PlayBook: Hedgewars
LQ: 8.3
Brain grade: 8.5
Fun score: 8.0
What is this?
Title: Hedgewars
Game Type: Strategy
ESRB Rating: N/A
Platform/Console: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac, PC
LWK Recommended Age: 9+
Thinking Skills Used: Flexibility, Planning
Buy Now/Play Now:
Game Description
Using an army of cartoon hedgehogs, players of Hedgewars must eliminate all of the opposing hedgehog warriors in turn-based battles. Because each game is divided into timed, alternating turns, players must carefully plan their actions before the clocks run out, preparing for the opponent’s counter-attack. The game features fun weaponry that offers a variety of ways to deal damage and hinder opposing forces, and players can even customize teams and take their battles online. Hedgewars requires a small amount of reading to understand the game’s controls, and because of the overall complexity of the game, it is recommended for players ages 9 and up.
This Game is Good for Kids Who Need Help With:
Planning
Developing a systematic approach for setting and achieving goals.
This game is helpful for children who have trouble thinking before acting. Using many different weapons, players must take care to line up the angles of their shots before they fire, while also taking into consideration factors such as wind speeds. In order to inflict the maximum amounts of damage during their turns, players must contemplate all of these factors carefully. He'll also need to consider his opponent, whether its a computer or an actual player, and strategize how he may move his own hedgehogs in order to plan accordingly.
Flexibility
Adapting and adjusting to changing conditions and expectations.
Hedgewars encourages the player to use all the tools given to him. Items range from guns that shoot from afar, to melee weapons that do damage up close. Players can also use homing missiles to hit hard to reach enemies, or cluster grenades that harm multiple targets. In addition to weaponry, jetpacks, grappling hooks, and underground drills can be activated to reach new vantage points on the battlefield. If order to best the opponent, the player must use the each weapon and tool instead of sticking to only a select few.
Use this PlayTogether guide to learn how you can help your child turn Hedgewars play time into a positive learning and relationship-building experience. To learn more about why playing games with your children is so important, check out our Science of Play page.
Talk Before You Play
Take a minute to talk with your child about how the Flexibility and Planning thinking skills work, and why they are important for success in school and at home.
Set Gameplay Goals
Hedgewars features a single player and a multiplayer mode, so you can either take turns playing during battle, or go online to play competitively. Take a moment to examine the gameplay goals below.
Gameplay Goals:
- Learn the controls and weapon types in Hedgewars.
- Beat the first level in the Campaign Mode.
- Compete against another player online or in the single computer mode.
Stop and Reflect
After you have completed either the gameplay goals above, take a minute to pause the game and talk with your child about how the game is exercising your thinking skills.
- Talk about a difficult battle your child faced against an opponent in Hedgewars. What made it hard? Looking back, what could have been done differently to improve the overall strategy and plan, such as using a variety of weapons or maneuvering the hedgehogs differently?
- Illustrate a difficult situation your child may have been unprepared for in real life, like not being able to get picked up after school, or being given an extra load of homework. How can plans be adjusted to compensate for difficult circumstances that might happen?
- Examine the different kinds of weapons used during battle in Hedgewars, and how each is best used. How can you take that same weapon and use it differently? Think about a battle where a new approach would was helpful, naming some ways your strategies changed over the course of the game.
- Use a tool your child uses at home in everyday life -- like a pencil or a pen -- to illustrate how Flexibility skills allow you to use material in new or unexpected ways. One example is using a pencil as a straight edge when a ruler isn't available.
Our Make it Work activities are designed to transform your child’s gameplay to real-world improvements in thinking and academic skills. If you’re just getting started with LearningWorks for Kids, we suggest you try them all to find which are the best for you and your child.
Introduce the Thinking Skill
Read over the Planning and Flexibility pages, and then take some time to introduce this thinking skill to your child.
Explain that:
- Planning is the thinking skill that helps us to develop a systematic approach for setting and achieving goals. It helps us to do things step-by-step, and to complete long-term projects on time.
- Flexibility is the thinking skill that helps us adapt to new situations, learn from mistakes, and change what we are doing in order to deal with different challenges.
Planning Activity
List the steps. Many children have difficulty in conceptualizing the multiple steps it takes to complete a book report, prepare and clean up after a meal, create a Facebook page, or get ready for a family vacation. Writing a list is a good way to think through multiple steps and to break down larger goals into smaller tasks. Try it first with an activity that your child has completed successfully in the past. As she constructs the list, ask for a rationale behind her choices in regards to the order of the steps.
Flexibility Activity
Use ordinary materials in unconventional ways. Examples of this would include making a baseball out of newspaper, plastic bags and duct tape or crafting decorative items using colored pencils, pipe cleaners, flowers or house plants. For other ideas, refer to Creative Crafts for Kids by Gill Dickinson and Cheryl Awa.
