Mathtonia - the maths-driven incremental game

Maths is the centre of this incremental game. It makes it more interesting, and this is only a small part of what the concept could become. I plan on working on it in future hackathons if possible.

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Inspiration

I was inspired by incremental games like cookie clicker or make it rain, as well as maths. I thought that combining the two would make it more interesting and fun, because eventually, incremental games become something which you end up not interacting with it, which is boring and not something that I expect from a game.

What it does

It is a game that combines the best elements of an incremental game, while adding a twist with mathematical concepts. The mathematical part is supposed to make it more engaging by letting the player interact with the game more often.

The maths also gives players an advantage with the auto-play option compared to people who are idle, because I have included a "combo" feature that increases the speed of token collecting when you are solving mathematical problems.

How we built it

I built it using Microsoft Visual Studio using the Visual Basic .net programming language, which is one that I have known how to use for 5 years at this point.

I used Windows forms to provide a graphical interface, giving a more interactive and engaging experience than a program that uses a console window.

Challenges we ran into

There were a few problems with VB.net, as well as a few bugs that I was unable to fix in time - especially one where the level up screen would appear every time I tried to load a save file, but apart from that, I was very happy with what I achieved. I hope to be able to fix these bugs in future hackathons, but I might also work on new projects with others.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud that I managed to include a skill tree in my game. Skill trees are something that are relatively hard to make, but I used the Windows forms to create one. It links a small selection of mathematical concepts, but it could be expanded significantly.

What we learned

I learned how to periodically run tasks in the background while the program is running. This was crucial in making the game play well, because the amount of tokens that the player gets has to be updated in real time while letting the player interact with the controls.

What's next for Mathtonia - the maths-driven incremental game

I plan on adding more mathematical concepts, fixing the bugs relating to the level up screen and save file loading, as well as making the interface a bit cleaner, as it is a bit boring and also seems to be a little cluttered at this point. Again, I only had 24 hours to make this in the hackathon, and I was on my own after multiple unsuccessful negotiations with others to work on a project together.

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