid the Science Kid

Snow Search

Science,Mathematics

Find the hidden snowy surprises!

Curious George

High Five

Mathematics

Count by fives by making handprints with Curious George.

Splash and Bubbles

Fintastic Fish Maker

Science,The Arts

Create your own unique and colorful fish!

Splash and Bubbles

Sand Art Spectacular

Science,The Arts

Create spectacular underwater art using a variety of fun, unique tools!

Splash and Bubbles

Help Our Kelp

Science,Social & Emotional Growth,Mathematics

Help Ripple keep the kelp forest clean!

Splash and Bubbles

Reeftown Rock Adventure

Science,Mathematics

Go on an adventure to find underwater creatures and build your own ocean!

Splash and Bubbles

Finball Friends

Science,Social & Emotional Growth

Dive in for some finball fun! Play with Splash or play with a friend!

Splash and Bubbles

Ocean Guide

Science

Learn about the amazing creatures that live in the ocean!

Elinor Wonders Why

Elinor Pond Life

Science

Create your own pond ecosystem and see what creatures and plants grow.

The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat Builds That

Science,Mathematics,The Arts

5 Science & Engineering games, treehouse fun & at home activities!

Team Hamster! & Ruff Ruffman

Team Hamster! Power Painters

Science,The Arts,Computational Thinking

Paint some spooky paintings with simple machines from Team Hamster!

Team Hamster! & Ruff Ruffman

Team Hamster! Roll to the Rescue

Science

Help Team Hamster! through the maze & collect stickers!

Elinor Wonders Why

Elinor Curious Campout

Science

Let's go camping with Elinor!

Molly of Denali

Canoe Quest

Science,Mathematics

Go on a river adventure with Molly and Nina, learning about river science as you canoe!

Wild Kratts

Cats and Dogs

Science

Help the Kratt brothers search for lost animals and meet lots of wild cats and dogs along the way!

Cyberchase

Duck Dash

Join a flock of migrating ducks and use math skills to help them reach their winter home.

FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman

Search It Up

Join the "Search It Up" kids to play games about selfies, emojis, the internet, and more!

Cyberchase

Cyber Fashion Challenge

Upcycle clothing into fabulous new designs and see your pieces on the runway.

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

Nature Walk

Join the Tiger family on a nature walk! Explore the sights and sounds in Daniel’s neighborhood, and in your neighborhood too!

SciGirls

Creature Features

Science

¡Ayuda a Izzie a encontrar bichos con características geniales para su película! El juego está disponible en inglés y español.

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"One more move and that's it" - Offtop on vc.ru

The story of the authors of the Civilization game about the history and mechanics of the project at the GDC-2017 conference.

6148 views

Sid Meier's Civilization 1991

The idea for the game came to developers Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley on a train in 1990. They had just finished work on railroad tycoon, a railroad simulator, and found that they enjoyed making god-mode games where the user is in charge of all the gameplay elements and solves big problems. Meyer realized that the extreme manifestation of "playing God" is history.

Shelly remembers it a little differently. Meyer asked him to name ten things Shelley would change about popular turn-based strategy Empire Deluxe. He found twelve. A few days later, Meyer came to him and put a floppy disk with the very first version of Civilization on the table.

Sid Meier

The historical theme is wide, and this has become both a plus and a minus. On the one hand, the developers had a huge target audience. On the other hand, at the beginning it was difficult to understand what kind of game to make - after all, the history of mankind is rich in events.

First of all, the authors decided that the player should start small - with one settler and one city. The task of leading your own civilization through the millennia looks too complicated, so at the beginning of the game the user had to solve simple and understandable problems: found a city, build the first unit, and so on.

The developers decided to experiment with the tone of the game: absolute seriousness was mixed with humor in it. So the game didn't feel as "menacing" as Meyer puts it.

However, in order to make Civilization deeper, they immediately decided to add Civilopedia, a large reference book with historical and game terms. So, learning something new, both adults and children could play it.

Shelley notes that he and Meyer managed to create systems that kind of tell the player that he is on the right track. This was important in order to motivate the user to continue playing.

Bruce Shelley

In total, the development of the game took about a year, taking into account the long break during which the creators of Civilization were working on another game. By today's standards, the development cost them relatively cheaply - $ 170 thousand. This is comparable to the annual salary of a modern programmer.

Interestingly, at the time of development, the game could not be called Civilization, because there was a tabletop strategy with the same name. The developers went through alternatives - Call of Power, Rise of Nations, Age of Empires - but none of them fit. As a result, they managed to contact the creator of the board game and buy out its name. Meyer believes that without him, Civilization might not have become such a successful game.

Stroke by stroke

Now Civilization is strongly associated with turn-based addictive gameplay - "one more turn and that's it." However, its first version was a real-time strategy game reminiscent of SimCity. Subsequently, this mechanics decided to abandon.

World map in Civilization

Thanks to the turn-based gameplay, players could easily plan what to do next - Meyer calls Civilization "a game where you always think several moves ahead." The rest of the gameplay elements were based on this principle: the technology tree, diplomacy, and so on. Without time to think, they would be very different.

In addition, Meyer and Shelley previously created mostly turn-based military strategies. However, the idea of ​​creating such a computer strategy for that time was quite unique - such games were considered too slow and boring. But after the release of Civilization strategies began to appear a lot. Meyer and Shelley paved the way for the genre.

Historical figures

During the creation of the game, the developers conducted research in the children's departments of libraries. They were interested in which historical figures children like the most. By controlling known leaders, the player feels "familiar with them".

At first it was difficult to understand which decisions should be made by the player, and which - by the computer. But when the developers decided that the user, as it were, takes on the role of the chosen leader of the nation, everything became clear.

Spearman vs Ship

The Civilization series has a funny feature that has become a local meme: under certain conditions, one spearman can destroy a warship.

This happened in the first Civilization, and the developers for a long time could not decide whether to do something about it. To Meyer, this situation seemed normal: from a mathematical point of view, the indicators of the spearman allowed him to destroy the ship.

The combat system in the games of the series has changed the most. It's all about the contradiction that arises when the leader-player, managing the construction of cities and exploring the continent, is forced to deal with small things like disposing troops and leading individual units. Therefore, the developers constantly tried to fit the combat system into the game as organically as possible. Later, they even wanted the fight to take place on a separate small map, like in the game Endless Legend.

Battle Card Endless Legend

As a result, the "spearman vs. ship" problem was solved by adding health points to units and dividing the battle into several rounds - in the first Civilization, collisions were resolved in one turn.

Meyer's biggest regret is that they added control zones to the first Civilization straight out of wargames. Then he imagined the combat system exactly like this: troops gather on the borders of states and try to reshape spheres of influence. However, users collected all units on one cell, and the main battles were fought for cities, not borders.

In the last two parts of Civilization, the creators are trying to bring the combat system closer to Meyer's original concept - therefore, the troops are more distributed across the map, and only one unit can be on one cell.

Also in the first Civilization, the developers made the combat system as transparent as possible: each unit has attack, defense and movement speed indicators: they are expressed in prime numbers and are immediately shown to the player. In a game with a huge number of complex systems, this was simply necessary.

Technology

The first Civilization also introduced a tech tree that is now strongly associated with the game. Meyer saw the idea for it in a book where all historical events were arranged in chronological order on a straight line. According to him, the technological tree fit perfectly into the initial idea of ​​the project - the movement from something small to something significant and complex.

The tree included not only obvious inventions like the railway, but also inconspicuous ones, which, nevertheless, had a significant impact on history - for example, the stirrup.

Players usually immediately choose priority technologies for themselves - money, gunpowder or railroad - and tend to research them, discarding unnecessary ones. Meyer wanted to do it differently: yes, the player may have completed all the requirements for researching the technology, but it may not have appeared among the available options. So he wanted to simulate the situational nature of scientific discoveries. After many complaints, this approach was decided to be abandoned.

The developers did not expect how deeply the players would analyze their game and look for the most optimal ways of development. In the end, they decided not to fight the interests of the audience, and subsequently in Civilization, tips appeared that helped to get to the desired invention faster.

Miracles

Mankind has created many remarkable structures throughout history, so the idea of ​​adding the wonders of the world to the game seems more than natural to Meyer. In the Civilization party, the wonders of the world cannot be repeated: only one nation can have, for example, Big Ben.

Thanks to the wonders of the world, players began to compete with other leaders, trying to build one or another wonder first. In addition, due to miracles, an additional connection with other nations and the history of the real world appeared.

Modifications and scenarios

The inability to modify the game developers call their failure. According to Meyer, during the creation of the first project, they could not even think that someone would be able to make content for Civilization better than the developers themselves.

The ability to create mods was introduced with the release of Civilization 2, and fans greeted the innovation with enthusiasm. Before that, users constantly sent ideas to improve the game, but now they could implement them themselves.

In addition, mods helped to maintain a sense of novelty between parts of the game - each took 5-6 years to develop, and players could get bored.

Manual

Meyer especially highlights the 128-page paper manual that came with the game, created by Shelley. Thanks to an illustrated book with explanations and many historical facts, a person perceived the game as something important, weighty.

With the help of the manual, Shelley was able to tell people about historical events that were not included in the game: the plague, religious wars, slavery. Interestingly, Meyer wanted to add events like the plague to the game - a kind of test for civilization, after which the nation either died or became stronger. But players simply loaded a save before the crash and avoided it. Therefore, such "tests" were removed from the game.

However, there were global events in the first Civilization. According to Meyer, it was perhaps the first game in which global warming appeared: if civilizations emitted too much waste, sea levels rose and coastal cities were under water.

Information

Meyer thought that users needed as much information as possible about demographics and other aspects of the world, as in the image above. However, in the following games there were no such number of indicators - it was difficult for people to perceive them.

He finds the intro to the game a success, in which the player was briefly introduced to how the world works - he had the feeling that he was taking control of the nation at a key moment in history.

Balance

Another failure Meyer considers the stage of testing the game. Despite the fact that in general it worked well, it had two major exploits:

  • ​ due to the construction of a huge number of cities, the player significantly increased his chances of winning;
  • chariot was too strong for its price.

To balance the first exploit, the "corruption" parameter was introduced, and the attack value of the chariot was simply lowered. However, this was at a time when there were no Day 1 patches, so the problems were more serious than they seem now.

Questions and answers from conference participants

How did you select playable nations in the very first Civilization?

We needed recognizable leaders and noticeable differences between nations to justify the difference in gameplay. So we chose large states that are familiar to everyone.

In our studio we are developing a game called Cult, where you have to create your own cult and fight against rival cults. In this regard, I have a question: were you not worried about the problems that could arise due to the fact that you added different religions to the game?

We have worked very carefully with religions. In the first Civilization, temples and cathedrals simply worked out the happiness of the population, and subsequently we developed this system. At the same time, we never focused on any one religion, did not say that one is better than the other.

This is the fundamental idea of ​​Civilization - we are not trying to impose our opinion, because when a game designer comes to the fore and begins to dictate his terms, he deprives the player of important emotions. Therefore, in our game, you decide whether you want to dominate with military power or create world peace through diplomacy.

The first two Civilizations had a very strong educational element. Now it, in my opinion, is lost, because earlier, if you researched something, a historical reference was opened. From Civilization, I learned what GDP is! What happened now?

I agree with you here. Take a look at our forums: there are those who are interested in the gameplay, and there are those who want more educational content. Of course, we do not say that our game is educational, but it is definitely important in it. Players return to it partly to learn something new.


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