Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

“Good Game” is a new Australia television show all about video games and it’s actually very, very good. The idea of a good gaming show might not sound too outlandish for the people out there with cable television (I hear some good reviews for shows on G4tv, but I’ve never seen a whole episode). However, it’s mind-boggling to me. This is a decent gaming show on free-to-air television made in Australia by a government television station!

All Good Game episode are available for download from the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) website after they air on television. This is good for me because it’s a digital broadcast only and I don’t have digital television. It’s great for all of you outside of Australia! There’s also a forum and feedback from viewers is integrated into the show. For example, in the first few episode there was this stupid puppet monkey (like the ones that host kids’ cartoon shows) but after a vote on the forums, he was given the axe.

Keep reading for screencaps and a rundown of the show. For those who are already fans, there’s also a great interview with the hosts over at PALGN.

Here’s a quick graphical rundown of highlights from just one episode of Good Game. There’s gaming news near the start of the show, hosted by Junglist and Kapowski. This is actually pretty up-to-date since they make each show the week before.

They have an ongoing segment on building your gaming rig with Dr Daneel. Probably a bit too simple for your seasoned PC gamer, but perfect for people who like games, but aren’t really computer hardware fanatics.

There are various segments that change each week. In episode 3 they consider they learnt how to cook a healthy meal for chowing down in between gaming sessions. In this screenshot, Kapowski and Junglist have been asked to crush their ingredient manually. When the cook brings out his food processor, Kapowski calls “Hacks! Hacks!”. (LOL)

I’ve never seen a gaming show on television that wasn’t basically a paid advertisement for whatever game publishers wanted to promote at the time. Since Good Game isn’t made for a commercial television station, they have the freedom to (mostly) do what they want, and it shows. This sort of freedom is normally only associated with internet shows or community television. Unlike these formats, they have the backing of a major television station to add that extra polish and consistency (they have new shows every week).

I’ve seen a few shows on the internet that were actually “by gamers, for gamers”, but none that really kept my interest. Rather than winge here and detract from the goodness of Good Game, I’ll save that for my next post!