Designing Sapinautas: An Educational Innovation Strategy for Learning in Honduran Public Schools Through Video Game Integration

Traditional teaching methods often struggle to effectively engage students, especially in educational environments with limited resources. Recognizing the potential of gamification to address this challenge, Sapinautas emerges as an educational project aimed at harnessing video games to enhance learning experiences in Honduran public schools, improving learning outcomes and student engagement through immersive and interactive gaming experiences. This article describes the conceptualization, design, and implementation process of the first phase of the Sapinautas platform. The project has been developed under the guidance of their promoters in collaboration with students and professors from Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (UNITEC) in Honduras. The development of Sapinautas involved a multi-phase process, beginning with a comprehensive analysis of the educational context and needs. This led to the conceptualization and design of the video game, with students collaborating with educators to create characters, environments, and gameplay mechanics aligned with the National Basic Curriculum. The implementation phase included work in the Unreal Engine, where assets were combined with programming and game logic. At this stage, the capabilities of the engine were leveraged to create an interactive and immersive environment to begin the creative development for the entire project. Sapinautas represents a promising approach to improving education through gamification. In the future, conducting pilot tests of the game and collaborating with education stakeholders will be crucial to scale the project and realize its full potential as a transformative tool for education.