Madu Maths is a maths game for kids 5 and over that features simple addition and subtraction problems. The player must help Queen Becky rally her honeybee workers to collect honey (what "madu" is Indonesian for) from flowers so they can refill their empty hive. The player must choose between flowers containing different amounts of honey indicated by the flower-specific equation, and then solve it to have Queen Becky summon the appropriate worker to bring it back home safely.

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Madu Maths is my first published game. Released in 2017, it started off as a promise to my little cousin to make her a maths game, then was taken on as an assignment at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, and finally became a self-driven project following graduation. Using my education in cognitive and developmental psychology, coupled with a school curriculum, I created an experience that would serve well as an accompanying extracurricular challenge to kids just starting out in maths. Virtually everything in the game was self-made including the pseudo-random algorithm that spits out equations in a manner that ensures a fun and fair gameplay, the mouseless UI that allows for a clean and smooth experience, the kid-friendly models and animations, and the self-made SFX and music.

 

An intention of mine was to publish an extremely polished game that had no bugs, no choppy audio transitions (a great pet peeve), and was still enjoyable to play; all to show what I am capable of as a designer in considering the player experience. I believe I succeeded in this, especially seeing that the game was featured in PC Powerplay's dvd in issue #269 and garnered many positive reviews on Steam. Publishing Madu Maths was a valuable learning experience that I can now revisit during my future in the industry. It was also a special and cathartic one that finally validated myself as a game designer, and I cannot wait for the next opportunity I get to birth another game into the world.