Math Apocalypse

Math Apocalypse is a quirky little game that mixes quick math problems with the energy of a wave shooter. You play as a wizard blasting back waves of birds, but the only way to power your attacks is by solving math equations pulled from a third-grade curriculum. Get answers right and you’ll rack up multipliers, crank up your score, and push into faster, harder waves. Slip up and you’ll lose momentum-and maybe your run. The goal was simple: turn math practice into something fun, tense, and replayable, where every equation feels like part of the action.

Game Type

Serious Educational

Date

May 2024- July 2024

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah, US

Role

Game Designer and Producer

PERSONALIZED WALKTROUGH

CREATION PROCESS

PROTOTYPE PHASE

From brainstorm to paper to first tests

Educational Game Design: Designed a classroom-friendly math game with no barriers to entry, drawing inspiration from the grade 3 curriculum to create ideas that were fun and meaningful for students.
Classroom Insights: Prioritized curriculum accuracy by leveraging past experience with educational institutions and consulting a teacher in the Salt Lake City School District to understand classroom needs and challenges.
Production and Task Management: Coordinated production in Trello and GitHub, assigning tasks and keeping the team aligned to rapidly deliver a functional prototype.

ALPHA PHASE

Balancing authenticity with playful fantasy

Scoring System: Built a scoring system that measured accuracy and speed, introducing a decay mechanic to reward quicker answers with higher points.
Enemy Design: Created fun, non-intimidating enemies for younger players by designing two types: fast-to-defeat enemies and slower ones that added suspense without frustration.
UI Design: Developed cartoon-style UI assets with matching animations, ensuring a playful and accessible visual identity aligned with the target audience.

BETA PHASE

Iterating puzzles, fixing flow with feedback

Scoring & Levels: Refined the scoring system and added a progression-based level structure with increasingly varied math problems, emphasizing real-world applicability for long-term value across age groups.
Multiplier System: Introduced a multiplier mechanic to reward consecutive correct answers while balancing repetition by reducing scores after mistakes.
Playtesting: Ran playtests at the University of Utah’s Division of Games, collecting actionable feedback on enemy pacing and overall UX.

GOLD PHASE

Final refinements that boosted engagement scores

School Outreach: Pitched the game to a contact in the Salt Lake City elementary school system and provided a build for teachers to test with students.
Production Management: Directed production timelines and daily standups by breaking tasks into smaller deliverables, ensuring art and engineering stayed aligned to hit deadlines.
Quality Assurance and Debugging: Verified game quality against team standards by debugging extensively and submitting detailed reports to the engineering team.

BEHIND THE BUILD

Math Apocalypse began as an experiment in adapting the familiar wave-shooter formula into a tool for classroom learning. Instead of a traditional weapon, players cast fireballs as a wizard, only triggered by solving math problems correctly. The intent was to keep the energy of a wave-based combat system while embedding mechanics that directly reinforce math skills.

DESIGN GOALS

Approachability: Replace intimidating zombie-style enemies with lighthearted birds that keep tension without alienating younger players.
Curriculum Alignment: Reference grade 3 math standards, validated by feedback from a local elementary school teacher, to ensure problems matched real classroom use.
Low Barrier to Entry: Structure the build so it could be dropped into classroom environments without setup, supporting quick adoption by teachers.

CORE SYSTEM

Scoring & Multiplier
I designed a decay-based scoring system that tied performance to both accuracy and time pressure. Every second a Red Bird remained alive, its point value decreased, encouraging quick decision-making. A streak-based multiplier system doubled scores every six consecutive correct answers, scaling up to 32x. To maintain engagement without creating frustration, incorrect answers halved the multiplier instead of resetting it completely.

Progression & Stages
Difficulty was managed through a stage-based progression system, which unlocked harder math problems over time. To balance pacing, players earned back one health point on each stage advance. For advanced learners, I added an Endless mode designed to stress-test mastery, combining higher-level math problems with escalating enemy spawn rates.

Combat & Pacing
Enemy archetypes were deliberately simple:

Fast, fragile birds → applied short-term pressure and tested reaction time.
Slower, tankier birds → created anticipation and forced prioritization.
Spawn cooldowns dynamically decreased as scores increased, producing a natural difficulty curve.

Feedback Systems
Clear, age-appropriate feedback was critical. I implemented a cartoonish UI style with responsive elements:

red “X” flashes on wrong answers, stage banners with cooldown windows, and real-time score/multiplier updates. This ensured immediate reinforcement of success or failure without overwhelming players.

PRODUCTION ROLE

In a three-person team, I took on design and production dual responsibilities. I set up pipelines in Trello and GitHub, broke down large tasks into deliverables, and ran regular standups to keep design, engineering, and art aligned. This structure allowed us to iterate quickly and integrate feedback from multiple playtest rounds.

OUTCOMES

Math Apocalypse demonstrated how core design principles-feedback loops, pacing, difficulty scaling, and reward structures-can be applied to educational content. By combining a decay-based scoring system, a streak-driven multiplier, and a stage progression model, we created a game that was both classroom-ready and genuinely fun for students.