Crystal Hunters (Ludimo)

Complete math quests to power up your team in the search for magical crystals.

Game Overview

Educational Math Game
Minigames, Puzzle, Strategy, Math
PLAY THE GAME (WINDOWS)

Work Overview

My Jobs: Game Designer, System Designer, Playtest Coordinator
Analyzed problem the game was facing upon joining.
Spearheaded redesign to align more with the target audience.
Created UI mockups, UX flows, gameplay systems, puzzles, and lead playtests.
Analyzed playtest data to iterate on puzzles.
Consulted weekly with partners in the education sector and other stakeholders to make sure project was hitting the set goals.

Project Details

Project previously known as: Ludimo.

A strategic 2,5D adventure game where players complete math minigames to power up their characters hunting for crystals in the core game. Math quests follow expert-developed didactic structure. My main goal was to make the players learn math without realizing it. We achieved this by obfuscating the math in the minigames, and integrating those minigames in the core gameplay loop. Each mini game had to feel unique, so the minigames wouldn’t feel formulaic and thus break the illusion, highlighting the math each mini game actually centered around.

System Design
It was important to us to give players an experience where they would actually learn and grow. To do this I prompted the player to answer which grade they were in, followed by a few math questions they would get in their grade to verify. If answered wrong, we would estimate their “math score” based on their answers. But knowing our target audience (children), we knew they would cheat at the first opportunity to get the best rewards for the least amount of work. So to prevent this, each mini game, puzzle and question’s answer would change their “math score” so that, over time, their score would line up with how smart they actually are. This system would give them tailor made math content so they would improve through play.

Another system I felt was important to add was a Battle Pass-like system. Players had to be rewarded for playing, and incentivized to come back. I added a Reward Road and an Achievements system to accomplish this.

Lastly it was important to give a constant sense of progression. While kids grow and progress their real life math skills, that’s more of a drive of grown up. Children want actual rewards. So I designed a progression system that would provide the player with a constant flow of EXP through in-game activities, and rewards on each level-up. These rewards would be cosmetics for the Home Screen and Puzzles (alternate “hearts”, puzzle NPCs and much more).

Mini game UI Design, from mockup to in-game: