[Tux4kids-discuss] Yet another GSoC application :)

[Zarea Ion]

Greetings!
I would like to introduce myself to the Tux4Kids community, as part of this
year's summer of code application.

I'm Ivan from the sunny republic of Moldova (although we have romanized
names here and I usually go as Ion). I study Computer Science and
Electronics at the Technical University of Moldova and am fond of creating
small gameplay sketches. On the IRC channel I go as erwinmagritte.

The project I would like to work on during this summer is about bringing
more gameplay value to TuxMath. To do this, there have to be added several
concepts which, I hope, will contribute to make TuxMath more fun to play.
That being said, I am really looking forward to concentrate on the game
logic and player-game interaction.

The main project idea is as follows (a copy-paste from the GSoC application
which I will send in a couple of hours):


The Project itself:

--Planets
Create a system of planets, which Tux has to protect from falling asteroids.
Therefore, the level choosing screen is a solar system map of the planets
among which Tux flies in his spaceship. There are planets which have been
saved - these are displayed with a small atmosphere (just a halo around the
planet) and the grown plants (explained in the seeds/plants section),
whereas the ones that haven't been saved yet are in a belt of asteroids.
Thus, children have to save planets consecutively to complete solar systems
(for instance, in one solar system we deal with addition and on planets we
have different levels of complexity.)

--Asteroids
The main gameplay system mostly remains intact, although some changes should
be introduced by the project. There are several types of asteroids, with
different sprites, which have very slight variations in speed, size and
complexity. However, the idea here is to use color-size encoding: the child
has to expect a harder excercise for a bigger and slower asteroid. There are
"special" asteroids, too - they give seeds, bonus points and healing points.
Such asteroids are mapped to more difficult equations (they are optional),
they don't damage the planet (they fly horizontally as opposed to the usual
motion) and they are slow.

--Atmosphere
Another change which is to be made by the project concernes the igloos. The
project proposes to introduce an atmosphere to the planet, which can be
damaged by the falling asteroids. The atmosphere is a dim halo around the
planet which indicates its state - when it is nearly absent, the planet is
very damaged, when it is bright - the planet is close to recovery. Thus the
goal of the child is to make the planet look brighter.
Another project's goal here is to add objects to the scenery, by making the
game a bit more graphical.
(Side note: Maybe, if there will be time and people, "brighter" will mean
"more alive", i.e. different animals moving, skies and wind and so on.)


--Seeds/Plants
There are special asteroids which leave seeds. After Tux has saved a planet,
the child can choose which of the seeds from his bag would he like to plant
on this planet (1 to 3 seeds). Now, when he goes back to the main screen, he
can see his progress by seeing "his" planets, whose look was determined by
his, the child's will. This is a very important feature of feedback - it
will make the child feel a reward for his guiding of the Tux.
Comment: The trees look like the ones in The Little Prince. Small planets,
big plants :)
(NB: Now I'm thinking of 3 to 5 knds of plants. Of course, it would be
absolutely astonishing if these trees would grow. This is even more
important as it will motivate the child to play the game more to see how his
tree planted two days ago looks like :) )

--User feedback
This is the second part of the project and it regards giving the child a bit
of feedback on his actions; that is, displaying a graphically pleasant (or
even animated!) message whenever the player has:
  - shot asteroids (a small message about the points he gained, displayed in
the place of the asteroid. The message then fades out.)
  - protected the planet (i.e. completed the level. Something like "Thank
you, Tux!")
  - obtained a seed
  - replenished the planet's health
These are the messages I thought of. Although small, my experience in game
development tells me that it will be a lot more useful to discuss these
matters when their time will come - the community might have a different
view on it, the gameplay mechanics might differ along the periods of
testing, etc. But the whole idea that the fun of playing is gained also due
to the feedback cannot be overemphasized.


To illustrate the concepts, I have drawn small sketches:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2865351/DSC05154.JPG
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2865351/DSC05153.JPG
(aaaah, it's been ages since the last time I picked up a colored pencil)



So, that concludes the presentation. For any ideas/comments, reply to this
topic or ask on the IRC.
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