Critique Blog 1: The Boolean Game
Game Metadata
Game Name: The Boolean Game
Designer/Developer: Mark Mackay — Method of Action
Platform: Web browser
High-level Instructional Goal: Learn and practice boolean vector operations.
Educational Goals
The learning objectives for The Boolean Game are to learn and practice the different boolean operations that can be used to create vector shapes. Four boolean operations exist to learn: union, subtract, intersect, and difference. The game’s goal is to help designers and artists gain efficiency in creating vector shapes by introducing different boolean puzzles to solve. By utilizing standard shapes, such as rectangles, triangles, cubes, circles, etc., players can learn how to create singular complex shapes using the boolean operations.
This game assumes that the player is aware of vector graphics or uses some kind of digital graphics software, given that they stumbled across this game. However, the understanding can be simple: a vector is a shape. There is no additional prior knowledge needed. The first level is elementary, it guides the user to what to do with only two shapes and the easiest function, the union operation.
Beyond vector graphics, this knowledge can also be applied to 3D modeling software, such as Maya, as they also utilize boolean operations in their toolkit when creating new complex 3D forms from simple geometry.
Game Elements
Each level of this game starts the core game loop. To begin, the player is shown the basic puzzle shapes and the final shape.
Once at least two shapes are on the template, the boolean operations become visible. This highlights that boolean operations only work with a minimum of two shapes.
The player will then drag the shapes into the final shape outline and select which boolean operation to execute. Once the player has selected a boolean function, then the game will show the execution shape-by-shape.
If the player is uncertain, they can preview the operations by holding down the mouse click over the desired operation.
As the player progresses in the game, multiple operations can be used to complete a puzzle in one level. One example of this is the Pizza level in the Advance Stages. I used a combination of intersect and subtract boolean operations to create the one pizza slice.
The game is a bit wonky at first play, as it is not obvious that you can take parts that you have created with the boolean operations off of the template. This is useful because some parts require you to make it off to the side before you combine it with other parts. However, there is no UI/alert to the player to inform them of this, which can get people stuck on some levels. The game also does not have a hint for the later levels, so it is difficult to debug if you don’t have much experience using boolean operations. You are also awarded up to three stars for efficiency, but the game doesn’t give feedback on how to improve. This game truly emphasizes trial and error for improvement, and the preview tools help visualize the operations before you commit.
Learning Mechanics
The learning mechanism the game is trying to impact is Induction and Refinement.
Application
The game is organized into Stages, with a stage for each operation and then increasing difficulty stages that combine multiple operations. Each stage has its own set of levels. At the first levels of the single operation stages, the game provides a tutorial on how to complete the puzzle using the respective operation. This level demonstrates how the operation works step-by-step and then the player can apply what they just learned for the operation to the subsequent levels. Players can practice one boolean operation a few times before they move on to learn another operation or apply it to a complex puzzle.
Immediate Feedback Timing
The game provides immediate feedback if the player chooses to preview the operation before executing it. They can see the outcome and see if it matches the final shape. The game will also alert you if the final result is wrong. For complex shapes with multiple operations, the player can immediately see the resulting shape after the execution. They also have the choice to undo their previous execution, allowing them to try a different approach.
Interleaving
In the later stages, the Easy, Intermediate, and advanced stages, they start interleaving the different operations for each level. These levels combine the different operations learned earlier in the game, allowing them to practice all of the operations in increasingly difficult puzzles.
Overall Critique
Coming from a design/3D modeling background, I had some previous exposure to using boolean operations. However, some of the advanced levels are frankly very difficult. I had a hard time completing them, and for most of them I was not able to finish or I did not get full stars. I enjoyed how it challenged me to think about the order of operations to create the shapes. It also frustrated me a great deal when I couldn't figure out how to improve my efficiency. I can somewhat understand why tutorials/hints were not given beyond the first level as giving the answer away makes the game not really replayable. This allows players to come back and keep trying to improve. I think this game does serve as a good example of a game and a learning experience, partly because the harder levels can bring players back trying to get better efficiency, but also because the structure of the levels focuses on individual operations in scaling difficulty before you have to start combining them.
