eduActiv8
2025
Maintenance and bug fixes Latest
- Fixes Fribidi support for Fedora 42 and other modern Linux distributions
- Fixes erratic mouse-button event handling that caused draggable objects to get stuck
- Fixes a crash in Connect activities caused by an incorrect data type in recent Python versions
- Adds support for Apptainer
Stability and code quality
- Refactored main file with improved state management for login and game screens
- Resolved a crash on startup caused by mismatched surface sizes
- Resolved a crash when resizing the application window
- Fixed the dialog screen causing fatal errors when the window was made smaller
- Fixed the Login Screen not showing user details when clicking a username
New images, Swedish, UI improvements
- Flashcard images replaced with a new higher-quality set, reformatted to WebP and upscaled ×2
- Swedish translation added
- Missing translations updated with AI assistance (flagged for community review)
- Ability added to prevent users navigating to locked levels
- Theme Editor UI updated — more intuitive, with a wider colour selection
- Word Maze: walking onto a wrong letter no longer causes a loss — the letter is simply not collected
eduActiv8
2022
Translation updates and maintenance
- Spanish and Finnish translations updated
eduActiv8
2021
Quick-launch by ID, activity redesigns
- Any activity can now be launched from the home screen by typing its ID
- Additional activities redesigned
Malayalam font preparation
- NotoSerifMalayalam font added in preparation for a Malayalam translation; Malayalam temporarily disabled pending a complete translation
eduActiv8
2020
Arabic, right-to-left improvements, Dutch review
- Arabic language added, with pyfribidi support for right-to-left rendering
- Arabic word list translated by Ayman Mahmoud
- Hebrew word-building activities borrowed from GCompris, with minor Hebrew fixes
- Dutch translation reviewed by Larry Myerscough
- Translation progress indicator added to the language selection screen
- More activities redesigned
Dutch translation
- Dutch translation by Steven Es
- Code cleanup addressing static analysis alerts
Bug fix update
- Fixed a crash in clock games when a non-default colour scheme was selected
eduActiv8
2019
Bulgarian translation, new activities, visual refresh
- Bulgarian translation added by Vanyo Georgiev
- Multiple activities redesigned with updated background colours and hover states
- New maths activities without pre-filled answers added
- Touch typing activity redesigned for improved contrast
Word-building, fraction matching, new language content
- Word-building activities added for Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese
- 12 new word discovery activities added, also useful for verifying word-list translations
- Fraction matching game enabled for Russian, Ukrainian, and Italian
- eSpeak toggle now shows a disabled state when text-to-speech is unavailable for the selected language
- Various translations updated on Transifex
eduActiv8
2018
Full-screen activity menu, theme editor, fraction and time activities
- Menu replaced with a full-screen activity selection screen — all activities visible without scrolling; no screen space consumed during activities
- Activity icons now show per-challenge progress in the menu
- Category and activity icons redesigned and scaled up; reorganised into sub-groups
- Theme editing screen added to customise UI and menu colours
- New activities covering elapsed time, negative numbers, equivalent fractions, and fraction arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
Fractions, decimals, percentages, symmetry; update notifications
- 20 new activities covering fractions, decimals, percentages, and ratios
- 4 new activities covering linear symmetry
- Activity icons now indicate whether each activity is a simulation, a task, or something else
- Application now checks for new versions and notifies users — update still requires manual download; can be disabled in settings
pySioGame
2017
The project was named pySioGame until it was renamed eduActiv8 in September 2017.
Patterns, negative numbers, completion feedback
- Completion feedback implemented in all activities that require it
- 5 new pattern activities added (English and Polish initially)
- New section covering negative numbers
- New shape matching activity
Auto-validation, Android gradient fix
- Auto-validation implemented in a number of activities
- Login screen gradient removed on Android due to a rendering issue
Android 7 compatibility, per-locale menus
- Compatibility with Android 7
- Levels and menus can now be created separately for each locale, even after installation
Serbian and Lakota languages, macOS, XML-driven menu and levels
- Serbian translation by Miroslav Nikolic
- Lakota language added by Peter Hill, Derek Lackaff, and Matthew Rama
- Catalan translation updated (patch from Jordi Mallach and Guillem Jover)
- macOS compatibility added
- Menu moved to XML file; levels moved to
levels.xmlenabling post-deployment customisation - Login screen redesigned
Serbian language (initial), drag scrolling, Catalan update
- Serbian translation added by Miroslav Nikolic
- Catalan translation updated with a patch from Jordi Mallach and Guillem Jover
- Minor changes to enable menu scrolling by drag
pySioGame
2016
Improved drag behaviour, unified colour scheme
- Draggable objects now move freely and snap to the grid only on release — reduces frustration for new users
- Spanish translation updated by Mario Izquierdo
- Colour scheme unified across activities
Greek translation update
- Greek translation updated by Alexandros Moskofidis
French and Spanish translation updates
- French translation corrections by Johnny Jazeix
- Spanish translation updated
German translation, improved object movement
- German translation by Oliver van der Bürie
- Objects can now move past each other when the direct path is blocked, rather than getting stuck
- Fixed a crash in word games when a word contained an upper-case letter
pySioGame
2015
Packaging fixes
- Minor clean-ups to resolve issues encountered during packaging
French translation and Windows packaging
- French translation by Gino Ingras
- Windows packaging script contributed by Gino Ingras, enabling standalone executables via py2exe
Multiplication crash fix, paint history limit
- Fixed a crash in the multiplication game on level completion
- Paint activity undo history capped at 25 steps to prevent excessive memory use
Translation update, division activity, navigation improvements
- Translation files updated
- Back buttons added to credits screens
- One division game added
Menu reorganisation, age-based grouping, achievements screen
- Menu and layout rearranged with more logical activity categorisation
- Activities grouped by age suitability — harder activities hidden until appropriate; very basic ones hidden from more advanced users
- Score replaced with an achievements screen showing completed levels and the language each was completed in
- Sound effects changed to more subtle ones
pySioGame
2014
Ukrainian translation, expanded Word Builder content
- Ukrainian translation by Yuri Chornoivan
- Word Builder activities translated into Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian — 589 words across 12 categories
Colour accessibility modes
- Four colour modes added for accessibility: default full colour, black on white, white on black, and yellow on black — designed for children with colour vision differences
Hebrew translation, right-to-left language support
- Hebrew translation by Ori Hoch
- Partial support added for right-to-left languages
- Application now works with phonemes when a language is not supported by eSpeak
- Game layout and colour scheme redesigned — game area centred
pySioGame
2013
Russian update, auto-login, English activity separation
- Russian language updated by Alexey Loginov, who also reported and helped fix multiple bugs
- English language activities moved to a separate category in non-English locales, with a secondary eSpeak process to read English text
- Auto-login option added
- Game resources moved to a dedicated
resdirectory
Login screen, user accounts, Catalan, locale detection
- Login and administrative settings screen added
- User accounts introduced — a Guest account created automatically on first launch
- Catalan translation added by Guillem Jover
- Country flags removed from language selection
- Automatic locale detection on first launch, with fallback to closest available translation
- All user data now stored in a local SQLite database
- Completed level numbers highlighted where applicable; points system added
- Flashcard images stored as individual files rather than a sprite sheet, for easier addition of new images
Clock activities, resizable window, new handwriting font; version numbering change
- New activities for reading clock hands, multiplication tables, and shape recognition
- Window can now be resized
- Handwriting font redrawn to support all languages and accented characters under a clear licence
- Paint tool: brush size now controlled by a slider
- Menu scrolling now moves one item at a time; mouse wheel support added
- Version numbering system changed from this release onward to encode release dates
pySioGame
2012
Versions 0.x — before date-encoded versioning
Spanish translation — first community contribution
- Spanish translation by Miriam Ruiz — the first translation contributed by the community
- Window size calculation bug fixed
Russian translation, new activities, maths operations split
- Partial Russian translation by Anton Kayukov
- Maths games split so each arithmetic operation has its own activity
- New activities added; cosmetic improvements across existing ones
- Child's name now editable in the settings screen
Shape formula corrections
- Corrected area and volume formulas in shape flashcards; images updated with labels
- Flat brush behaviour in Paint activity adjusted slightly
Paint improvements: undo/redo and straight line tool
- Paint activity: undo/redo history added; straight line tool added
- Corrected "circumference" to "perimeter" in shape flashcards
Level persistence, colour creation activities, rendering optimisation
- Level progress now saved automatically on activity change and on close
- New colour creation activities added
- Rendering optimised — surfaces only repainted when their content changes
Touch typing, completed flashcards, keyboard input for maths
- Touch typing activity added for English (UK and US), Polish, and Russian
- Letter flashcard set completed across supported languages
- Multiplication and division games now accept keyboard input as well as mouse
- New vertical Connect Numbers activity added
Multi-row sprite, flashcard crash fix
- Multi-row functionality added to multi-sprite objects
- Fixed a crash on the letter flashcard activity
New colour matching activity
- New colour matching activity added with vertically stacked colours for better use of screen space
Greek translation, multi-language flashcards, colour-coded categories
- Greek translation by Στέλιος, versys650gr, and members of the Linux Mint Greek Community
- Flashcard game added with initial support for English, Russian, and Greek
- Categories colour-coded; broader multi-language support added
- Corrected triangle type labels (Obtuse and Acute were swapped)
Touch-screen improvements, Finnish enabled
- Right-click level-skip replaced with graphical buttons for touch-screen use
- Graphical arrow keypad added in activities that use arrow keys
- Finnish language enabled for translation
Preferences panel, multi-language support, word lists, new activities
- Preferences panel added for language selection, fullscreen, and eSpeak settings — saved between sessions
- Full UTF-8 and non-Latin character support (accents, Cyrillic, etc.)
- 3D shapes flashcards and alphabet completion activity added
- Word lists added for supported languages, used by Word Builder and Word Maze activities
- Colour game extended; first level reworked as a learning tool rather than a test
First release
- Initial release of pySioGame — a personal collection of educational activities written in Python and Pygame, created to support one child's early learning in maths and language