Mathematical Base Defenders: Reversal Update 2023-02-23 Progress Report

Finally! Another progress report! This one is about the new Mathematical Base Defenders update, titled "The Reversal Update".

Since my final exams are over, this means that I will have a lot more time to work on the project!

Don't forget: Mathematical Base Defenders is now open source, so you can see what I've been working on to see if I actually worked on something. The project is currently being worked on at the reversal branch.

Gameplay Change

The original Mathematical Base Defenders (and Mathematical Base Defense) had a very complicated gameplay flow (in my opinion, as explained here), so I've decided change how the game is played, from making equations with limited numbers (which was inspired from math games/activites like the "24 Puzzle" and IQ 180) to just solving equations as fast as you can like a number-cruncher game because in my opinion, it's a true test of mental math speed.

I also believe the new gameplay would be much simpler and hopefully self-explanatory, as well as allowing for easier keyboard input (the original versions required users to remember which key corresponds to which tiles, and then it becomes a problem when there is no more of that tile you need for the expression, breaking "the flow" of speed).

This is what the new gameplay looks like. You can now just type in numbers that are the answers to math problems that you see, making it easier to get in the "flow".

Of course, Easy mode is still available, and I'm still waiting on feedback for the ideal enemy speed!

(Answers are in the range [-100, 100], which is subject to change.)

User Interface

The original Mathematical Base Defenders (and Mathematical Base Defense) had a user interface where the buttons are extremely small. I've decided to fix it by making the buttons really big and have pictures, with colors!!!

The "playfield" for the Reversal update is now vertical and has "definite" borders, which is now easier for people to see which is which (during Multiplayer). I also got inspiration of the new UI from (e.g.) TETR.IO and Jstris, which are stacker games I've played in the past which I like the gameplay and also the UI of (and think that it's easy to implement for my project.)

Also, I've also made it so that the score number has "dumb animations" like this (it can be turned off if you don't like it, of course):

Note that UI is subject to change.

(Planned) Release Date

I plan on finishing and releasing the Reversal Update before my birthday (March 9), which is a difficult thing to do, but since finals are over for me, it might be a little bit easier. Note that I will probably miss the deadline due to my incompotency and laziness.

I haven't been doing much advertising on the game's social media accounts either too.

But thank you for reading, and have a great day, and see you in the game (when it gets released!)