Back-Up Plan

As the quarter progresses, I'm becoming more and more aware of just how much there will be to program, and my confidence in my ability to get it done on time is dwindling.  I have spoken with Loren about this on a number of occasions, and I've come to the decision that, if I can't finish this on time, then as a back-up plan I'll be able to produce a trailer of the game, communicating my design and ideas visually.  The point is to have something portfolio-ready by the end of the class that accurately represents my game, and so if the game itself is not functioning, the trailer will do just as well.

The deciding point will be Alpha--at that time, I'll reassess myself, taking note of how much time it will take me to finish the game.  If I feel less than confident in my ability to get it done, then I will switch gears and complete the trailer.  If there is time after the trailer, I'll continue programming the game, but at the very least I need something complete and presentable for my portfolio.

To Do List

I've made a To Do List that I'm hoping is pretty fleshed out.  I'll update as I think of more things to add.  Right now, I've got the navigation between pages done, and the display of the areas and changing areas done.

To-Do List

• Narrative
• Areas
• Missions
• Programming
• Interface
• Stats
• Areas
• Selection
• Display
• Missions
• Display
• Completion
• Loot
• (Potential: Mini-game)
• Intel
• Interaction
• Success Rate
• Exercises
• Math Problem
• Energy
• Exams
• Timing
• Interface
• Treasures
• Collections
• Store
• Buy
• Sell
• Equipping
• Inventory
• Stats
• PvP
• Send Challenge
• Results
• Send Results

Server and Saving

I've got my navigation more or less programmed, though I found a better way to do it AFTER I'd finished things.  I'll be spending hopefully no more than a half hour streamlining it, so that I save time doing content in the future.

On the plus side, a good friend of mine, Nate, is helping me out A TON by writing the PHP script I'll need for saving and loading player data with an SQL database.  He's also hooked me up with webspace, which is awesome.

Tomorrow in class, I look to fixing the navigation, then continuing to work with areas and missions.  Hopefully I can get those displaying correctly--thankfully, I think it's the sort of thing where, once I do it once, I'll be able to quickly reproduce it for most of the rest of my content.

Real-World Return

Today in class, Professor suggested an awesome idea: use some sort of points system such that parents can deposit money for items which the player can purchase with points earned in-game.  The parent(s) can, essentially, "unlock" various prizes by spending money, but in order to actually "win" the prize the player must earn points through completing exercises, practice problems, and practice tests.  This provides a form of motivation that is not dependent on the player having interest in the game itself, and provides a real and immediate return for the player.

On a related note, the game is not necessarily tied to SAT math, though that is the base focus.  For my final presentation, I should probably include a note on how the same idea and systems can be adapted to any level of math.

Social Spreadsheet Math

"Social Spreadsheet Math" doesn't really sound very exciting, but "Spy Math" sounds pretty awesome.  Even more awesome is "Thief Math."

I've finally settled on a design, and I really enjoy where it's going.  The player plays the part of a thief stealing treasures from around the world to become the greatest thief on the planet.  To hasten the process, the player may do math problems based on what will show up on the SAT.  It's basically Mafia Wars, except that the player is able to regenerate his or her energy by practicing math, can increase his or her chances of succeeding in a mission by doing math-based demos and exercises, and, if he or she is already solid in a particular type of math, may jump the gun an try to steal the treasure at the end of each area by doing the treasure's exam.

This format clearly separates learning, practicing, and testing into three different modes of gameplay--the player may mold his or her experience to the type of aid he or she needs.  If he or she already knows what's going on, he or she doesn't need to do the learning exercises.  If he or she doesn't need to practice, he or she can skip straight to the final treasure.  The only parts that are required, at least as far as being "successful" in the game is concerned, are the practice tests to get the treasures.

I'm basically done with the tentative design doc (less the missions and specific loot bits), so I'll be jumping into scripting soon.  I'm going to try very hard to get this thing running in Flash, because I really want that final product for my portfolio, but if that falls through then I can at the very least do a simple trailer or program the game in simple HTML.

Violence

My latest idea was to encourage teenagers to practice their math in preparation for the SAT, and to help review the topics that would be covered on the test.  My plan was to make a "raising pets" game where you do math problems in order to gain experience for your pets and in-game currency for yourself.  After my presentation, my classmates brought up the point that high-schoolers may not be all that enthused about raising pets.  Which is a very valid point.

Professor mentioned violence.  I love violence.  High-schoolers love violence.  High-schoolers hate math.  So let's use high-schoolers' love for violence to override the hate for math.

With that in mind, I'm now envisioning a game where you have a ninja (or any type of fighter, really), and you kill stuff to get stuff.  You have a limited amount of energy to do stuff per day, but you can regenerate energy by doing math problems.  Also, in order to progress to the next level, you need to pass an "exam," which will be just a mini-practice-SAT.  The exams will start extremely easy and get steadily harder, and later exams will continue to incorporate types of problems that were missed on the previous exam--thus, if you already know the math, you can go ahead and level up to the stuff you don't know, and you can still pass to the next level if you miss a few questions, you'll just need to keep doing those types of problems.  The idea is that practice will eventually make the user better at math.

Redirection

After very carefully considering the scope of my project and the time I have in the quarter to work on it, I've decided to scale down.  This decision was the result of considering that I have no experience in working with Special Needs students, let alone making educational games in the first place.  I felt like diving in and trying to accomplish both for the first time would result in a sub-par project, and so I decided instead to just focus on making a fun and interesting educational game.

Specifically, I will be making a game to teach Math to kinesthetic-visual learners--for example, artists, whom frequently have trouble in this area.  I'll be focusing on Algebra, with the assumption that the user's aptitude in pre-algebra is below average.

One of the ways I plan to achieve this is by presenting the user with a system that the user can manipulate, and see how his or her manipulations affect the result (ex, what happens to the graph when the x-exponent increases or decreases?).

I feel much more confident with this direction, and in my ability to accomplish it.