Dragon Box is a game. Some would say a learning game but I dont like this. Some others would say it is a serious game. Sounds very boring to me.
I say a smarter game.
Lots of people love the game.
Some are angry because they dont see the math at once and dont finish the game, hence never see the link to algebra. Some say it should be categorized as game and not education.
Some others mean there are not enough levels, basically they complain because they learn too fast...
We wanted to make a real game where you can learn very fast something very complicated.
Create a real game is difficult. Create a ressource where you learn math is very complicated. Create a real game where you really learn math is basically nearly impossible.
But we did it. First attempt.
How is it possible?
I think something is underrated. Mathematics is about logic, and it is a game. It is consistent, you have many rules, you dont need to create them.
It helps a lot I think. And it might turn out to be easy to create math games, if you engineer a game with math in the game play.
Sometimes constraints are very good, it helps you focusing on the essential and solve an easier problem than when you have many choices.
If we accept that creating a math game might be simplier than a normal game, then where is the challenge?
The challenge is creating an interaction and a design that makes mathematics easy to understand, easy to manipulate and fun to use.
It is a big challenge, but not impossible : )