EntVenture — From binary trees to Kenyan forests: An Android game designed by students

In an attempt to increase the awareness of the importance of forests and forestry to the environment, economy and everyday life, a forestry game was developed by Kenyan students at University of Eldoret and a Finnish student at the University of Eastern Finland. The game `EntVenture' is a quiz game where the character Ent guides the user through various forestry related topics such as managing a tree nursery, uses of different trees and the importance of forests for sustaining life. EntVenture also consists of three mini games within the game - a word search, picture puzzle and a balancing game. EntVenture was developed during 2012 for Android phones and tablets. In this paper, we present the process of the development, lessons learned and provide suggestions on how to design educational games for viability.