  In order to facilitate an intuitive understanding of classical physics
concepts we have developed Potential Penguin - a game where players manipulate
the landscape around a sliding penguin in order to control its movement. The
learning goal of Potential Penguin is to familiarize players with kinetic
energy and potential energy - the energies associated with movement and
position in the landscape respectively. The game levels introduce the concepts
one by one, as players are tasked with sliding the penguin through a landscape
towards a specific location, while keeping the velocity under control. When the
player manipulates the landscape, the potential energy of the penguin is
changed, which determines the penguin's movement. To build a strong connection
between theory and game the analytical expressions for kinetic and potential
energy are displayed during play with font sizes continually growing and
shrinking according to changes in each energy type. With Potential Penguin we
hope to study whether visualizing the amount of kinetic and potential energy
through visible mathematical expressions generates a connection between the
intuitive actions taken in the game and the underlying physics concepts. The
knowledge about kinetic and potential energy gained with Potential Penguin can
also be used to understand most of the physics behind the citizen science game
Quantum Moves, which has the goal of building a working quantum computer. The
two games share the principle of the core interaction - manipulating the
potential-energy landscape. We aim to investigate whether a proficiency and
understanding of Potential Penguin predicts a better performance in Quantum
Moves and a deeper understanding of the quantum physics behind that game.
