I’m so excited. And I just can’t hide it …
That phrase is probably used too often, but I am excited! I was eventually able to pull off a content type that I wanted to create for quite a while, but I knew would take lots of my free time. Luckily, Hochschule Hannover sponsored the development. And here it is: Game Map for H5P.
Before I start to tell you about its purpose and some ideas, let me show you what one can create with it. I cannot release that demo publicly. You’ll know why 😀 But this video may help to let you get a good first impression …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz0eC-XDK08
So what is Game Map?
Game Map is a tool that allows you to create something similar to Super Mario World in H5P – the map aspect, not the “Jump and Run” part 🙂 You can use an image as a background for your map, define stages that can hold different H5P exercises, you can connect stages (with visible paths of you want to), and you can set different things such as whether stages should all be visible right away or reveal themselves as the user progresses, you can set a finite number of lives or simple ignore that concept, you can attach sounds to all kinds of events, you can change colors, etc.
Those options allow you to create a game, but the result could also be a learning map “only” where you present different contents very much like one could with Image Hotspots. And I am sure that someone will come up with some use case that I didn’t anticipate. That always happens, and I love it.
I think I should demonstrate all the options in a separate video when I find some time … Or you simply explore Game Map yourself, because it’s out now.
Here is some other content that I created for demonstration purposes. Not quite as nice as the Super H5P World demo, but solely using openly licensed media.
Want to use it already?
I will ask the H5P core team to review the content type. Afterwards, they should release it on the H5P Hub, but this process usually takes some time.
If you want to use the content type right away, look for the Reuse button underneath the content. Use that button to download the demo content, and then upload the .h5p file onto your H5P enabled platform. Please note that you will need to have permission to install H5P libraries. Otherwise, you cannot install the content type this way. In that case, your system admin will need to assist you.
The source code is available as well, if you want to check it before installing or if you want to build the libraries yourself:
Is it available in my language?
In theory: yes! If it’s missing, you can fill in the gaps yourself on translate-h5p.tk.
Any future plans for that content type?
Yes. I have tons of ideas, among them:
- Allow to add static texts and images to the map in order to customize it.
- Allow to set more rules that define whether a stage can be accessed or not (e.g. a particular date, a certain set of stages that need to be completed, etc.).
- Add more content types as subcontent (some seemed to cause trouble when used as subcontent, and I’ll have to add a workaround or the content type might need changing).
- Add More sound options, e.g. setting a custom background music that plays when a particular stage is entered.
- Add an option to control the volume of both the background music and the sounds separately.
- Replace the confirmation dialog from H5P core with some nicer custom dialog.
- …
Please keep in mind, however: I could put a lot of effort into this content type, because Hochschule Hannover funded development. I coded it at a discount rate as I usually do if the result bears an open source license. I’ll take care of all the change requests that the H5P core team may have to bring the content type onto the H5P Hub. Additionally, I suppose that I will find time to help you on the H5P forum if you have questions. That’s what I usually do anyway. But if you claim free support or demand features as if it was your right, you’ll most likely get a “no” from me. I may add things, even consider your ideas, but at my own pace – or expect you to toss me some coin. I hope you understand that. Not all do, as I know from bad experience.
This is crazy! Perfect! İnsane! The best of the best! I don’t know what to say. The best content type among the others. This wraps it everything. Thanks to you and those who contributed this project.
Bille
You’re welcome.
Hi Oliver !
I was heading to your blog to thank you for the TABS content-type which comes very handy to compile several H5P activities in an uncluttered and nice way.
But I stumbled upon this pure glorious gem !!! Amazing piece of H5P ! This is a perfect content-type to gamify a learning path for students ; I am sure that they will LOVE it !
Thanks for your tremendous contributions to H5P and for allowing us teachers to be able to create elaborate yet fun activities for our students !
Isabelle
Glad you like it 🙂
Hi Oliver. Is it possible to use a different “branching scenario” as a content type at different points on the map? If not, any plans for this in future? THANKS
No, Branching Scenario can currently not be set as subcontent. Have you read the “Any future plans for that content type?” section?
Hello Oliver
In moodle the report gives empty result for gamemap although the activity is completed.
Hi!
I just checked, but everything seems to be working fine on moodle, see https://img.incoherency.co.uk/4295. Are you sure you finished the map by entering the results screen? Similar to Course Presentation that requires the user to go to the results slide in order to send the results, in Game Map, the user needs to visit the results screen.
Cheers,
Oliver
Thanks for the reponse! Yes I finish it using the final flag… But I just have found out that there is something else: Sorry to write it here because I know this is not the right place. I am using php8.1 moodle 4.1.2 and. Grade is registered but when reviewing the answer I get ”This user hasn’t submitted an answer to the H5P yet”
I reinstalled mod_hvp, used different version of php like 8.1 but the issue remains.
_get_completion_state() callback functions such as hvp_get_completion_state have been deprecated and should no longer be used. Please implement the custom completion class mod_hvp\completion\custom_completion which extends \core_completion\activity_custom_completion.
That’s something that the H5P core team or someone else with experience in moodle development should fix. https://github.com/h5p/moodle-mod_hvp. It should not yet interfere with the functionality though, because depreciation does not mean not working anymore.
Hi Oliver,
Thanks for sharing such an interesting way of asking questions.
I found one similar game on net, its URL is: https://bdecent.de/product/level-maps-pro/
Just want to check if you have built this or can this plugin be customize like the above?
No, I am not involved in the development of any moodle plugins. If you require similar functionality for moodle, you may try https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_learningmap
What a cool content type that is! Are you planning to add “column”-content later on (my main use for that is combining audio with true/false questions) or is this included by “cause trouble when used as subcontent”?
Thanks for all your hard work!
It’s not necessarily a technical reason why Column was not included so far.
I wanted to include as many content types as possible without the need to wait for H5P Group to include or update them in Column (which unfortunately takes time), so that’s why I included them directly. If I now also add Column, then there are two different ways to include the very same content type which means extra maintenance and restrictions – one cannot have two different content type versions as subcontent, so one would again be bound to what Column dictates. Not something that I wish for.
You can add audio as an introduction on top of True/False and other content types directly in those.