Hey guys and welcome back to another reflection on the channel. Today we’re going to be going over the second project in the second quarter of the Scimatics 2020/2021 year. In this project, the driving question was ‘how are thematic and mathematical elements included in game design’. For this project, we created a game that included ten science concepts about plate tectonics and the probability of multiple events(such as rolling three dice and drawing a card). I am pretty proud of our final product, but first, how I got there.

Launch

In milestone one, we got into groups of four and brainstormed a very rough game idea that included something to do with earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanos. Our group came up with a game, in which players competed to claim most of the earth using tectonic disasters. There were only 20 locations remaining on earth, and each location had four health, and different suits of cards meant different things.

So you can read it clearer,

Design Ideas

World Map

Cards

Object: Сlaim the most land by the end

Places:

Canada: 9

USA: 8

Mexico: 6

Greenland: 8

Russia: 10

China: 7

Japan: 5

India: 9 

Australia: 7

New Zealand: 4 

Europe: 6

South Africa: 4

North Africa: 5

Saudi Arabia: 6

Brazil: 7

The rest of South America: 6

Antarctica: 5

Kazakhstan: 4

Madagascar: 2

Scandinavia: 3

On your turn, draw one playing card. Then players can decide whether or not to draw a location card or save the playing card. You can save a maximum of four playing cards. Once a location card is draw you must play it to deal damage to said location. Each place has four chips, and when a tectonic disaster deals damage to it, you take away one chip. Once a location is completely destroyed (all chips are removed) , the destroyer claims the points correlated with it.

There are 20 locations

Each. Place has 4 lives

The bigger the location the more its worth (1-10) when destroyed

Different suits of cards = different tectonic disasters

The bigger the disaster the more points of damages it does

Location cards list other locations that can be affected when a club card is drawn

Four players

Earthquake: 1

Tsunami: 2

Volcano: 3

Joker: 4

Clubs: chain reaction

Hearts: tsunami

Spades: earthquake

Diamonds: volcano

Then, we split off into groups of two, and made a mind map, containing our game ideas, and what we knew(or thought we knew) about tectonic plates and disasters. Mine looked sort of like this.  

Building Knowledge

In Milestone 2, we looked at some vocabulary that we were going to include in our game and the key concepts that we would use. This is what our group came up with this as a final product. 

Workbooks and probabilities. In this we looked at some science workbooks about tectonic plates and learned how to calculate the probability of things using fractions. This helped us in developing our final game and rules.

Develop and Critique

In milestone 4, we made a set of final game rules, using the knowledge we had built and our creativity to create a functional fun to play game that included science as the base. Then we handed off our game rules to another group, and critiqued their game rules while they critiqued ours. Then we took the feedback we received, implemented it, and handed it in to milestone 4.

Present and Reflect.

For Milestone Five, we had to be completely finished with our game, game pieces and all. We finished it and handed it in early Wednesday morning, and then the rest of the day was spent playing peoples games. I really liked the games that I played, and I am really proud of the game that our group came up with.

Here is a link to the game rules.

Okay. We need an answer to our driving question. I think that thematic and mathematical elements are included in game design in many ways. From the probability of drawing a certain card to rolling a certain number on a dice. One of my friends once said that they didn’t like games that included more luck, and not as much skill. But now I’ve learned that its not all luck. It’s probability.

Curricular Competencies

Evaluating: Demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of evidence. I think that i demonstrated this competency well in milestone four, where our group wrote the scientific definitions do our ten key science concepts.

Questioning and Predicting: All class time is used efficiently for learning and project work without distraction. I think that I did this well, without letting myself get distracted throughout class.

Understanding and solving: Develop, demonstrate, and apply mathematical understanding through play, inquiry and problem solving. I think I demonstrated this in milestone 4, where I calculated the probabilities of the things that were in our game.