Extreme Sports Tycoon: Big Idea

A game for those not "academically inclined."
Extreme Sports Tycoon aims at kids who are more interested in pulling off a flawless Crippler than in mastering the nuances of vector physics. Through playing Extreme Sports Tycoon, players learn that physics helps us to understand the world around us, and is a useful set of analytic tools for solving problems.

Learning through construction.
Extreme Sports doesn’t stop there. Included in the game are a powerful set of level -editing tools where players can build their own booths and construct their own playable levels that are posted and traded over the Internet. Even though Extreme Sports Tycoon can be played and enjoyed as a single-player game, this community-based metagame becomes a key context for play.

Simple, cheap, low barriers-to-entry technologies.
Perhaps best of all, Extreme Sports Tycoon builds on existing technologies, could run on Pentium IIs with 56K connection and could be used in formal and informal learning environments right now. Extreme Sports could be developed using common development platform combining Director 3-D, and web community tools. With proprietary engines such as Ya-Ya media’s web game engine, players might even compete with each other via email. Extreme Sports Tycoon’s hip aesthetic, appeal to non-gamers, technical accessibility, and natural fit between content and gameplay suggest a natural fit between fun and learning. Almost as fun as pulling off a 540 lien underneath a bright blue Colorado sky. Almost.