| Geograficus | |
| Released: | October 2003 |
| Genre: | Adventure, Educational |
Geograficus is a 2003 educational adventure video game, developed by Ruske & Pühretmaier and published by Heureka-Klett (up until 2005) and BrainGame Publishing (from 2005 after acquiring H-K's edutainment catalogue). The game was originally released in Germany.
The game, along with a video game in the Willy Werkel series entitled Willy Werkel baut Raumschiffe, were used at Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus in a 2005 program entitled "Expedition Earth" which encourages children to learn about geography through the interactive media.[1]
The gameplay is similar to that of video game Myst, in which players traverse through a series of static screens in a retro science-fiction setting.[2] The game aims to teach players about the Earth's physical geography and history of the Earth.[3]
The game has an internal interactive encyclopedia that contains scientific information and clues on how to complete the puzzles.[4]
The young protagonist Geo is tasked by the wise scientist Geograficus to locate the whereabouts of Balvin, a fire dragon who has gone missing.
Adventure Archiv questioned the choice to set an educational game in a fantasy world with dragons and magic, noting that the logic and physics of such worlds conflict with that of the real world thereby offering a confused message to players.[5] Angel Adventure thought the game was both captivating and beautiful,[6] while Kinderuni Darmstadt described it as interesting and logical.[7] Wissen.de gave the game a rating of 3/5 stars.[8] Macwelt thought the game's graphics or control did not live up to contemporary adventure games such as (2003) or (2003).[9] [10] Lizzy Net wrote that the game made good use of its educational content and made it palatable.[11] In her article Computer games in geography lessons: Learning does not always mean memorizing and timpani, Christina Bulow concluded that the program would not make a good classroom companion due to the high time investment required and the inefficiency of its educational-content delivery.[12]
The game was awarded the 2004 Comenius Seal of Quality,[13] and the 2004 GIGA mouse award for best educational game.[14]