This week we visited our client and began finalizing our digital prototype.
Client Meeting
On Wednesday, we traveled to East Franklin for a meeting with our client, the teacher Ms. Ross. We asked her to show us a few of her teaching methods with a few of her students, as we want to integrate her methods into the game as much as possible. She uses various methods and manipulatives depending on a student’s level of math comprehension. For lower level children, she uses two sets with dice blocks. One set has numbers and the other has dots. She uses a combination of these dice to relate the quantity of dots to the numerical digit. She also uses base-10 blocks to teach numeracy and addition of larger numbers. These are blocks that come in stacks of 1, 10, or 100 that students can use as physical representations of numbers. We are implementing a similar method into our game so that players can use manipulatives in the game in order to help count.
Ms. Ross also provided the alternative learning standards that she uses for her students, which can be seen below.
We divided these learning standards into twelve different problem types:
| 1 | single digit addition | |
| 2 | Single digit subtraction | |
| 3 | Double + Single digit addition without carryover | |
| 4 | Double + Single digit subtraction without carryover | |
| 5 | Double + Double digit addition without carryover | |
| 6 | Double + Double digit subtraction without carryover | |
| 7 | Double + Single digit addition with carryover | |
| 8 | Double + Single digit subtraction with carryover | |
| 9 | Double + Double digit addition with one carryover | |
| 10 | Double + Double digit subtraction with one carryover | |
| 11 | Double + Double digit addition with two carryover | |
| 12 | Triple + Double digit subtraction with two carryover | |
We then used these types to create exercises to use in the game:
Digital Prototype
For the remainder of this week and for the rest of next week we are developing and polishing our digital prototype. In this prototype, a robot character will move across a map discovering other robots to repair. The player will use an x-ray mechanic to find the part of the robot that are broken. Once found, the player is brought to a repair screen where they engage in an arithmetic activity to repair that part. Once all the parts are repaired, the robot will come to life, dance, and play a voice line.
Feng is currently finishing the art and UI for the addition mechanics and the digital manipulatives.
Vaishnavi is editing sound effects and creating art for the map segment.
Griva is programming and creating the in-game map.
Aaron is creating the robot dances, recording their voices, and developing the x-ray mechanic.
Yiheng is integrating the assets and programming the new mechanics.
Challenges
Currently, we are trying to have a digital prototype ready by next Monday. We are on track and should have it done by tonight. Otherwise, we have halves-presentations a week from this Monday. Next week we will be polishing our digital prototype and preparing for our presentation.