Jamie Espinosa-Briones, Bea Maggipinto, Alex Wang, Harvey Zheng, Srishty Bhavsar
Summary
Research
Analysis
Prototype
Thoughts
SUMMARY
Songs of the Sea
Academic Project | Carnegie Mellon University | 2023
As a Lead Designer on Songs of the Sea, I worked alongside a multidisciplinary team in an educational game design course at CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute to create a learning-focused game for elementary and middle-school students.
The Challenge
The core challenge of Songs of the Sea was designing an accessible way to teach a largely unfamiliar concept: the relationship between sound and ecosystem health in marine environments. Because ocean bioacoustics and ocean literacy are not widely understood, especially by younger audiences, we needed to translate complex scientific ideas into intuitive, engaging gameplay without assuming prior knowledge of music theory or ecology.
Final Design
Competitive Analysis
We analyzed five educational games within adjacent domains to understand how they approached learning, sound, and engagement. Our analysis revealed that most emphasized visuals or abstract soundscapes, with limited educational depth around ecosystem dynamics. This insight positioned Songs of the Sea as a game worth making—one that centers sound as a meaningful, research-driven mechanic for fostering ocean literacy.
Competitive Analysis of Similar Games
Identifying the Domain
Songs of the Sea sits at the intersection of educational games, ocean literacy, and sound-based interaction. While many games use ocean environments or sound as atmosphere, few treat sound as a core mechanic for understanding ecosystem health. This gap defined our domain: using music and bioacoustics to teach how marine ecosystems communicate and function.
Narrowing Down the Focus of the Game
Learning Goals
Through 'Songs of the Sea,' our game seamlessly integrates metacognition, temporal contiguity, and active preconceptions to achieve our educational objectives.
Metacognition
Empowers players to explore and decipher the mechanics behind each level, encouraging them to discern what triggers progress, such as understanding the traits of different sounds that contribute to the progress bar.
Temporal contiguity
is showcased through the relationship between sound and organisms. Adding creatures to the scene introduces new sounds to specific categories, illustrating how multiple animals collaborate to enrich the track. This aids in grasping how diverse animals in an ecosystem harmoniously work together.
Active preconceptions
Leverages the familiarity of biology and music theory within our target audience. By merging these disciplines, we facilitate understanding the symbiotic relationships in ocean ecosystems through sound. Players, already equipped with basic biological knowledge and an ear for various sound types, can discover the health of symbiotic relationships in the ocean through this unique amalgamation of concepts.
Learning Principles
Discovering the Sound System
Through 'Songs of the Sea,' our game seamlessly integrates metacognition, temporal contiguity, and active preconceptions to achieve our educational objectives.
Learning Principles
Sound System
Through 'Songs of the Sea,' our game seamlessly integrates metacognition, temporal contiguity, and active preconceptions to achieve our educational objectives.