Playing games are supposed to be easy, clear and especially fun to play. However, is it that easy to make a game of your own? 

For Sciematics, we were tasked with creating a game that had to include exponents laws while still using mental math. The game my partner and I created is a version of The Game Of Life with exponents. I recreated the rules while still keeping the fundamental rules that make up the original game of Life. All of the pieces I created were first designed in Keynote and then were either printed out or hand drawn.

Click the picture to explore the game rules and pieces

When starting this project, I first planned how I was going to use the exponent laws. I approached this by quickly brainstorming how I could use these laws. I picked a few that I felt matched with the game and would make sense. I went into more depth of how I was going to present the laws in the game. I wanted to add the exponent laws in various ways and not just in the competition cards. Planning to add exponent laws was challenging but I thought the 5 laws I used turned out really well in the areas of the game. I would change the amount of money you earn from the laws to make the game more interesting.

Creating the rules of the game started off slow but once I designed and made all the pieces, everything started to come together. The rules were lacking with the first draft and they were only an idea. What started as one page initially turned into 3 detailed pages on school & career paths, basic rules and the card rules. The instructions are clear and easy to read with pictures to compliment the rules.

For the game pieces I printed the challenge cards and glued them against a piece of cardboard. The backs of the cards show that they are challenge cards but they could have looked better. The job cards are unique and were created using multiple apps (Sketches Pro and Keynote). I used Sketches to draw the pictures in the card and I used Keynote for the shape, words and symbols of the cards. I then used construction paper cut into small rectangles and added letters for the money type. Letters worked much better than numbers because it didn’t involve a calculator as four of the letter type made the next letter higher money. Numbers allowed more equations as I could just say what the letter was related to. The game pieces in my mind turned out really well and I think it was worth the printer ink that was used for them.

To present our learning, we shared our games with another class. The people that played had lots of fun and even though they didn’t know any exponent laws the game was still playable. When we were playing we felt that we had to make a change in the rules to make it flow better. We decided to change it so you only received a challenge card when you don’t pass a money spot. This solved some problems with having too few cards and gave a chance to other players.

I learnt a lot about exponent laws and I understand how they work through doing this project. The game was stressful but fun to make. I have learnt how to do lots of work in a small period of time while still producing quality work that I am happy with. Being tolerant helped a lot in this project because you can’t always control your partners mindset. My game taught me how math can make games more complex, interesting and re-playable.