Upcoming – DiG-iT! Games

Category: Upcoming

Holiday Gift Guide for Teachers

Holiday break is just around the corner, and everyone at school is likely looking forward to having some time at home to relax. Before students can take their well-earned break, however, think about showing your teachers a little appreciation with a holiday gift. Tell them you’re looking forward to the rest fo the year!

This isn’t just for students! Teachers can offer support to other teachers, or parents can pick something up for their children’s instructors. The important thing is that these gifts show support!

Useful Gifts for Teachers

Gifts for teachers- school supplies is a good idea

1. A water bottle or travel mug

Hydration and caffeination are essentials for keeping a teacher going through the day. Make it a little easier for them with a fun new thermos or water bottle.

2. Classroom supplies

Have you noticed the classroom running low on tissues, gluesticks, or extra pencils? Bring in a box or a few boxes to help your teacher restock.

3. A donation

Give a gift to a charity that would be important to your teacher, whether that be an education fund or something more specific to the topic they teach. Send them a card to let them know that you made it in their name!

Fun Gifts for Teachers

wrapped presents full of gifts for teachers

1. Tea or coffee

We know we already mentioned the travel mug, but it’s also nice to get a selection of great coffee or tea. Think about offering a sample pack or picking out a few flavors that they might love. Parents may need to help with this one.

2. A small plant

A succulent or a cactus make for good decoration. This gift works especially well for science teachers, and then the best for environmental science teachers. If you know your teacher gardens, replace this with seeds.

3. A gift card

Pick somewhere that you know your teacher will appreciate. If they really do love coffee, go for the coffee card. If they’re always very stylish, maybe pick a clothing store. A gift card is a good bet for when you’re not sure what else to do, but still try to put some thought into it!

A Gift That’s Both Useful and Fun!

Get your students into archaeology with Excavate!

Think about giving the gift of one of our educational games! Social studies teachers, especially, will love the Excavate! series while STEM teachers may like to try out Exotrex. Convince them to bring game-based learning into the classroom with just one small purchase!

What to Do Over Thanksgiving Break?

Thanksgiving is next week, and we’re looking forward to stuffing our faces full of turkey and mashed potatoes. What else can you do during the Thanksgiving holiday?

Spend Time With Family

Thanksgiving break with the family

This one is a no-brainer. If your family is already together for the Thanksgiving meal and Thanksgiving break, see what else you can do together. Sign up to volunteer as a group, brave the cold for some outdoor time, or catch a new movie. For families with kids, Ralph Breaks the Internet is a great option or the Fantastic Beast sequel. For older families, Creed 2 and Widows offer some exciting action-drama.

Offer a few options and figure out what would work for everyone! What’s most important is that everyone has fun.

All About Football

Thanksgiving football games

Watch three full games of football on Thanksgiving! But, if you’re getting bored of just watching, pick up a ball yourself and make it a casual game with the family. It’s particularly good to do if you’ve got some kids who need to get their energy out! After that’s done, you can return to the couch to keep watching the games.

Of course, you’ve got to practice your tackle anyway for Black Friday sales. Just kidding. Please be safe and polite during shopping on Black Friday. Tackling is a foul for sure in that case.

Set Up the Tree

Thanksgiving break to winter break

Finally, it’s socially acceptable to put up that tree! Thanksgiving break, get your tree early and put on your decorations. It’s a nice way to transition from one holiday to the other. You might consider setting up outside decorations too, before it gets too cold to do so! Just pace yourself on holiday songs. Don’t burn yourself out too early on those.

If you don’t celebrate a holiday with a tree, it’s still a good time for decorating or cleaning! Rope your family into helping while you’ve got them there.

Learn Some History!

Of course, it’s important to know the context of Thanksgiving and be aware of our history as we celebrate. Make a small lesson for your kids about the First Thanksgiving or do some research for yourself.

After that, if you want more check out what Early America was like with Loot Pursuit! Or research another culture with Excavate!

Unity3D – Dinosaurs and a Word Game

Our studio has been working hard through the summer on a number of projects soon to be released. The summer came and went in a blast until we realized Labor Day weekend had arrived. Did we have enough summer fun? Of course we did because we build games for a living; what could be more fun than that. But, how about taking a moment and do a hackathon for a game that came from the many game ideas floating around in the studio? This week we decided to jump in and build a crazy game involving space, farts, spelling and of course a dinosaur.

tyronne in space

Today is day 3 of our three-day marathon hackathon to build a prototype of the game in Unity3D. The studio has been abuzz stroking pens on tablets and creating space stations, dinosaurs, and retro 80s game backgrounds. Think Atari console games and an image of the behind the scenes work might appear for some. However, for those too young to remember Atari games here is a splash of some of the art.

Game development is a team effort and everyone is participating and some acting in different roles adding to the fun. Now you will recall we did say farts. While we won’t give away the whole game mechanic yet words like toot, gas, poof have been bringing some laughs, tears and groans in the studio. Then there are the sounds of groaning dinosaurs as the team brings the sound effects into play.

This has been a fun exercise for the team and the end of the hackathon is drawing near. How close will we get? We hope to have a playable game that we might share with our customers and friends. Getting a sneak peak is easy by registering on our game portal. Once a version is available for initial feedback it will appear in your game library.

Say hello to an early base mesh version of the dino!

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