The roadmap... (kind of)

Hello! So… I thought I’d sort of outline my thoughts on what in the world I’m trying to make with this game. In this post I’ll try to explain what this game aims to be and where this game will be going as far as the development is concerned, which is hopefully to the v1.0 that I envision.

What is Graphmatical! (supposed to become)?

At its core, Graphmatical! is going to be a 2D platformer. But, its also trying to be an educational tool that can potentially be used to teach or supplement teaching. Specifically, I want players to gain a better intuition on the behavior of math functions which can be a pretty useful skill when pursuing the various STEM fields since they’re littered with equations. By designing platforming levels (and allowing others to do so as well!) around having the player use a graphing calculator that can graph interactable terrain, the player will be able to reach into their math arsenal and have fun exploring math in a new light.

Most educational games I’ve played either lean too much into the educational aspects and become boring or are fun games with the educational part not being at the center of the design. Or they’re about programming or animals, hehe. While not entirely true, I do find that many educational games are like this and hope to make something that at its core is designed around math functions but is also somewhat fun and can be played as just a game.

What will v1.0 look like?

For v1.0, I’m hoping to have:

• A fun platformer that is focused on ‘environmental platforming’ rather than ‘ability-based platforming’ in order to facilitate more interactions with the environment and, hence, graphs. This to me means avoiding things like a double jump or air dash in favor of something like a wall jump. But that isn’t to say that I won’t add these things, just that it won’t be the focus.
• A robust graphing calculator that does sort of what is expected of a graphing calculator. This means being able to edit a bunch of equations and see a somewhat accurate graphical representation of them.
• A hub level that will house the various official levels along with levels created by you or shared with you by someone else. I don’t expect to add any online functionality, however.
• A level editor that is designed with platforming or education in mind that will allow you to save and load levels from a text file. This will allow you to share them with others if you send them the file. Since I won’t be adding any online functionalities, I’m hoping the community areas of the game’s Itch page can be used for that.
• An array of official levels. Specifically, 4 campaigns: 1.) a pure platforming campaign that’ll showcase the platforming mechanics (the ‘I just want to jump around’ levels) 2.) a focused educational campaign that’ll give a crash-course on several different math concepts (the ‘how this game can be used in school’ levels) 3.) a mix of both that’ll probably be the main campaign (the ‘teach me how to have fun with math’ levels) 4.) a randomish campaign that’ll have no focus and just have interesting and unique levels that don’t fit in the other sections (the ‘what can the level editor do’ levels)
• A decent, polished free game that is fun, playable and accessible on various different platforms and released on Steam.

What are some of the things that are to come?

Most of the ideas for things to add involve some form of interaction with the graphs in the game, or are general platforming concepts. Many also are coming from ILIAGC, my previous graphing calculator game, too. Some of the things I’m planning to add are:

• basic physical liquids that can flow atop of graphs
• creatures that can interact with the graphs like spiders or birds
• logic-based things like doors, buttons and keys. This will be useful for control over where the player goes.
• graph zones, or areas where you can and can’t graph. This can be useful both for stopping the player from breaking the levels by skipping areas and telling the player that they should probably try to graph something to get somewhere.
• power blocks powered by lasers, as well as a general ‘power system’ that will allow the linking of powered on/off things to doors, buttons, graphs, etc.
• themes like a real-world theme that replaces floor tiles with dirt and graphs with something like wooden bridges so things aren’t so abstract
• level parameters. things like setting handicaps (e.g. no graphing, only use trig functions, tiles are lava, one graph only, etc.) which are useful if you’re trying to make a level focused on something, accomplishments/goals (e.g. time completed, graphs used, coins collected, etc.) which are useful for improving at the level, and more
• more math operators like modulus (%), absolute value (||), and some more trig like secant, cosecant and cotangent.
• parametric functions?! Things like using circular coordinates instead of xy coordinates to graph circles, or cool looking spirals. This one I don’t have high hopes for but it would be cool…
• more graph materials like ice, or a moving platform that tracks the position of the graph
• tiles with materials similar to graphs
• physics-y objects like balls or boxes that can interact with graphs and other things.
• more engaging and customizable signs

When will it be done?

I’m not sure, but hopefully by September the game will be in a state where you can share levels with others. I plan to work on this game and put out updates consistently over time, even after v1.0! As I know no one is really dying for educational games (yet!), I’m going to focus on consistency, quality and not burning out. As a side note, I’m also currently going to college at the moment (as a 4th year physics major) so when school starts up again I’ll have less time to do game development things. I’m also working on another game as well (hehe) that is more of a traditional type of game that will actually be taking most of my time. But, eventually, I hope to land at the finish with something that isn’t a total waste of time to play. Hopefully you’ll be there to witness it! Also, if you have questions, comments or feedback feel free to leave it somewhere I can see it!

(Also! I’ve made the game open source so anyone can check out the source code [GameMaker Studio 2 LTS] and use it however you want [MIT License is pretty lenient]. As an educational game, I figured this was a pretty important thing to do)