Math and Guns: where I will be taking the project from here.

WARNING: Super long blog post incoming! If you don't want to read a ton of words here's the rundown, I am going to be developing a video game called Math and Guns which will, hopefully, be a roguelike top-down shooter which can also help players get better at mental math and memorize different terms for tests.

I am currently developing my first commercial game, Math and Guns, and have now finished a prototype which I submitted to the Pirate Software Game Jam.  The game is currently just an endless top down shooter where the goal is only to survive as long as possible, which is not bad at all considering that just half a year ago I probably wouldn't have been able to even begin making this game. The theme for the game jam was "You are the weapon" and since my game was already going to have guns in it I decided to literally just make the player the gun, I might change that later though to add an actual person to the sprites. I only had to design 2 sprites for the players as my game engine, Godot, handle the rest of the 360 degree rotations possible for my guns. I don't actually want this prototype to be the demo for my game because there is still a ton of stuff missing, for example customizable difficulty and roguelite elements, but pretty much everything in this demo will be in the final version in some way shape or form. I want to design this game around solving simple problems while you fend off lots of enemies, however I do understand that some people would rather just shoot things so I will make the game accessible to both kinds of people, those who just want to play a good roguelike with guns and those who want to play a good roguelike with educational elements.

Things I'll be adding:

The first thing I want to add is a wave system where players have time to prepare before enemies come rushing in. I think that the game should have a structure like this: 30-60 second time periods for players to prepare for the next wave and then when their time is up they must defeat a certain amount of enemies to move on to the next wave where the cycle would continue. That was a bit of a simplification but it should give you a basic understanding of the game, answer questions and then fight enemies. Things like the time and the difficulty of the questions may change based on how well the player is doing. 

Because I want my game to be a roguelite it will need a treasure trove of different modifications for your guns and some way to acquire new guns altogether. For this I want to make a shop where players can spend their bullets, like in Enter the Gungeon, to get more weapons and gear. I like the idea of the math problems you solve giving out a universal bullet which can be used in any gun, although at different amounts required per shot, for example in the current version of the game the pistol might only require one universal bullet but the shotgun could require five universal bullets because it is currently far more effective at taking down enemies than the pistol.  I will also need a different system for unleashing enemies onto the player as many play testers have told me that they simply do not have ample time to respond to the hordes of enemies, which is completely fair. 

I want the price for this game to be relatively low, 3 to 5 dollars, as I need to build trust in others by showing that my games will be of consistent quality. Buckshot Roulette is a good example of why low pricing can be a good idea when no one knows your name, it has a base price of 2.99 and has been discounted to 2.49. The game does not take long to beat, it took me about half an hour, but the game packs a tremendous amount of quality into those 30 minutes while also offering more content in the form of an endless mode. I want my game to take longer to beat than that but I also want my game to be replayable for the extrinsic rewards of getting better at math. Another advantage at pricing like this is that I actually have some room to discount if I really want to.

Despite the name "Math and Guns" I would also like to add questions other than math problems into the game. I absolutely adore games like Kahoot, Blooket, and Knowt for making literally answering questions at school fun. The way most edutainment games like these work is by allowing teachers to make question sets which they then use in live games with different game modes to help students review for tests. I don't know how to add in question sets/flashcard sets into Godot, but I do think that I will be able to learn how to do it, even if it might take some time to incorporate properly into my game. 

Part of the reason I am making this game, Math and Guns, is because I have not found many great edutainment games that both teach well and play well. Perhaps the very best edutainment game I have ever played, and spent hundreds of hours in, is called Nitrotype. Nitrotype is amazing because the game gives intrinsic AND extrinsic rewards to players which is not something I have seen many other games do very well. Basically, to get better at Nitrotype you have to type faster and more accurately to race other players who have the exact same goal as you. How do you get better at Nitrotype? By practicing typing of course! How do you get better at typing? By playing Nitrotype! The game also has a plethora of cars and other accessories for players to fill their garage with and show off to other players. Nitrotype is part of the reason that I actually made good use of my time during the Covid-19 Pandemic because it gave me something fun to do that was also technically a part of doing schoolwork, so naturally it has a special place in my heart. In summary, Nitrotype rewards players that want to look cool and also players that just want to get better at typing. The game also is not pay to win unlike another edutainment game, Prodigy.

Prodigy, this is a game which I used to love but as I progressed through the game enjoyed less and less. So what even is Prodigy? Prodigy is a MMORPG for kids that teaches them math and does so up to the 8th grade. Back when I was in 5th grade Prodigy was awesome, when you start the game out there is a lot of different stuff to do, but once you burn through it all, and still are getting homework assigned in the game, you will be forced into incredibly repetitive battles. The game also gatekeeps many things from those who are not willing to cough up the money for a premium subscription. Basically it just becomes as fun as a Roblox simulation game after you sink enough time into it and getting better only comes from grinding levels for hundreds of hours. In case you cannot tell, I am not very fond of Prodigy. Basically, a player's progress in the game eventually hits a flatline due to the nature of the game only having simple turn-based combat. Prodigy still can offer the extrinsic reward of getting better at Math and English for younger kids so that's good, but if kids do not enjoy the game they will not want to continue playing.  Prodigy REALLY suffers, at least in the long run, from its low skill ceiling.

There are definitely some edutainment games that have almost unlimited intrinsic rewards but only some extrinsic rewards, however these are usually designed to be games first and teaching tools second and typically would not be used in a school setting. Minecraft is a pretty good example of this, although it is currently used in 10k schools now! Minecraft can potentially teach players almost anything from programming to architecture (Yielding that neither of these would be 100% realistic) but the game was certainly not made with the purpose to teach these things, at least not at first. 

So essentially, I want to make a single player game where players can both progress in their skills within the game and their skills outside the game, starting with math.  A low skill floor and a high skill ceiling are a must have for this kind of game so that players can easily get a grip on the game but will never become bored with it due to it becoming far too easy for them. I also want to integrate learning into the game in such a way that players do not find it intrusive but rather feel it is an asset to the game.