The design and development of Kulturang Pinoy: A mobile 2D game

Abstract

Traditional Philippine history education struggles with low engagement and retention, with 49.8% of 221 surveyed students finding lectures unengaging, 40.7% struggling with complex concepts, and 37.1% saying history is irrelevant. This thesis presents Kulturang Pinoy, a 2D mobile role-playing game designed to enhance interest and understanding of Philippine history and culture through interactive learning. The objectives were to develop an engaging platform with a historical encyclopedia and mini-games reflecting Filipino cultural practices. Developed using Unity, Firebase for authentication and cloud storage, and Agile Scrum methodology for the software development life cycle, the game features three narrative acts: Life Before Colonization, The Battle for Mactan, and Confrontation with Sakim while integrating mini-games (e.g., boat-rowing, quizzes) and an unlockable encyclopedia. Usability tests with 30 participants (aged 9–27) achieved 95.3% success in authentication, 100% in encyclopedia access, and 94.9% in mini-game completion, improving from pre-final results (92%, 100%, 70%) after fixing glitchy animations and login issues, though minor jump animation and background visual concerns persisted. Surveys showed 78.3% of students found interactive methods effective in learning history (50.2% said effective and 28.1% said highly effective) and 62.5% of 136 parents were likely to encourage game use. Kulturang Pinoy successfully merges education and technology, encouraging deeper cultural appreciation through engaging gameplay, with recommendations for enhanced graphics, expanded historical eras, and cross-platform compatibility to broaden its educational impact.