Author: Oliver

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 …

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:

• https://github.com/otacke/h5p-game-map
• https://github.com/otacke/h5p-editor-game-map

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.