PLAYBOOKS: FOR THE internet

Biggification

Pop the balloons that slowly expand throughout the game window while stringing together combos by popping multiple balloons of the same color in succession. Don’t let two balloons touch or it’s game over.

Game play alone results in modest improvements in real-world executive skills. Please refer to our Playbook Tutorial, general coaching and comprehensive guides to transfer game skills to sustainable real-life behaviors.

QUICK FACTS

Game Type: Action
Platform/Console: Internet
How to Find It: Biggification
Other Requirements: Adobe Flash Player
LWK Recommended Age: 5+

 

This Game is Good for Kids Who Need Help With:

• Thinking ahead before starting a task (task initiation)
  
• Sorting toys, clothes, etc., and putting them in their proper places (organization)

What You Need to Know About the Game:

Minor reading ability is needed only for the instructions.

How to find it:
http://www.addictinggames.com/biggification.html

Controls, game basics, and instructions:
The player controls a dot with the mouse and pops balloons by hitting them with the dot. Bonuses are earned by hitting multiple balloons of the same color in succession. The balloons slowly expand and if two balloons touch then the game is over.

Solutions:

No walkthroughs are necessary for this game.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Task Initiation:

This game is good for kids who need help with thinking ahead before starting a task, because they must:

• Think quickly about which size balloon to pop first. Children must choose to either pop the smaller balloons for more points or the larger balloons in danger of touching another balloon. Since the game ends if two balloons touch, the player must focus on popping the larger balloons first even though the smaller ones are worth more points.

Talking Points:

• When did you need to pop the bigger balloons instead of the smaller ones?
• Why is it important to know when the big balloons have a higher priority than the smaller ones?
• How is popping the bigger balloons before the smaller ones in “Biggification” like doing harder, more important assignments before the easy ones?

Making it Real:

• Help your child learn how to start to clean a messy room. This overwhelms many children, particularly if the room looks as if a hurricane hit it. Modeling strategies around where to start, such as first picking up all the clothes, may be helpful. Clearing everything off the floor might be a second step. It may also be helpful to take before and after pictures detailing each step of the job. Encourage children to use a digital camera to take these pictures and post them on the back of the bedroom door as a visual guide to cleaning their rooms “next week

This Game Helps Your Kids With Organization:

This game is good for kids who need help with sorting toys, clothes, etc and putting them in their proper places, because they must:

• Pop balloons of the same color in succession to generate combos. In this screenshot, you can see that the player gets a x5 bonus by popping a certain amount of the same color balloons one after the other.

Talking Points:

• How do you generate combos in "Biggification"?
• How did using organizational skills help you to decide which color of balloon to use to generate a combo?
• How is generating a combo in “Biggification” like completing all of your math assignments or all of your reading assignments one after the other?

Making it Real:

• Putting toys such as Legos or building toys away into color- and size-coded containers can be helpful. Organizing stuffed animals to size, type of animal, and color is a strategy not necessarily meant to be long-term but will help children to think about the relationships amongst items. Encourage children to develop some organizational schemes with you. Your role is to provide them with the materials and space necessary to engage in this and then to get them to talk about their thinking.