Breakout EDU & BrainPOP: Behind-the-Scenes

Play Designer Michael ‘MKG’ Gi talks about the process of developing Robot Function Funk, a new puzzle for use with My BrainPOP and Breakout EDU.

Our just-launched Breakout EDU game Robot Function Funk is a great puzzle that prompts players to explore BrainPOP’s content while attempting to solve challenges and save the day.

Since Robot Function Funk marks our offering for use with Breakout EDU, I thought I’d talk a little bit about how that collaboration came to be. Once we knew we wanted to build a puzzle like this, we held a massive brainstorming session to generate any and all kinds of ideas that related to puzzle mechanics and were consistent with the rest of our features. The end goal was to find a range of ways to bring players into our features while advancing them within the puzzle.

Next came the actual puzzle creation. We produced a full-on Breakout EDU game prototype that we tested both internally and in a few middle school classes. Those playtests yielded a ton of collaboration, problem solving, and excitement – all of which showed us how promising the platform was.

We learned early on that keeping every student fully involved would be critical to success. To that end, we suggest assigning roles to your students as they play: make one a recorder, one a device operator, one a lock checker, and so on. As a facilitator, you can also make sure that quieter students receive the hints and then have something to contribute.

We’re ecstatic to offer this game as a new entry point for our breadth of features.  If you’re a My BrainPOP user and you’re ready to tackle Robot Function Funk, you’ll find it right here at breakoutedu.com/brainpop.