How to Create Powerpoint Games

Enhancing your classroom instruction with motivation materials helps your students practice what they've learned in a competitive atmosphere. Use PowerPoint to develop interactive games to enhance instructional self-study materials. Using Visual Basic for Applications, you can set up a macro to keep score. For example, you can create a simple trivia game consisting of questions related to the material presented.

Things You'll Need

• PowerPoint 2007

Instructions

1. Open a new PowerPoint file and select a design template for your game.

2. On the title slide, include text such as "Try your luck!" or similar text. Enter a sub-title such as "Trivia Game."

3. Click the "New Slide" button and select the "Title and Content" layout to insert a new slide for the beginning of the game.

4. Go back to the title slide to highlight the title text and right-click it. Select the "Hyperlink" option and click the "Place in This Document" link to create a hyperlink to the next slide.

5. Click the top text box and type a title, such as "Question 1" and then click the bottom box and type in a scenario or question. Type in possible answers.

6. Insert slides for each possible trivia question and possible answers. Add photos and multimedia. Alternatively, you can set up all your questions on one slide. Once you set up your "game board," you can set up the scoring.

7. Press Alt+F11 key to start the VBA Editor. From the "Insert" menu, select the "Module" option and insert the code below to keep score.

   Sub UpdateTheScore()

   ' Add 1 to the score and show the current score
   MsgBox "Your score: " & CStr(AddToTheScore(1))

   End Sub

   Function AddToTheScore(iIncrement As Integer) As Integer

   Static iScore As Integer

   If iIncrement = 0 Then
   iScore = 0
   Else
   iScore = iScore + iIncrement
   End If

   AddToTheScore = iScore

   End Function

8. Press Alt+F11 to return to your PowerPoint presentation.

9. Save the presentation. This also saves your macro.

10. Go back to your first question slide. From the "Insert" menu, click the "Shapes" button, then click one of the "Action Buttons" options such as an arrow. Drag and draw your shape. From the "Action Settings" dialog box, click the "Run macro" option, select the "UpdateTheScore" option. Click the "OK" button.

11. Right-click on the button. Copy and paste that button as many times as you need to, to indicate a correct answer on your question slides. Each time it is clicked, the score goes up.

12. Create another button that does not increase the score for incorrect answers. From the "Insert" menu, click the "Shapes" button and then click the arrow button. Drag and draw your shape. Copy and paste this as many times as you need to, to indicate an incorrect answer on your question slides.

13. Insert a final slide that displays a certificate of completion, and save your file.

References

• "Better Than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging e-Learning with PowerPoint"; Jane Bozarth; 2008
• "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual Basic for Applications to Make PowerPoint Interactive"; David M. Marcovitz;2004
• "PowerPoint for Teachers: Dynamic Presentations and Interactive Classroom Projects (Grades K-12)"; Ellen Finkelstein and Pavel Samsonov; 2007

Resources

• UWW: Games