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Odoodem

Event: Young Games Designer AwardsDate: Saturday 29 June 2019  Venue: BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, LondonHosts: TBC-Area: Game StillsBAFTA/

Odoodem (Mobile & Tablet) - Natalie Edwards (11), Lewisham

“Stack your way to success with Odoodem, whilst learning about the Native Americans of the Northwest Coast of the United States and Canada.”

I have never visited North America but we have a totem pole at our local museum. I see it every weekend and it looms over the road. This was the beginning of my idea. I did some research and took photos. I found that totem poles could also be called odoodems.


The game starts with a picture of a totem pole. Some words flash up on the screen and say: 
Welcome to Odoodem
click play to begin
PLAY


Then it flashes from colour to colour: red, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and a white buffalo comes up and says: I am to be your spiritual guide for this level to collect the first head of the totem pole you will make, now follow me...Then the screen changes to say LEVEL ONE in black with a white background. It helps you in three riddles or linked challenges so you can use your thinking skills. If you answer all three correctly you collect the first of four heads and, you get a new spiritual guide for the next level.


Many poles actually have the most important figure on the bottom, while others are placed in the middle, so you can choose which order and which four heads you want out of ten possible heads.


To progress to the next level, you have to solve an anagram or a matching exercise .e.g. chiefs of clans to join and make a pair, or a multiple-choice general knowledge question e.g. longest American river, group name for wolves or correct name for a baby eagle. Other challenges to collect heads include .e.g. tricky spellings or speed swiping to reveal something. It is different every time but the challenges are in linked triplets.