Wow...imagine what we could do to the site with that kind of money. Thing is, can we convince them that we are capable of using that money towards educational resources, etc.?

I have been doing some thinking about a concept I think we discussed a year or so ago ... a game where math skills are needed to advance.

These are just some ideas for the game:

* It would be played on a large sphere (so there are no edges). The game could be called something like "Sphere". (Or perhaps a Torus?)

* There would be "fields" that vary in intensity over the sphere. They could even change gradually. These "fields" would be important to the game. Think of them as "sunshine", "water", "gravity" etc.

* You can measure these fields, and by doing some calculations you can use them.

* By using these fields you can build things, move around etc.

* What you build, other people can see.

* You can buy and sell.

* You could program machines with functions to use the fields.

* The game would be part of the forum.

* The software could be Flash (on your PC) and php (on the server, like the forum).

* luca can do the graphics

Feel free to add or subtract ideas.

I like the sound of this! I'm not sure that I grasp all the concepts fully, but I'm sure if the game appeared on the forum, then I would enjoy playing it very much.

Would I be right in saying that it's a kind of maths-orientated MMORPG-type thing?

The only thing I could find a problem in that idea would be making the sphere, I could probably figure out how to do the rest of it, I just can't do Flash.

There is the vague possibility that if we did up a good proposal we might get some funding from the MacArthur Foundation. We could then employ some people to develop this.

I say "vague possibility" because it seems that the money goes to academic research rather than groups like us. If anyone knows about grants (I don't) you could start here: http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org

But maybe there is enough talent here to accomplish it anyway,

The idea that we need to flesh out is: how does the gameplay tie in with mathematics?

In the ultimate you would get a maths education by playing - the basic levels would require mastery of basic arithmetic and geometry, and so on. But how?

Commerce would help. You could buy cheaply then travel (teleport?) to sell at a profit. Get your calcs wrong and lose money. 500 bricks at 0.43 each, 10% discount for payment in the next 10 seconds!

It makes me think that the game should be seeded with "drones" (AI players) until we get a few hundred real players.

So, our long term goal could be this interactive world where we can walk, fly and do all sorts of things.

Call that goal "Version 3.0" or something

How about a "Version 0.1" to start with? You would be a dot on a map, and you can move around, find other people and perhaps little treasures. In later versions we could add animated characters and a "3D" feel (if someone knows how to do this!) and so on.

If I can master the process of Flash reading and writing to a database we could get a basic game started.

In "Version 0.1" we could have:
Location: a) The surface of a sphere with 0-360 degrees in two directions, or b) a simple square 10,000 km on a side, but when you reach the edge you "wrap around" to the start, or c) something else
Remember Location: When you exit the game it writes your location to a database so that when you come back again it knows where you were.
Objects: We could play "find the hidden object" with clues

Ideas, opinions?

My brother is learning how to make flash games but he hasn't learned enough yet.If he had I could ask him to help.

A thing I'd say is very important is to encourage creativity! The math you do in the game should not be fixed so to say. It's not important how you do it, it's if you do it. This might be a bit vague at the moment, so when we start to get more into the development of the gameplay, I'll tell you more about what I mean.

If we're going to go through with this(at whatever pace), I think we have to give the choice about using flash a lot of thought. What are the pros and what are the cons?

I use SwishMax (it creates flash files). I am just a bit worried about their future development ... there has not been a new version (apart from bug fixes) for over a year.

Anyway, I can experiment with SwishMax and see what it can do.

Is this going to be a sim city type game, a turn-based game, or one where you can actually walk around with your character?
Where is this going to be set, in the city, in the country, in outter space?
I guess what I really want to ask is, what is going to be the scale of the game you have in mind and how much work is it going to take?