Building a Tamil Word Game for Primary 2: When Script, Design, and Gamification Come Together by Jon Chen : a case of using Visual Code Studio to fix the language

Print

 

Building a Tamil Word Game for Primary 2: When Script, Design, and Gamification Come Together

Teaching Tamil at the lower primary level comes with a unique design challenge: how do you make early vocabulary and spelling practice fun, while still respecting the complexity of the Tamil script?

This is the story behind a Tamil Word Game designed for Primary 2 learners—an interactive word-formation activity where students build Tamil words from a bank of letters, receive immediate feedback, and experience the joy of “getting it right” through gamified elements. 

 

old, with Tamil characters grouped wrongly



Along the way, the project tackled the tricky realities of Tamil Unicode, box sizing for grapheme clusters, and the delicate balance between play and pedagogy.

What the Game Does

At its core, the Tamil Word Game is simple and purposeful:

The game is aimed at Primary 2 students, with age-appropriate vocabulary and a controlled level of difficulty: words are between 2 to 4 grapheme clusters long, and each round offers a limited, but slightly noisy, set of letters to maintain a sense of challenge.

The Big Technical Hurdle: Tamil Character Grouping

The Problem: Unicode vs. Real Tamil Letters

One of the most critical fixes in the project had nothing to do with layout or colors—it was about how the game understood a single Tamil letter.

Tamil, like many Indic scripts, uses combinations of Unicode code points to form what we visually perceive as one character. If you split those combinations incorrectly, you don’t just break the code—you break the language.

Initially, the game treated each code point as a separate character. This caused Tamil words to be split incorrectly.

Example:
The word “அம்மா” (mother)

The game logic was operating at the level of raw Unicode points instead of grapheme clusters—the units that actually make sense in Tamil reading and writing.

The Fix: Grapheme-Aware Word Lists

To solve this, the entire word database was reorganized:

Impact:

This was the foundational improvement that made the rest of the game meaningful.

Getting the Boxes Right: When 50px Just Isn’t Enough

Once the characters were grouped correctly, another problem surfaced: Tamil text was getting cut off in the interface.

The Problem: Cramped Width

Tamil grapheme clusters can be visually wider than Latin letters. The original design used:

This worked fine for English prototypes, but for Tamil:

The Iterations

  1. 50px → 70px
    Helped a bit, but some clusters were still cramped.

  2. 70px → 90px
    This became the sweet spot for both:

    • .letter-tile

    • .letter-slot

With width: 90px and height: 50px, every Tamil cluster had enough breathing room.

Impact:

It’s a good reminder that UI patterns that work for English often need to be rethought for scripts with different visual and typographic requirements.

Design Principles That Shaped the Game

Beyond technical fixes, the game is built around several student-centered design choices.

1. Visual Clarity & Readability

The goal: students focus on reading and forming words—not deciphering what’s on the screen.

2. Immediate Feedback & Reinforcement

The game gives students a clear sense of what’s happening at every step:

This feedback loop motivates students and supports a growth mindset—mistakes become part of playing, not something to fear.

3. Progressive Difficulty in a Safe Space

The game keeps difficulty calibrated and contained:

The design balances success and challenge—students can win, but not without thinking.

4. Accessibility & Inclusivity

From the start, the game was designed to work for everyone, not just “typical” users.

Key considerations:

This ensures the game isn’t just usable, but welcoming, especially for younger learners or those with specific needs.

5. Engagement Through Gamification

The game leverages light gamification, not as decoration, but as a meaningful engagement layer:

The objective is clear: help students stay motivated long enough to practice and internalize vocabulary.

Under the Hood: Structure & Components

The project keeps a clean, maintainable structure:

 
├── index.html # Main HTML layout and containers ├── script.js # Game logic & state management ├── styles.css # Visual design & responsiveness └── README.md # Documentation for developers/teachers

Word Database

Game State Management

The JavaScript logic manages:

UI Elements

The interface includes:

Looking Ahead: How This Game Can Grow

The current version already supports meaningful learning, but it’s also built with future expansion in mind.

Possible enhancements:

  1. Additional Levels

    • Primary 1: simpler words

    • Primary 3–4: longer words, more complex vocabulary

  2. Audio Integration

    • Play pronunciation when a word is formed or revealed

  3. Timer Modes

    • Optional timed challenges for advanced students

  4. Leaderboard

    • Track top scores in a class or over time

  5. Analytics for Teachers

    • Which words are most missed?

    • How often are hints requested?

  6. Custom Word Sets

    • Teacher-defined vocabulary lists tied to ongoing lessons

Quality Checklist for Any Script-Based Word Game

Before rolling out similar activities, it’s worth checking:

Why This Game Matters

This Tamil Word Game isn’t just a fun diversion—it’s a case study in how:

…can combine to create a meaningful language learning experience for young students.

Most importantly, the iterative process—spotting issues, testing changes, and refining details—demonstrates what high-quality educational software actually looks like in practice.

It’s not just about making something that runs.
It’s about making something that teaches well.

5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Rating 5.00 (1 Vote)
Details
Parent Category: Mother Tongue Languages
Category: Tamil Language
Hits: 141