Critical Wanderer

Critical Wanderer is a gamified learning platform for users aged 10 and above that promotes critical thinking and media literacy through interactive storytelling, global exploration, and civic decision-making. It is not a social media platform but rather a game-based tool designed to teach players how to navigate information, question sources, and understand multiple perspectives in a playful, age-appropriate way.

How players develop and practice critical thinking in the game

At its core, critical thinking means analyzing information, spotting bias, and making thoughtful choices. This game would be made to help people develop these skills by immersing them in real-world-inspired scenarios.

Purposes

• Encourage curiosity and global awareness
• Strengthen source evaluation and fact-checking habits
• Build empathy and civic responsibility through role-play

Key Features

• Virtual World Map: Players start in a region (i.e., Southeast Asia) and unlock new regions by completing challenges.
• Curated Hotspots: These are rotating story-based challenges located on the map, featuring real-world scenarios such as the COVID-19 Pandemic. Topics include climate action, historical events, social movements, and more.
• Decision Challenges: Players make choices like “Do you trust the word-of-mouth rumor or wait for an official report?” The game gives feedback on the scale from weak to strong/reliable to unreliable (in-game scale will be color-coded from green to red).
• Daily Game Mechanics: Streaks and mini-simulations based on historical or political events (e.g. Vietnam War Protests or Covid-19) keep players engaged and learning everyday.

Narrative Framework

Players take on the role of a young “critical wanderer” who time-travels between the past, present, and future to solve civic challenges and explore how decisions shape societies. This mode helps them make connections between history and current events while imagining possible futures.

Some Challenges for Players

• Spotting biased news reports across regions
• Decision-making under a global pandemic

Goal

The game aims to create a fun, interactive space where users don’t just learn facts—they learn how to think. Through global stories, informed decision-making, and real-world simulations, they become critical thinkers ready to evaluate situations, make decisions, and lead.