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ARIS, an open-source platform for creating and playing place-based mobile games, is currently available for iOS devices, but not for Android. CASLS’ Educational Software Engineer Scott Morison has been working on an ARIS for Android, which is now able to play basic single conversation games, such as in the photo below. 

Learners can choose how they want to respond to conversational choices in the game, which triggers different paths and further choices based on their previous selections.

 The process of creating an Android version involves going through the background structure of the iOS and then translating it to Android, going from Objective C (iOS) to Java (Android) code. “The inner brain is all there and working now, it’s just adding in other pieces,” Scott says as he works on the map function.

ARIS can be used by language teachers to create place-based games and to have students play games, which can be surrounded by classroom activities and discussions as part of the language curriculum. Having ARIS available on not only iOS but also Android opens this possibility up to more people.

For more information on ARIS visit the ARIS website. For more information about using games, such as those made with ARIS, for language teaching visit the Games2Teach website.