Abstract:

Baybayin is an ancient Filipino script used during pre-colonial times throughout Luzon, mainly by the Tagalog. Within it is a way of understanding national culture and identity. In fact, the National Writing System Act of 2018 believes that the revival or preservation of the script reinforces Filipino heritage and culture. Unfortunately, formal learning of the script has long been discontinued, and other similar scripts are threatened to be forgotten as well. With the hopes of strengthening its revitalization, the researchers instead propose a method of informal learning through educational games. According to the concept of EGameFlow, an educational game must have the ability to immerse the player and also improves their knowledge. With this in mind, the researchers developed Likha! Mahika, a 1-vs-1 competitive mobile game that aims to teach the Baybayin script. The researchers aim to utilize the popularity of mobile phone usage among Filipinos together with the immersion games bring to provide easily digestible education. The researchers looked at similar educational games to inform Likha! Mahika’s design. The game contains elements such as feedback and competition that aims to take away the monotony of learning to write using traditional pen and paper methods. By using EGameFlow and a simple objective exam, this paper concludes that Likha! Mahika improves the user’s knowledge of Baybayin and encourages them to learn more about the script even outside of the game. The researchers also provide a number of recommendations. Further testing of the game may be needed with a larger sample to see if the same results can still be achieved. The results of the EGameFlow survey also yielded a number of improvements to the game, such as improved graphics and better visual feedback.

Keywords:

Baybayin, Educational Games, Handwriting.