Inspiration
When we were younger, we used to play a game called Poptropica. Although it isn't an educational game, we liked the adventuring aspect of the game. We got some of our game mechanics, such as character selection, from them. Our younger siblings are also obsessed with a game called Starfall, which is an educational game. This game focuses on what our game aims to do: educating kids through exploration and journeys. Both of these games inspired us to create this virtual field trip, in order to educate this generation's kids like we were.
What it does
It allows kids to select a male or female character, and then they are sent on an adventure. The kids are mostly informed through objectives and dialogues showing up on the screen, and from there they traverse the diverse environment to accomplish their goals.
How we built it
We used Python and Pygame in order to code the game to show the dialogue, objectives and sprites. We used Scratch in order to draw the sprites, and then exported the files onto Python.
Challenges we ran into
Because we had signed up a week late, we were on a major time constraint, more than other groups, meaning we had to come up with an appealing and functioning game. Brainstorming a realistically completable game in time was one of the most difficult challenges, and finding time to collaborate while focusing on work was also hard. However, we managed to overcome these obstacles and we finished the game.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Some milestones of our project were that we found an appealing drawing style, which helped us create the framework of most of the environment, and we got creating the sprites done quickly and efficiently. Another accomplishment we had was learning Pygame, since it had been unknown to us prior to this Hackathon, and learning it was an exciting but challenging experience.
What we learned
We learned how to use Pygame, and we learned that creating games was much harder than just playing them. We also learned that many of these aspects required collaboration, especially between the coders and art designers, since the code was restricted from being capable of anything, so most oriental and visual changes had to be communicated and done by artwork designers. All of this helped us grow from this experience, and we are grateful for this opportunity.
What's next for Math Mania
We hope to expand our game to include more subjects, add more to the storyline, learn more coding languages and their capabilities, and to expand our game to the real world, helping teachers nationwide prevent burnout, and to effectively teach kids in a joyful and educative manner, since it is important especially now with the world being in the new generation's hands.