In this award-winning tower defense game, defend your prized carrot from space gophers by placing units on a coordinate grid. Game Over Gopher is part of the Math Snacks suite of games, and addresses topics such as plotting coordinate pairs and identifying quadrants, while touching on more advanced concepts.
Game Over Gopher was the gold winner in the 2013 International Serious Play Awards. It remains one of the most popular games on BrainPOP and the Math Snacks websites.
My Role
I was involved since the early stages of design and made numerous prototypes for this project, some quite radically different than others. Eventually, after a tower defense prototype was approved by the powers-that-be, I was able to begin building and programming the game. I used Flash and ActionScript 3.0, which was the standard for browser-based games at the time and a language I was quite familiar with. I designed and implemented many of the game’s features, including tower defense mechanics, level layout and design, interface elements, and more.
What I learned
The entire process of building this game was a great learning experience early in my career. I created several prototypes, as well as a fairly robust game and mini-game, learning much about design and programming in the process. I also learned that the processes which you learn in school are not always the same processes used by companies, and sometimes you have to work under constraints, deadlines, and not always clear roles and decision-making-hierarchies. Despite the hardships, the game came out great and it was quite gratifying to have such a large part in a game that ended up being very successful. The game has since been re-made in Unity for WebGL, and is still enjoyed in schools today.
Credits: Game Design, Lead Programmer (original version)