Operation: Animal

Enter the world of Operation: Animal, where operator and number magic forms the basis of teams of animals.

Work through 37 levels of adding, multiplying, and brackets to learn the order of operations, with animals and music along the way.

Tentative Playtest Questions

• Do you think this game facilitates learning the order of operations?
  • If not, what improvements might you suggest?
• Do you think success in this game demonstrates a grasp on the order of operations?
  • If not, what improvements might you suggest?
• Have you found any ways the player may become softlocked / legal entries not being seen as legal?
• What do you think about the difficulty of the levels? Where do you think the current levels fit into the game (if at all at a commensurate difficulty level)?
• Barring aesthetics, how can assisting mechanics be improved? (i.e. showing the order of the operations)

Playtesting Results (WIP)

1. Elementary Student
   1. Playtest #1: July 1
      1. Had to keep track of multiplying and adding and order of operations in  that way
         1. Assisting mechanics are slow
      2. Difficulty: 'way too hard'. Enjoyed figuring out the solutions to harder questions, but did not feel like the questions were easily solvable by elementary students.
      3. Hint system: for each bubble in the top left, perhaps give a hint (i.e. a block position) when clicking on the bubble. ACCEPTED, TBD
      4. Bugs 
         1. some boxes would remove boxes in other positions; currently cannot reproduce
         2. sometimes clicking on a box would put it back in its original position; currently cannot reproduce
   2. Playtest #2: July 6
      1. Animations "cool"
      2. Levels from the "way too hard" difficulty could fit near the end of the game considering that it builds up to that point.
2. Friend (University, first year)
   1. Playtest #1: July 2
      1. Pretty difficult, may be above the level of elementary students
      2. Could facilitate learning by increasing the 'puzzle' component; adding preplaced parts for easier/more concrete puzzles (TBD)
      3. "Why does it take forever for the result to come out?" because of the assisting mechanic; make sure the mechanic is clearer in the final version with the pets.
      4. Bugs
         1. Sometimes level fails to load; fixed.
3. Friend (University, first year)
   1. Playtest #1: July 8
      1. Pretty difficult, "enough math for the day" after second level
      2. Bugs
         1. When re-entering a completed level, the CONTINUE button does not show up. (TBD)

Full document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E41-8EcpED0dfOv3b0aZGjrheI52s6danMM8KYECM4Y/edit?usp=sharing (may be more updated than the attached document)

Development Plan (WIP)

Tentative Development Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PTZG_J2QNPnMpjtTaqnJJ40ZC1lrDcQWwcpNAf6Ak0w/...

1. 25 - 29 June
   1. 27 June: Remake level generator to include up to 9 elements
   2. 27 June: Remake the level generator to include pre-placed elements
   3. 29 June: Create/Find animal textures for all possible blocks
      1. 1-9, operators, brackets
   4. 29 June: Figure out the number of stages in the game, number of levels in each stage, and mechanical differences between each stage
   5. 29 June: brainstorm ideas for how the UI will look (i.e. in a normal level)
2. 29 June - 5 July
   1. 2 July: Generate levels in accordance with the level patterns decided last week
   2. 4 July: Look into a unified animal idle animation (i.e. bob).
      1. 5 July: Brainstorm animal animations for pick up, drop off, and operation activation, success, win
3. 5 - 12 July
   1. 8 July: Design tutorial
      1. What messages should be presented? What should it look like?
         
      2. Who should be giving the tutorial? An animal?
      3. How much freedom should be given to the player during the tutorial?
      4. What should level 0 look like?
   2. What should level 0 look like?
   3. How much freedom should be given to the player during the tutorial?
      1. What should level 0 look like?
   4. Who should be giving the tutorial? An animal?
      1. How much freedom should be given to the player during the tutorial?
         1. What should level 0 look like?
   5. 12 July: Create animations for operators
   6. 12 July: Implement tutorial as decided last week
   7. 12 July: Brainstorm textures for level selection / main menu
   8. Ongoing: seek feedback on levels
4. 12 - 19 July
   1. 14 July: Create textures for the UI
   2. 14 July: Create textures for level selection / main menu
   3. 19 July: Create animations for numbers 1-9 and brackets
   4. Ongoing: seek feedback on tutorial
5. 19 - 26 July
   1. 20 July: Brainstorm and find sounds that can be used for animals (i.e. their relevant sounds; for each animation as created above).
6. 26 July - 2 August
7. 2 - 9 August

A learning game which teaches Order of Operations. Build circuits which augment your power output, including flat increases in wattage and multiplying power from batteries, in an attempt to reactivate the machines in the city. However, too little power will be insufficient, and too much power will cause machines to overload. The circuit parts work in a special way, where 'bracketed' circuits take precedent over multiplying circuits, which take precedent over normal additive batteries.  Use the order of operations to your advantage to revive the city.