Before a child walks, they first learn how to hold their head up, roll over, sit, crawl, stand, take steps with assistance and then finally walk independently. As this walking example demonstrates, there are a lot of steps (no pun intended) that happen before a child can walk. In between these milestones (roll, sit, crawl, walk) there are even more skills that a child needs to master before progressing to the next milestone. The developmental steps that a child takes to progress from one milestone to the other are a transferable concept to game design.

Project Injini’s game designers intuitively know that every player starts with their own personal skill set and that the game should provide just the right level of challenge to meet the needs of children with a wide range of abilities. Learning applications like Injini that include many levels enable children to be successful no matter their playing ability. Also, the adaptive design, where levels automatically increase based on the child’s successes, offers a way for children to play independently while maintaining that just-right challenge so that they keep learning.

Injini Child Development Game Suite features many levels of play within each game. For example in Puzzle, level 1 contains single-piece puzzles while level 9 contains nine-piece jigsaw-style puzzles. Pattern, Matching, Squares, Find It, Balloons, and Tracing all include between 8 and 10 levels.

Examples of Injini Puzzle Levels
Level 1                                         Level 2
Level 3                                         Level 4
Level 5                                         Level 6
 
Level 7                                         Level 8
With the range of levels in Injini games, children start playing at their most appropriate level and continue to play and learn, increasing the level of challenge as their skills and ability progress. Level advancement is automatic – after several consecutive successes the play will seamlessly move on to the next level. For Pattern, Matching, Squares, Find It, and Balloons level advancement occurs after 3 consecutive correct answers. For Puzzle and Tracing, the level increases after completing a set number of activities. More detailed descriptions of the levels and advancement rules are provided in the Injini Child Development Game Suite manual.

 

Progression of Difficulty in Injini Frog Game

 
Level 1                                         Level 2

 

Level 3                                         Level 4

 

Although less visible than the levels in other games, the Frog game and Farm mini-games Cats and Rabbits also feature automatically-adjusting levels. These work by increasing the challenge as the player’s skills increase. For example – the basic level of Frog will include only still butterflies. If the player begins catching those butterflies rather quickly, then a crawling ladybug or caterpillar will appear. Once the player is quickly catching the crawling bugs then flying butterflies appear. The level of challenge automatically adjusts in this way to provide an appropriate challenge for all.

Similarly, the Cats and Rabbits Farm mini-games, the animals come more quickly for more skilled players than for those playing at a slower pace.

We designed Injini with its many levels and adaptive logic so that every child can play at his or her just-right level. We have found that working at the right level facilitates successful mastery of skills and keeps children engaged and excited about learning with Injini. Our careful design in this area is an example of our commitment to developing the highest quality learning games.