TranStar

I found and played more than a dozen transformation games, to give me a bit of context for what the MangaHigh team accomplished with TranStar. The objective of most transformation games seems to be the establishment of a cursory understanding of the concept of geometric transformation. In contrast, the ManagHigh objective for TranStar is for the player to take away a more in depth understanding of the concept of transformation and how the different types of transformation can work in concert to inform the orientation, position, and size of a shape.

The MangaHigh team crafted the presentation of the transformations such that they are cumulative. That is to say, that once reflection is introduced, it can be presented along with any transformation that follows. So right from the outset, the MangaHigh team had a more substantive approach than most who have tried to create a game around this subject.

TranStar plays very much like a puzzle game, where you have a piece that has to fit into a hole, but to get it into that hole, you have to use the transformations available to you. In contrast to the pace of “Save Our Dumb Planet”, it feels as if the player is much more in control. In “Save Our Dumb Planet” I often felt as if I was waiting for the game, but in TranStar it felt as if I could move things along. The game play was absorbing without the math test feel of “Save Our Dumb Planet”.

MangaHigh correlates game achievements to lesson objectives, for each game, but that’s to be expected if one is going to be GCSE compliant.

In TranStar, as with all MangaHigh games, the math is laid bare for the player use, manipulate, and enjoy.

Kudos to the MangaHigh team!

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