Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

We’ve got lots planned for players! Here is a taste:

• Create and bring life to your own unique city. Start from an empty field and build all the way up to a bustling metropolis!
• As you complete learning challenges extend the city with new buildings, decorations and new residents.
• Play mini-games you find around the city - in buildings and on the streets.
• Watch as your residents explore the city and find ways to amuse themselves with what you have built. You can even join in with their games!

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

As a parent and carer we understand how busy life can be. This game will take the stress out of helping your children reach their potential:

• Keep track of their progress - get notified when your child completes learning challenges you care about.
• Set your own learning challenges. Do they need a little extra maths practise? Add a challenge of your own or copy and edit a pre-existing one in seconds.
• Automatically reward your child with in-game items when they reach the milestones you care about. Thrill them with a new building for their city!
• Stay in sync with school by pairing your child’s game with a participating school or teacher. They will be able to track, set and reward learning challenges to complement their in-class learning.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

There’s not enough time for another complicated teaching tool so we’ve kept Inner City Learners simple:

• Setup your students or class in seconds by import or pasting in names. Organise and group them however you need.
• Connect to your students by issuing invite links they can scan from inside the game.
• Set learning goals based on the national curriculum or create your own. Re-use our extensive collection of challenges or customise them to the exact needs of your students.
• Receive notifications when goals are achieved and customise reports to help you assess students at significant milestones.
• Reward your students with in-game items tailored to classroom themes and their interests.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

• Follow us on the Fediverse @innercitylearners@fosstodon.org
• Subscribe to our RSS feed

…and you can always say hi at hello@innercitylearners.com!

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

We’re active on Mastodon as @innercitylearners@fosstodon.org where we also introduced ourselves:

We formed a company for our independent work, Galagic Limited, which also has its own website.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

Mentioned in post Screenshots.

The tune was composed in Strudel as described in an earlier post: Theme Tune. At the time the only way to export a tune from Strudel was to record the audio directly from the browser. This was not a exact method: it was impossible to avoid small jumps and skips in the result and many other Strudel users were interested in this getting fixed. As a result our own theme tune had a small skip in it near the start.

In the latest Strudle however you can now export directly to a sound file (WAV) and get a perfect rendition of your tune. We are grateful to the Strudel team for adding this feature and happy to now be able to play the perfect version in our game.

There was a second issue though too: the tune is designed loop endlessly without any gap. For this to work the game’s audio engine need to jump perfectly from the end to the beginning without interruption. When the tune was included in the game it was encoded in the MP3 format. Unfortunately MP3 is famous for being incompatible with seamless playback, it often adds silence at the end to pad the audio data into a neat number of frames. The Ogg format does not suffer from this issue and it was a simple matter to re-encode our tune in this format.

As a bonus Ogg has better compression, saving space and memory. It is also free and open, unrestricted by software patents (see Ogg). These are values we are very keen on, being free and open ourself!

This solved the problem of seamless playback on Desktop but on Android devices it still had a small audible gap. To solve that we needed to adopt a more sophisticated audio engine called gdx-miniaudio which has much better performance on mobile devices.

We are grateful for help from the LibGDX community in working through this problem. We hope to contribute back by adding this information to their wiki so other games can benefit too. We’ll link to it here if that gets accepted by them.

So if you’ve not had a try of the game yet now’s a great time as it’s sounding better than ever!

• 3 skinny apartment blocks
• A library
• A grocery shop
• A bakery
• A hairdressers
• A restaurant
• A ticket booth

They are all different sizes giving lots of options for how to fill up your city. Here are some of the new buildings together:

That lot would cost 14 stars to build! There’s so many now the selection screen has got pretty crowded:

The different buildings are only for appearances at the moment, they don’t do anything. Next week we’ll be looking at adding the first mini-game to one of them. Which will it be? Stay in touch with us on mastodon or RSS to find out.

Have a look at this video to see it in action:

Here’s what is shown:

• First we switch into build mode (the hammer button).
• Next we tap on a build plot in the city and choose a building to place in it.
• The new building appears along with a section of road underneath it.
• We extend the road to the left and right by dragging. New build plots appear above the road in the empty space. We can tap on these plots to place more buildings.
• If a building can’t fit on a plot it’s button will show “NO FIT”
• The cost of the build plan is shown on the OK button, reaching 10 stars by the end.

We never confirm the build plan in this video, so we never have to pay the price for it. If we wanted to we could earn stars in the Memory Bank by answering challenges.

Every city starts with one founding plot in the middle of the map. New buildings are placed centrally in their plot. At some point in the future it’ll be possible to re-arrange buildings before they are built.

It’s not shown in the video but you can also cancel a build plan and the city will return to its state before you entered build mode. This allows a player to experiment and understand what things cost before they commit to changes.

Next on the roadmap is to add some more interesting buildings. Stay tuned! For ways to keep up see our contact page, we’re on mastodon and we have an RSS feed.

In this short video you can see what we have now. First the player earns some stars, then we switch to building. A player can still place a building as before but there’s an extra step to confirm they are happy before proceeding.

No stars are spent before this occurs. It gives space for a change of mind and also to see how things look in the city before going ahead. It’s not that useful at the moment but when a player has more options about what to build and how to spend their budget it’s going to be crucial.

You may also notice that the “OK” button in the build mode has the cost of the current plan overlaid on its top right corner. This was a real pain to get right in the layout code! It’s still not centred correctly.

Next week I’ll be taking a look at how roads are built so our cities can expand.

Inspired by the great 8-bit games of the past it has a chiptune, funfair vibe. It was composed using Strudel which is a kind of musical language and is free and open source, just like us. We discovered this tool via the Late Night Linux podcast, Episode 339.

If you’re curious to see the Strudel code behind the tune, it’s in our repository and copied below. You can paste this straight into Strudel and play around with it yourself!

setcpm(26)
melody: note(`<
[c4@2 [g4 -] [g4 g4@11]@4 -@2 c4 [g4 -] [g4 -] g4@4] _
[- c4 g4 [g4 a4@3]@2 g4 f4 e4]
[e4 f4 [f4 -] [f4 f4@10]@4 -]
[- f4 f4 [f4 g4@3]@2 f4 e4 d4]
[- e4 e4 [e4 f4@3]@2 e4 d4 c4]
[- d4 d4 [d4 e4@3]@2 d4 c4 b3]
[c4 - g3@2 a3@2 b3@2]
>`)
.s("gm_ocarina").transpose("7").room("0.3")


melody2: note(`<
[-@8]!8
[-@5 g4 f4 e4 e4@4 - g4 f4 e4] _
[e4@4 -@4]
[e4@2 f4 - f4@4]
[-@8]
[- e4 e4 [e4 f4@3]@2 e4 d4 c4]
[- d4 d4 [d4 e4@3]@2 d4 c4 b3]
[c4 - g3@2 a3@2 b3@2]
>`).s("saw").transpose("7").gain("0.3").penv(`<0.1 0 1 [0.2@2 0.1@2 0@4] 0 [- 1 0.1@6] 0.1 [1 0 0.5@2!3]>`)

accom: note(`<
[[c2 c3]!4]
[[b1 c3]!4]
[[bb1 c3]!4]
[[f2 f3]!4]!2
[[c2 c3]!4]
[[g2 g3]!4]
[c2 - g2@2 a2@2 b2@2]
>`).s("gm_english_horn").gain(0.2).transpose("7")

chordy: chord(`<
C CM7 C7 F F C G [C -@7]
>`).voicing().s("bytebeat").transpose("7").gain("0.04")

drum: sound(`<
[[bd oh]!4]!7
[bd - bd@2 bd@2 bd@2]
>`).gain("0.02")

drum2: sound(`<
[-@8]!8
[- [hh hh] - [hh hh] - [hh hh] - [hh hh]]!3
[- [hh hh] - [hh hh] - [hh hh] cr -]
[- [hh hh] - [hh hh] - [hh hh] - [hh hh]]!3
[cr - sd sd sd sd sd sd]
>`).gain(".02")

silly: note(`<
[-@8]!2
[c3 -@8]
[-@8]!3
[-@6 c2 -]
[-@8]!9
>`).s("siren")

In future we’ll have more places to build, more buildings and roads will have junctions as well.

Want to play it now? Find out how at try it.

We tooted about this on Mastodon.

In this series we’re going to look at games which offer something for younger children both in terms of entertainment and education. The full list of this series is below. New articles will appear in this list as they’re published. To find out how to stay up-to-date see our contact page.

• Burger Party

Burger Party is an Android game from Aurélien Gâteau that challenges you to complete burger orders at a restaurant as fast and as accurately as you can. It’s a well crafted game with near-universal appeal. Read on to find out more.

Table of contents:

• Overview
• The Experience
• Audience
• Educational Value
• Content Advice
• Supporting the Developer
• Final Words

Overview

Burger Party challenges us to complete burger orders in restaurants around the world with speed and accuracy. After selecting a difficulty setting a silent video tutorial shows us how to play and then it’s straight into the action.

We see a queue of customers waiting in our restaurant. The front customer asks for their order which is depicted as an exploded burger in a speech bubble. We must tap the ingredients of the burger, in order, starting from the bottom and moving upwards. An arrow helpfully points at the next layer to complete. Any mistakes mean the order is thrown away and we have to start again. Depending on the difficulty setting you may be racing the clock but even without that the customer’s faces register dismay the longer they wait.

Each order completed gains you coins. A maximum of three coins are available for a fully accurate order, down to just one coin if mistakes are made. Three coins gains you one star and each level has a total of three stars available.

Levels unlock as you progress. Some levels when unlocked have a ‘gift’: an additional food item for your kitchen that customers can order, making things increasingly complex. The new item is presented in a small cut scene. After every 15 levels you unlock a new restaurant location with three to visit. When this happens you are treated to another cut scene showing you flying to the new location. Restaurants vary by their background graphics, the appearance of the customers and some special food items (coconut drinks in the Caribbean for example).

The game has many small rewards for play. If you get consecutive orders correct you’ll see messages such as “2x combo”. There are several achievements to win such as “burger god” (serve 200 burgers) and “all stars” (finish all levels with three stars). A perfect run gets rewarded with a message and the level is marked with a ‘Perfect!’ banner.

The Experience

The choice of a food theme is smart due to its universal appeal. The developer has crafted a challenging game with features you’d expect from a professional studio such as the level selector, animated title screens, fun cut scenes, careful sound design and a settings menu (though you can only toggle the music on and off). This attention to detail elevates the game above many others.

There’s a strong sense of progression throughout play whether its by completing levels, travelling to new locations, gaining new ingredients, completing combos or unlocking achievements. All of these moment are accompanied by notifications or animations which, while simple, add a lot of character and joy to the game.

The graphics are bright and bouncy. Small touches like a swinging animation on the presents dangling from the level buttons speak again to the quality of the game. There is a jolly soundtrack featuring steel drums and sound effects accompany the game’s actions. Each layer of the burger sounds different as it drops onto the plate and there are children’s voices to celebrate the end of a level or a perfect score.

There’s a real satisfaction in the mastery of this game. The food items in your kitchen do not move around between levels so it’s possible to learn to ’touch type’ orders once proficient.

Complete any four levels and you’ll unlock the practice area. It’s an empty restaurant allowing you the time to create any burger you like. In fact the game even allows you to create giant towering burgers of huge height, which can be a delight for young players to discover.

Audience

In Google’s European Play Store the game has a PEGI 3 rating: ‘suitable for all age groups’. There are three difficultly levels: kids, normal and expert. The kids mode is perfect for younger children who may struggle with the time limits or anyone who prefers to play without time pressure. This is a great addition. However note that customers can still get upset (a change in facial expression) if they wait too long.

It’s a great pocket game that you can just pick up and play any time. We’d recommend it to stave off boredom during travel or any small gaps in the day.

Educational Value

This is a game of recognising and copying patterns, memorising the position of ingredients in the kitchen and the use of fine motor skills. The optional time pressure adds a way to increase difficulty once the basics are mastered. As such it would works well for young children of all ages.

Whilst the game is not intended as a teaching tool it could be used to support learning food vocabulary and colours. In addition the player is exposed to small numbers via the level selector (up to 15) and counting through the coins and stars system (up to three).

Content Advice

It should be clear from the title this is a game which depicts animal products and their (implied) consumption. Some locations and their customers are depicted as cartoonish regional stereotypes such as pirates, ninjas, geishas etc.

There are no trackers or advertising in the game and no network access is required.

Supporting the Developer

The developer lists several ways you can support their work by donation and they also offer merchandise on Redbubble.

Final Words

This game is well worth downloading. Though it’s not designed to be educational it provides great entertainment, is perfectly suited for children and there is much for them to enjoy in this slick production.

We tooted about this article on Mastodon.

The game is in a primitive state at the moment!

There’s no way to save progress yet but here’s what you can do:

• Listen to our theme tune on the title screen.
• Hit ‘PLAY’ to start the game proper and move around an empty grass map.
• Undertake some simple multiplication challenges to earn stars in the ‘Memory Bank’.
• Spend those stars by placing buildings in your city:
  • Activate build mode to show building sites in the city.
  • Tap on a building site to choose a building to place.
  • Once a house is placed a road appears below it. The road can be extended or shrunk by dragging on the road controls (yellow dots at each end).
  • On empty spaces above the road more build sites will appear. Tapping on these you can place more buildings.
  • When happy with your choices you can OK your build plan if you have enough stars to pay for it. Otherwise you can cancel the plan.
• That’s it!

Check out the screenshots here, here and our videos of build mode, how to place lots of buildings and a look at all the different buildings on offer.

We are not yet available in app stores but coming soon. In the meantime you can try our latest development builds:

• For Linux, Windows and MacOS download the latest desktop JAR. Either double-click the download or use the command line: java -jar innercitylearners.jar. Your must have Java 25+ already installed for this to work.
• For Android download the latest APK.

These instructions should be up-to-date but you can also check the docs in the code repository in case of problems: installation.

Any issues? Feedback? We’d love to hear what you’re thinking! Here’s how to reach out.

On some pages you may now see a phrase in the byline (like at the top of this page):

• Emerging thoughts for early ideas.
• Solidifying nicely for work that has been edited once or more and for which we have some confidence.
• Probably complete for work that we believe is complete, though it will still receive minor corrections and updates.

These statuses will link back to here. They are an indicator for you the reader of the state of a post. We simple ask that we be allowed to be seen as fallible and open to corrections. This is part of digital gardening’s idea of an understanding between visitor and gardener.

We hope that in the long term this will make this site more playful and experimental. Knowing our words can evolve should mean we can publish more freely and reduce the mental barriers of working in public.

For now it means the website is smaller and leaner with a cleaner look. I am also impressed with Bear Cub’s support for accessibility and multiple languages. It would be wonderful to offer translated versions of this site in future.

The site is built with Hugo. You can see a full list of the projects we rely on in our new page: thanks and licensing. The source code for the whole site is available at innercitylearners_com (gitlab.com).

We tooted about this on Mastodon.

• Hugo and our theme Bear Cub ᕦʕ •ᴥ•ʔᕤ Read more about our choice at a new theme
• Git, devenv.sh, ninja, gitleaks, lychee and REUSE
• GitLab
• Many of the graphics throughout the site are derived from the talented creators Kenney and LYASeeK

We don’t use any JavaScript.

The site is copyright Galagic Limited 2024. For full license information please see our source repository: innercitylearners_com (gitlab.com).

Hello and welcome! Inner City Learners will be an educational city building game for children in primary education. It will also be a tool for parents and teachers to let them design learning challenges, give rewards and track progress within the game. The best part is it will be free and open source software with all the goodness that brings.

We are in the early stage of development and excited to be sharing our progress in the coming weeks and months as we work towards a first release. Keep an eye on this website and our social media account as there will be more content arriving.

The best ways to keep up-to-date are:

• Follow us on the Fediverse @innercitylearners@fosstodon.org
• Subscribe to our RSS feed

…and you can always say hi at hello@innercitylearners.com!