Squares began from conversations with my friend Peter. A college student studying math, he was struggling with remembering all the correct mathematical rules and implementing them quickly and accurately while solving problems. He imagined a game called “Fake Math” that would teach math skills without any numbers, just shapes. The game would require the player to learn and memorize many rules related to the different shapes. Playing the game would exercise the parts of the brain used when solving math problems and, hopefully, improve math performance.
Squares is a simplified version of the game he imagined. It incorporates just five simple rules and one shape, squares, in six different colors. The player is shown a line of between two and six squares of different colors (the prompt), and responds with his/her own line of between zero and five squares of different colors (the response). This response is created by using the five rules to examine the relationship between colors of the squares in the prompt. All of the rules are related to color theory. Parallels are drawn between color mixing and basic math - adding two primary colors creates a secondary color, and subtracting a primary color from a secondary color creates a primary color, for example. (A short color theory primer is included in the rules section of the game for players unfamiliar with which colors are considered primary/secondary.)
The player is given 45 seconds to complete as many challenges as possible. He/she is rewarded with an extra 3 seconds for a correct answer, and loses 5 seconds with each incorrect response. Thus the player is encouraged to act quickly and accurately.
Game design was a collaboration between Peter and myself, and development was done by me.
You can play the game here.