The Boy Scout Law is, "A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent." The Boy Scout Law can be described as a blueprint for civilized society. If everyone lived their life according to the Boy Scout Law, the world would arguably be a much better place.
But since that is unlikely to happen any time soon, we can start by teaching our children about the Boy Scout Law. In 2015 the Boy Scouts of America changed the basic requirements for being a Cub Scout (the "Bobcat" badge requirements) to include the younger boys learning the same Boy Scout Law that their older brothers in Boy Scouts were learning. Since the younger Cub Scouts might not have sufficiently developed their reading ability to learn the Boy Scout Law from their Cub Scout Handbook alone, I decided to make a video game to help the younger boys learn the Boy Scout Law.
That video game is named "The Scout Law Trail Game," and it presents the tenets of the Boy Scout Law through the experience of taking a hike through Nature, which is very much a part of Scouting. I created this video game as a project for my Wood Badge Leadership Training course (see "What is Wood Badge" for more information about the course). As the game went from idea to reality, I thought that not only would the game help the boys in my son's Cub Scout Pack, but that it might help all of the Cub Scouts and perhaps some younger Boy Scouts. Therefore I decided to make the game freely available to the public. While I own the game itself, the Boy Scout Law and some of the descriptions in the game belong to the Boy Scouts of America. I also used media from several other sources, which are listed in the "About the Game" section.
The Scout Law Trail Game is copyrighted software, but you may download and play the game free of charge. You may distribute the game to others as long as no money is charged, and all copyright notices and licensing notices remain intact. But it is a better idea to download the game from this web site to ensure you always have the most recent version of the software.
The Scout Law Trail Game runs on recent versions of 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows. It has been tested on versions of Windows back to Windows XP and up to Windows 10. The game can, at times, stress older equipment, causing the game to pause or take some time in between scenes. A computer that was made within the last five years or so should easily be up to the task of running the game, but faster equipment will provide a better experience.
To run the game, first download the game to your hard drive by clicking the "Download" button here and opting to "Save File" (remember to which directory you saved it):
After you download the "SETUP.EXE" file, double-click to run it and follow the instructions. Note that if you do not have administrative privileges on your computer, you can change the installation directory to a non-privileged directory. The installer does not make any system changes, including changes to the registry, except for creating menu items and icons, which are optional.
To run the game, double-click the icon, or double click on the executable "ScoutLawTrailGame.exe". On older computers it may take a while for the game to load and initialize. Then follow the instructions presented in the narration of the game. If you need to exit the game before the end, hold down the "ALT" key while hitting the "Tab" key to get back to the desktop, then right-click on the task bar button for the game at the bottom of the screen and select "Close Window" from the pop-up menu.
If you have any questions or comments about the game, you can send e-mail to TrailGuide@ScoutLawTrailGame.com.
Wood Badge is a Boy Scouts of America adult leadership training course presented in an outdoor setting while simulating the structure and practices of a Boy Scout Troop. Wood Badge presents many of the same topics presented in popular Business Leadership courses. In fact, the Boy Scouts of America has licensed much of the same material from the original sources. But Wood Badge also instills the values of the Boy Scout Law, and the spirit of Service to Others, and of leaving a Legacy for future Scouts. One method of doing this is by requiring Wood Badge students to create and complete a "Ticket" of projects that help their unit after the classroom sessions are complete. This video game is one such project from the author's "Ticket", but he decided to not only release it to the Cub Scout Pack that he serves, but also to anyone who would like to learn about the Boy Scout Law.
For more information about Wood Badge, please refer to these additional resources:
This game was implemented with the Unity game engine using media from various sources. The game is Copyright © 2016 Foundation Software Technology, Inc. All Rights are Reserved.
The Scout Law Trail Game is copyrighted software, but you may download and play the game free of charge. You may distribute the game to others as long as no money is charged, and all copyright notices and licensing notices remain intact.
Scout Law excerpted from pages 24-25 of the "Boy Scout Handbook", 12th Edition (#34622), Copyright © 2009 by BSA, ISBN 978-0-8395-3102-9.
Commentary excerpted from http://boyscouttrail.com/content/content/scout_law-1760.asp
Some media in this game is being used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/ for more information). The following notices provide credit for the media used in the game.
Royalty-free media of various types was used in this production from the following vendors:
Besides the Unity game engine, I used the following other software in the creation of this game and its web site:
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