Week 13 -- Gamification of touch typing in Typing of the Dead: Overkill

The Typing of the Dead: Overkill, promotional picture.

Taking a cue from Nathan's post about educational gaming, I thought I would look at another recent game that examines this notion of gamifying something that would otherwise be a dull educative activity.

Typing is something I'm adept at. I am a fast typer due mainly to typing tutorials I had as a child with a family friend after school. I remember having to slog through boring typing exercises, thinking about the goal of playing half an hour of GTA (pre-GTA III, back when the games were isometric top-down experiences). In a way, that was gamification in of itself, a carrot and stick idea of learning.

Now you can get touch typing gamified in ports of the House of the Dead franchise. The latest game in this series is Typing of the Dead: Overkill. The game House of the Dead: Overkill was originally an on-rails shooter designed for arcades where someone would shoot at the screen with a plastic pistol. In Typing of the Dead: Overkill, the keyboard is now your tool of choice to fight against hordes of zombies. Each zombie has a word or phrase that you must type out fully and correctly to kill the zombie, before they can reach you and rip into you. The boss battles of this game are especially fun, as the phrases suit the situation. Some of the phrases you must type are amusing without any context.

To get through a level you can set it to easy, medium or hard (in this case, the 'hard' difficulty is so hard it is labelled as a swear word), and the zombies will move at the appropriate pace, giving you the time to type the words. There is also a survival mode, where you stand in one room and must hold out with your keyboard for as long as possible.

While Typing of the Dead: Overkill does not include the keyboard in cutscenes, the original Typing of the Dead, a port of House of the Dead 2 for the SEGA Dreamcast, does, as shown below. A battery pack, a Dreamcast and a keyboard is strapped to the player.

This game is an innovative and fun way to help kids learn how to touch type. Zombies are very popular among young adults at the moment, and a way to improve typing skills while keeping things fun is a genius way to go about it. I've loved every minute of playing this game and hope they can make more.

References:

Miya. (2013, October 30). Typing of the Dead: Overkill Gameplay [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jslf5hJMtvs

Lethal Dexter. (2013,  July 3). Typing Of the Dead Gameplay 03 07 2013 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHmgejxOuDk

Image:

Joystiq. (2013). The Typing of the Dead: Overkill out n-o-w. Retrieved October 31, 2013, from http://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/29/the-typing-of-the-dead-overkill-out-now/