I’ve long loved educational games. Dr. Seuss helped my kids learn to read, Sesame Street’s Elmo got them going on math, and Pajama Sam took on a not-insignificant role in organizing them and getting them to address their fears. But as fun and interactive as those games were, they were also highly structured and provided little to no opportunity to create.

I was initially perplexed by a fairly new educational game called, “Elegy for a Dead World.” Released in December after an October Kickstarter campaign that raised over $72,000, it has limited structure.

"Elegy’s" aim, as you wander through the ruins of various civilizations, is to teach you how to write by letting you write poetry and prose about what you see around you. Though you’re essentially filling in blanks, it’s with your own words. And when you’re done, you can share your writing with a small, but growing community on the Steam platform.

I recently had an email Q&A exchange with Ichiro Lambe, the Boston-based indie games designer behind "Elegy." I wanted to know what he and his team at Dejobaan Games were thinking when they created "Elegy" and how things are going for the game since its release. Excerpts of that exchange are below.

Where did the idea for the game come from?