Math Game
Language
Flash
Basic Description
Freshman year I volunteered to tutor a 4th-grader named Matteas at a local elementary school. At one point I showed him my boat game, and he was so excited that I realized a game might be a powerful teaching tool. We were working on speeding up his arithmetic, so I decided to build him a game where he could practice his math.
What I Learned
Unlike my first game (the Boat Game), this game had a specific target and goal beyond just being interesting. I had to think about the game's interaction with Matteas and test it with him, which were both valuable experiences. I also learned about cross-platform dangers; I made the game on a new computer running windows, and Matteas played it on an old Macintosh with a keyboard that didn't auto-repeat button presses when held down, so I built this in on the game side. I also learned about the client experience because Matteas wasn't all that excited by the game and told me he preferred to finish all of his homework and then look at games, not do math as part of games.
Favorite Part
This is probably the most complete game I have ever created, and I actually enjoy playing it on the "insane" difficulty level to test my speed.
Remaining Flaws
Pretty much none, though it would have been nice if my customer had been more receptive to it.