Explore

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Explore

Explore Activity

Goal

The main goal of Explore is to lower the ancient wall that surrounds each area of the island. Rusty must enter a dark and mysterious cave and successfully navigate through the cavern as quickly as possible, while maintaining his torchlight and remembering the sequence of bell tones that unlock the mechanism to lower the wall.

Game Play

In this activity, Rusty’s objective is to explore a mysterious underground cave that, upon completion, lowers a protective wall surrounding each island area. Some areas take multiple attempts to move all of the gears into the correct position. As the game begins, Rusty enters the cave and steps on a Keystone. The Keystone opens a Bell Pit where he finds nine bells arranged in a grid pattern. Triggered by the Keystone, the bells ring tones in a specific sequence. After the bells ring, move Rusty across the large cavern by keeping your finger or cursor (depending on the device you are using) on him. If you remove your finger (or cursor) from Rusty, his progress will stop and his torch will fade out. Spread throughout the cavern are numerous pools of oil that you can simultaneously tap with your finger or push the corresponding button that displays (depending on the device you are using) to increase your time in completing this activity.

Rusty’s challenge is to reach the Bell Pit at the exit of the cave and ring the bells in the same order as they rang before. If the pattern of bells is rung in the correct order, you win, the exit gate opens and the wall lower. If you make a mistake on the bells or Rusty does not make it to the other side in time, he will be transported back to the beginning and start over. You have a total of three chances to successfully make it through the cavern before time runs out. If the game is not completed successfully with those three chances, the wall will only move a small portion and exploring the cavern again might be necessary.

CONTROLS

Tablet Controls

Movement - Keep your finger on Rusty to speed his progress and keep his torch lit.

Oil Pools - Tap the oil pools as soon as they appear to add time to complete this Activity.

Bells - Once Rusty arrives at the other keystone, it opens and bells appear. Tap the bells in the same sequence as they appeared at the first Bell Pit.

Mouse/Keyboard

Movement - Moving your mouse, keep your cursor on Rusty in order to maintain his speed and keep his torch lit.

Oil Pools - As you move through the cavern, pools of oil will appear displaying random letters. Click the corresponding letters on the keyboard as soon as they appear to add time to the clock.

Clinician’s Note: The letters that appear over the pools of oil are limited to 1,2, and 3.

Bells - Once Rusty arrives at the other keystone, it opens to display the second set of bells. Click the bells with your mouse in the same sequence as they appeared at the first Bell Pit.

Tip

While the primary concern is to remember the sequence that the bells ring, it is imperative that you keep your finger on Rusty as he traverses through the cavern because he does not walk fast enough to make it to the other side without your help.

CLINICIAN INFORMATION FOR EXPLORE

From the player’s perspective, this activity is used to guide Rusty through an underground passage, leading the way across the island. For the clinician, it is an opportunity to challenge memory strategy, response time and divided attention. The clinician will observe the player listen and watch a pattern of bells ringing; then perform a divided attention forgetting task by tracing a path along the screen while tapping pools of oil appearing along the path; and finally repeating the original tone-grid pattern correctly before time runs out.

The player may have difficulty with the following:

Remembering the bell tone sequence. The clinician may suggest that the player envision the tone as a pushbutton phone pad. Sometimes repeating the bell sequence in their head as 3,5,7,1 while performing the forgetting task may help. Players may also be taught to write the sequence down immediately after viewing. The following strategies can also be found in the Player’s Journal.

Bell Sequence Strategy 1: When a bell rings, write the down the number that corresponds to its location in the ring sequence on top of the bell.

Bell Sequence Strategy 2: Think of the bell grid as a phone touchpad, write the numbers of the bell sequence as they ring.

2 6 5 1 7

Keeping their finger on Rusty. Rusty moves at a slow pace, so slow that he cannot make it to the second keystone before time runs out. Keeping a finger on Rusty will speed him up, allowing him to reach the second Keystone. This becomes especially hard when a secondary task of tapping the pools of oil begin to appear.
Tapping the oil pools. After Rusty has moved half way across the screen, small pools of oil will begin to spring up. The player must now divide their attention between tracing Rusty’s path and tapping the pools of oil.

Difficulty Level

Number of bells to remember. Range 2-7.
Length of Rusty’s path. Range 2-20 segments.
The amount of time for Rusty to explore. Range 14-58 seconds.
Number of oil puddles present. Range
Speed with which oil appears and disappears. Range 3 seconds to 1 second.

Cognitive Skills Measured or Challenged

Skill	SubDomain	Measurement
Executive Functions	Organization	Cost of divided attention is the percentage of the bells tapped in the correct order before making a mistake. The higher the number the better the score. This measure of organization is based on Mateer's Model of Executive function and captured from the Explore mini-game.
Attention	Divided Attention	Lapses in divided attention is the difference in speed between the second and first half of the path (user collects oil on the second half only) of the first attempt. This is the percent of time consumed by the demand to divide attention. A lower number (e.g. closer to 0) represents better performance. This measure of divided attention is based on the Lezak's Neuropsychological Assessment description, the ability to respond to multiple taskss at the same time, and captured from the Explore mini-game.
		Lapses in divided attention (per minute) is the number of times the user takes a finger off Rusty on the second half of the path when oil wells are present. Number of times divided attention was interrupted. A lower number (e.g. closer to 0) represents better performance. This measure of divided attention is based on the Lezak's Neuropsychological Assessment description, the ability to respond to multiple taskss at the same time, and captured from the Explore mini-game.
		Rate of lapses in divided attention is the number of times divided attention was interrupted per min. (Number of times player takes a finger off Rusty per min.) A lower number (e.g. closer to 0) represents better performance. This measure of divided attention is based on the Lezak's Neuropsychological Assessment description, the ability to respond to multiple taskss at the same time, and captured from the Explore mini-game.
		Success in divided attention is the percent of oils pressed. A higher number (e.g. closer to 100) represents better performance. This measure of divided attention is based on the Lezak's Neuropsychological Assessment description, the ability to respond to multiple tasks at the same time, and captured from the Explore mini-game.