Serious Game Classification

A dearth plagues the villages at the hillside of the elevated plain in the middle of the region Amajambere located in Ubuntaka, Africa. The harvest is getting worse and worse due to heavy rains washing away the fertile earth and the sun withering down the crops during the growth-periods. To prevent the people from abandoning their villages and emigrate to the capital city Majikitoyo located 90 kilometers away, the Federal Republic of Germany and the government Ubuntaka started a project. Basically the idea is to teach the farmers about multi-level plant cultivation in order to better preserve their land and increase the quality of the harvest for generations to come. After his predecessor got badly injured, Paul Lerche from the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung is send to the village Mihanatoke to oversee the project which is still met with much resistance by many farmers. In addition seed-theft hinders the villagers from planting anything at all.

Gameplay-wise Hilfe für Amajambere is a serious but traditional point and click adventure. The player takes over the control of Paul Lerche trying to convince the villagers about the good the project will do and at the same time solve the problem of the seed-thefts. Using the mouse, the player visits the different locations and looks at, takes or combines items he finds in the game-world in order to solve the many riddles in the game and move the story forward. Since the game is an educational software aimed at children and young adults it is however also very dialogue heavy.

Together with Paul's entries in his journal, the dialogues are used as the core way to educate the player on why multi-level plant cultivation is important, why the people are resistant, what the unique challenges are they have to deal with in such regions every day and many other lessons about Africa. While they are often multiple-choice, most of the time if the "wrong" answer is chosen, the game automatically also goes through all the other options in order to convey its message and advance the story. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : PC (Dos)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/hilfe-fr-amajambere/