KWIZOPIA: A 3D QUIZ GAME FOR K-12 EDUCATION

Today's students are spending most of their time playing games either on their smartphones, tablets, or PCs. This is not surprising especially since NewZoo conducted market research in 2013 [1] reviewing the global games market from 2012 and predicting the trend until 2016. The results show a steady increase in market sales of games worldwide (for all platforms) predicting a similar to$ 20 billion increase by 2016. Also, according to the Entertainment Software Association's (ESA) 2014 industry survey, fifty nine percent of Americans routinely play video games with an increase of one percent from last year's findings. Globally, 1.2 billion people are active gamers [2]. These statistics have played a significant role in increasing the interest of research in educational gaming. This paper describes Kwizopia, a 3D quiz game intended to help assess K-12 students using a medium currently regarded as second nature to these digital natives. Kwizopia is based on the famous TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" It is a two player educational game that provides the user practice as well as assessment on the K-12 Standards of Learning (SOL) concepts and released exams. Kwizopia was developed using a 3D game engine and can be deployed on multiple platforms. Including more than 500 questions covering all grades and subjects, Kwizopia uses a randomization system for both questions and answers. The game is composed of five levels with three main degrees of difficulty: Rookie, Champ, and Pioneer. It also allows the users to customize their own challenge time. Designed with modularity, Kwizopia allows teachers to create their own quizzes using their own set of questions.