Math Apocalypse
An Educational game to sharpen your mental math
Math Apocalypse is a game designed around elementary school math, particularly third grade, since the team believed that was where we use math in our daily lives.
Walkthrough
The gameplay takes a playful take on the zombie shooter genre, with the common waves style gameplay. Your character is a wizard that shoots the birds approaching them with fireballs deployed when you answer a question correctly, this aesthetic resonates with the younger audience we cater towards.
The scoring system is carefully designed and developed to motivate players and balance the varying difficulty of math equations. The Endless system is something we developed to facilitate an audience that is better at mental math to try an achieve the highest score, in teeth quenching gameplay.
My Work
The contributions I made in the game were largely in the design department, I created the points system and the multiplier system. A large design challenge I had was making math problems that were directly inspired by the Grade 3 curriculum in the Salt Lake City School District. To achieve authenticity I contacted the Elementry Schools and they kindly provided me with resources that fit my requirements.
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This was a three-member team, with my teammates from Engineering and Art. I also took on production responsibility, which included setting up deadlines and holding periodic team meetings to keep the project's progression on track.
Design Work
Game Flow
Enemies appear from the corners of the screen with small math problems above them, the player types in the believed answer to the problem, and that shoots a fireball to bring down the enemy. Every right answer builds the combo that doubles the multiplier every six hits. If the player gives an incorrect answer, the multiplier is halved, and the enemies continue to approach the player. When an enemy reaches the player, it takes away one heart. If the player loses three hearts in a single stage, the game is over. The goal is to earn points to unlock harder stages that will have tougher math problems. A fun classroom experience would be to see who can score the highest points, as the points can be time-based.
Points system and Multiplier
Points
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Red Bird: 50 points with a decay of one point for every second the bird is alive
Blue Bird: Flat 60 points, but you have to answer 3 questions correctly
Final Points = Base Points x Multiplier
Multiplier
Starts at 1x and each right answer fills the meter; if the player gives 6 right answers in a row, the multiplier doubles at each step.
2x → 4x → 8x → 16x → 32x, which will be the maximum at 30 correct answers in a row.
When the player gives an incorrect answer, the multiplier becomes half in value to strike a balance between repercussions and maintain motivation.
Stages
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At every stage of progression, the player gains 1 health point.
Combat System
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Player Heath
The player starts at 3 health points, and each enemy that reaches the player = -1 health point
The game ends when the player reaches 0 hearts.
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Spawning and Pacing
Spawner cooldown gets shorter as the score and multiplier, red bird moves at a speed of 2 units per second.
Feedback System
Score number and Multiplier update in UI, when the player gives an incorrect answer, a red “X” flashes. When there is a stage change, a banner appears in the UI, and there is a 3-second cooldown.
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