Hungry Larva

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

Age 3+



10 minutes



Language



Collaborative

Find the word

Use the joystick to control the larva and collect the word

Game Description

In Brief

Learning objective

By playing Hungry Larva, the players can train their reading and motor skills.

Game objective

The objective of the game for the players is to steer their larva around the playing board so it can snack on either as many cauliflowers or words as possible.

Detailed Description

Gameplay

Depending on which game settings that the players choose, the gameplay will vary.

Team

In this format, the game starts with either one larva (shared controls) or four larvae (individual controls) on the playing board. By using the controls in front of them, the players need to steer the larva(e) to the cauliflowers or words that are scattered across the playing board. For every cauliflower/word that the players collect, a segment is added to the body of the larva making it longer. When the players have managed to collect all cauliflowers/words, the game is over and the players are shown an end screen that displays how big their larva(e) ended up becoming and how many words or cauliflowers they managed to collect.

2 vs.2

In the 2 vs. 2 format, the players play in teams of two against each other. Each team has either one larva (shared controls) or two larvae (individual controls) that they need to collect the cauliflowers or words with before the other team. When the players have managed to collect all cauliflowers/words, the game is over and the players are shown an end screen that displays how big their larva(e) ended up becoming and how many words or cauliflowers they managed to collect. The team with the biggest larva(e) has won.

All vs. All

In the game format All vs. All, the game always begins with four larvae in four different colours (red, purple, green and blue) on the playing board. By using the controls in front of them, the players need to steer the larva(e) to the cauliflowers or words that are scattered across the playing board. For every cauliflower/word that the players collect, a segment is added to the body of their larva making it longer. When all cauliflowers/words have been collected, the game is over and the players are shown an end screen that displays how big their larva ended up becoming and a number below that shows how many words/cauliflowers they managed to collect. The player with the biggest larva has won.

Flashing words

If the players have chosen to play with words instead of cauliflowers, and they after a while have not collected the word in question, the word will briefly start to flash making it easier for the players to spot it. If the word has not been collected after a further period of time, the word changes location on the playing board.

Sides of the playing board

If a larva should hit one of the sides of the playing board, it will automatically appear on the opposite side. This makes it possible for players to take creative shortcuts in their attempt to reach a cauliflower/word quicker.

Detailed Description

Settings

Before the beginning of each game, the players will have to make some choices regarding the settings of the game. Even though the game is divided into two possible game modes (Cauliflower and Words), all of the following settings that the players can adjust are identical no matter which game mode the players select.

Game type

In Hungry Larva, there are two game modes: Cauliflower and Words. When playing the game mode Cauliflower, the players’ larvae need to collect as many cauliflowers as possible that are scattered randomly across the playing board. In the game mode Words, it’s various words that are scattered across the playing board. The larvae are only able to eat the word that the game is indicating to the players. Once all examples of a particular word have been eaten, the game will randomly select a different word for the larvae to eat. Since the players in the game mode Words need to understand which of the words are edible at a specific time, this game mode is more difficult than Cauliflower where all cauliflowers are edible at all times.

Team

By selecting “team”, all players play together as one big team. They have the choice of playing with shared controls where there’s only one larva on the playing board and each player is responsible for one of the directions in which the larva can move. When sharing the controls, the team will need to communicate with each other to successfully lead the larva to the edible objects on the playing board. The team can also play with individual controls which means that each player has their own larva and all larvae of the team are playing together to collect as many of the edible objects on the playing board as possible.

2 vs. 2

The players can also decide to play “2 vs. 2” which means that the players play in teams of two against each other. Like in “team”, they also have the choice of playing with shared controls where there’s only one larva per team (i.e. two larvae in total) on the playing board and each player is responsible for two of the directions in which the larva can move. The teams can also play with individual controls which means that each player has their own larva and both larvae of the team are playing together to collect as many of the edible objects on the playing board as possible. The team that in the end has collected the most cauliflowers or words has won.

All vs. All

When playing “All vs. All”, all participating players are playing against each other. Again, the player whose larva has eaten the most cauliflowers or words when the game is over has won.

Hardware input

By enabling this setting, the players have the opportunity to integrate a piece of hardware that they can use as controls for the game.

Customised settings

If the players wish to customise the game even further, they can press the settings icon just above the play button in the main menu and they will now be able to select from a number of additional settings. As previously mentioned, the settings described above (Game type, Team etc.) are always available to the players. The following settings, however, are only available to the players if they go to the customised settings page. Depending on their choice of game mode (Cauliflower or Words) some of the settings options might vary slightly.

Movement options (for Cauliflower and Words)

The players have the choice between always moving and collision. The always moving setting simply means that, when enabled, the larvae will never stop moving around the playing board and the players will, therefore, always need to keep an eye on their larva and steer it around the board. By enabling the collision setting (which is only available when playing 2 vs. 2 or All vs. All), the larvae will be halved in size every time they cause a collision with another larva.

Larva size (for Cauliflower and Words)

Here, the players can choose between playing with small or large larvae. Playing with a larger larva makes it easier for the players to hit the cauliflowers or words that they want to collect. On the other hand, avoiding collisions with other larvae will become more difficult.

Object options (only for Cauliflower)

The players can select the total number of cauliflowers in each game and the maximum amount of these cauliflowers that can be visible on the playing board at a time.

Frogs (for Cauliflower and Words)

Here, the players can select the number of frogs, if any, that should be part of the game. The maximum amount of frogs appearing in a game is ten. Since the frogs will try to eat the cauliflowers or words before the players’ larvae get to, adding more frogs will make the difficulty level of the game increase.

Word list (only for Words)

Here, the players can upload a ready-made word list or select an already saved word list that will then be used for the game.

Word options (only for Words)

Here, the players can choose to have the words that they need to collect automatically read out loud to them by the game and/or shown in a text box just above the playing board. Choosing only one of these options (or neither) will make it more challenging for the players to register which word they should be collecting.

Object options (only for Words)

The players can select the total number of words in each game, the maximum amount of words that can be visible on the playing board at a time, and how many sets of words each game can consist of. By choosing a high number of words in each game, the duration of each game will typically increase. By selecting a high amount of words that are visible on the playing board simultaneously, it will become more difficult for the players to overview the playing board and where the edible words are located. The selected number of sets of words in a game refers to how many copies of each word will appear on the playing board. Selecting a low number of sets and combining it with a high total number of words, for example, will expose the players to a lot of different words during the game.