Game Critique: Ratio Rumble
Game Metadata
The game I played this time is called Ratio Rumble which is developed and published on mathsnacks.com. Math Snacks is a multidisciplinary project of New Mexico State University funded by National Science Foundation. The high-level instructional goal of this game is to practice creating combination of whole numbers under a given ratio.
Link to the game: https://mathsnacks.com/ratio-rumble.html
Learning Objectives
As mentioned above, the main learning objective is to enhance the fluency of learners coming up with a combination of whole numbers so that they can satisfy the given ratio (for example, 4 and 6 for 2:3). Before playing this game, the learns need to have the knowledge of whole number multiplication and division, and they need to know that “:” is the symbol for ratios because the “recipe” in the game is given in this way.
The transfer of the knowledge learned in the game seems quite promising, namely the learners may be able to apply it in many real-life scenarios. For example, in chemistry experiments they can figure out the mass of certain reagents under a given ratio of a reaction.
Game Elements
When a game starts there is a matrix of potions in 3 different colors. The core gameplay loop is that given a recipe in a certain ratio, players need to click on the corresponding potions to form a chain as that the number of potions satisfies the ratio. Once this is done, they can click on the “brew” button to attack the enemy. When the enemy has no hit points left, the players win.
There are some outer loops as well. The way that the enemy fights back is they make some of the potions into bombs, each ticks down by rounds from 3. The players need to use those potions to eliminate those bombs, or else when the number becomes one it will reduce the player’s hp. However, some of the potions have special functions like healing or enhancing the damage, so that the chance of winning is actually very high.
Game nouns: potion, recipe
Game verbs: click (to select), brew (to attack)
Though the background music is creating a sense of tension, the gameplay itself is not that fast pace. There’s no time limit for each round, meaning the players can spend as much time as they want to think carefully. It’s fun to try forming very long chains, though it is not what the players absolutely need to do. In addition, the well-designed characters and animations make the game looks appealing. The only thing I don’t like that much about the aesthetic aspect is the color of potions — maybe yellow instead of green make stronger contrast to blue.
Learning Mechanisms
The learning process that the game is trying to impact is fluency building. The most important learning mechanism in this game is scaffolding and segmenting. The difficulty is increasing gradually by levels — first the players are only required to do 1:1 with no bombs just for practice, then they are prompt to increase the numbers of potions to make 2:2, 3:3, etc. Afterwards, they practice different ratios like 2:3, 3:4 in the following levels. Then, more complicated ratios like 1:1:1 are introduced.
The game is also applying pre-training by providing tutorials. Also, the game was designed under the topic of magic and arenas, which is evoking the interest of the targeted audience.
However, I’m concerned that the game might be somewhat over-scaffolding. The reason I think so is that the “brew” button won’t even show if the ratio of potions in the chain is not correct. After I found this trick, I started to randomly clicking on potions to make chains without even thinking about the number — I just added more until the button shows, then I know the answer is correct. In other words, the player might get used to relying on external help, which is harmful for learning.
Another concern is that the skill of making the chain as long as possible seems irrelevant to what the players are supposed to learn about ratios. When I played, I spent a lot of time trying to make longer chains, and got a sense of accomplishment when I made huge attacks, but this may not be something the math teachers want in school settings. Also, sometimes it is just not possible to do higher multiples of the original ratios under the given matrix.
In addition, the learning outcome can be unpredictable in this case — if players don’t want to take risks, they can just always to 1 and 1 for 1:1, 1 and 2 for 1:2, etc. and never increase the multiples. Though the bombs can be somewhat motivating the players to do so, it is still not that necessary since the avatar can be healed in some way.
Overall Critique
In general, I think the game is making the practice more interesting than doing problems on worksheets. However, if the educator who uses this game in classes wants to ensure more robust learning, there can be several ways to improve the design. Just to name a few, maybe it is better to always show that button, and give players a little punishment if the ratios they make are incorrect, so that they learn to be more careful. What’s more, try other ways to motivate players to do higher multiples of the original ratios, while at the same time decrease the difficulty of forming long chains (e.g. allow intersections of lines) can drag the focus back to ratios.
