Once I heard about Cloud Quest on the latest AWS summit I was intrigued. Not just because the name indicates a mysterious quest (we are called Cloud Crusaders after all and we are here to explore the cloud) but it’s description was also hinting at a gamification of AWS educational tools. I have played around with it at home and here is my experience.
So what is Cloud Quest?
Cloud Quest is a new educational tool by Amazon launched back in 2022 that lets you learn the skills required for different AWS certifications such as Cloud Practitioner and Solution Architect through an open-world interactive roleplaying game where you walk around, interact with people to solve problems using AWS services, fight drones, chase animals and execute labs in the AWS platform. Your server running the oh so important weather website is failing you say? Well I guess we will migrate that to S3 then!
Welcome to Cloud Quest
When you begin your adventure you start of with a customization of your avatar. You will be able to unlock more customizable items as you progress in the game.
Once you are done you’ll be dropped of in the Cloud Quest world. The graphics are rough yet simple 3D models. A simple tool lets you auto-navigate on a hoverboard to the next quest in line. You can roam and explore different islands that cover different AWS skills. You can track your progress by a leveling bar, unlocking new customizable parts of the world and by the end of all quests you’ll be granted with a brand new series of digital badges.
The quests are the main focus of this game. Each quest comes with a step-to-step challenge designed as “Learn – Plan – Practise – DIY”. In the first step of Learn you get access you a series of self-educational videos to introduce you to the skills needed to complete the challenge. In the Plan-step you will get a layout about what to expect from the goals of Practise and DIY. This step is a bit redundant but I guess it can be good for longer challenges. In the Practise-step you face some instructions on how to setup a particular collection of services. Then in the DIY you get to complete an additional challenge without too many instructions and then validate that your result was correct.
Other competitors
While Cloud Quest promote itself as the first game that teach Cloud skills I do want to compare it to other educational platforms on the market. Amazon do in fact already have a platform called Skill Builder that gives you access to a ton of classes with topics very similar to what you find in Cloud Quest. One of my favorite platforms is CloudGuru which similar to Skill Builder comes with video lessons and progress bars. And you can always find a ton of YouTube-videos even if you plan to prepare for a certification exam.
So who is Cloud Quest for? I would say that the target audience may be teenagers or young adults? At least some age group that prefers games over documentation. Cloud technology has been a growing area for the last decade but it hasn’t yet had impact on schools around the world. Some universities start to cover these terms since a few years back, but it still as seen as failed to establish itself as a part of any school system. Perhaps this can eventually be a breakthrough into that market if this game is given more international promotion and involving governments.
Final thoughts
The game itself is a very strange fusion of education and roleplaying. On one hand you have character creation with customizable attire, level and progress bars, ambient background music that you would find in a dungeon crawling roleplaying game. On another hand you have dialogs with minimal lore that more reminds you about a PowerPoint presentation. I have heard a few voices around the community that are very positive to this, and while I agree that it is fun to try some new innovative way of learning I do find it rather unpolished and half-hearted one year after its release.