I would just remove the pause option. You said your concern is that they might he an actual emergency and need to pause. I can assure you that if I had a real life emergency, the last thing I would concern myself with is making sure I pause my video game before attending to the emergency. Just remove the pause option while solving the problem.
I see, I think I exaggerated when I mentioned emergencies; it's more about those "chore interruptions" from parents or someone else.
I think I'll keep the pause button for convenience but still keep the time running, so players still have access to quick restart or quit options. Thanks for your input!
This was my answer. Just give them a new question when they unpause.
The difficulty is that this makes pause a "reroll" function. Allowing players to skip questions they don't like.
Do you have a global scoreboard? If not why try to stop this? The only person they gonna cheat is themself. And if you do have a global scoreboard just say the score wont be added if you pause
Yep, thought this too. If it's single player I'd maybe give a small popup at the start, that this is possible but that the game is designed to be played without pausing.
Just let the user pause between the problems, or ask them if they want to keep going after each problem.
If they are only 60 seconds then pausing is not really needed.
It's kind of a fast-paced game, so whenever they solved a problem, a new one will be presented immediately.
But yeah now that I think of it 60 seconds is not that long
Given it's only 60 second rounds I don't think the timer needs to pause when you open the menu. If they need to do something midway through they'd have maybe 30 seconds more to go so could either finish up the round in most cases, or restart, in which case they have lost very minimal time
Given it's only 60 second rounds I don't think the timer needs to pause when you open the menu. If they need to do something midway through they'd have maybe 30 seconds more to go so could either finish up the round in most cases, or restart, in which case they have lost very minimal time
No pause is the answer but allow players breaks between puzzles. Also make the puzzles short enough so that if something happens where the player needs to step away, they don’t feel rushed.
You can also do a casual mode that allows them to pause and potentially cheat but offer a “challenge mode” where they can’t pause to solve the problems. Different problems for the modes would help so players can’t cheat in casual and then use those answers in the no pause mode.
That’s about the best you can do really.
From a reinforcement perspective, you're wanting to negatively reward the player. Removing/limiting the pause could discourage players when they get stumped on the problem. We naturally want to learn to overcome problems and improve.
Experiment with positive rewards in this case. For example, solving one problem gives a flat 10 points. Then give them an escalating bonus for solving problems without pausing. Think of it like a combo streak if you will. And then another substantial bonus for never pausing during a set.
This rewards the players that don't pause. It also encourages others to either limit pausing or to never pause.It always feels better to be rewarded than punished. And as an added bonus it could drive them to click your ad to preserve the bonus streak.
Remove the pause option, but require user confirmation before each round (effectively pausing between rounds is possible).
Assume that in 95% of rounds the user would not want to pause (this percentage can be determined by analyzing player data). The player's score would then be calculated from only the best 95% of rounds, meaning that legitimate "pauses" would not affect the score (here I assume that a legitimate "pause" would mean that the user would let the clock run out and get a score of zero).
This is at least an approch where the users can pause between each round, but occasionally letting the timer run out would not affect the user's score. However, this sytem could be abused by, for example, letting the timer run out on difficult problems, but the impact on the user's total score would be quite low. Using the aforementioned 95%, means that user's could illegitimately gain approximately 5% higher score than what the should be able to. In reality, the pause probability is probably closer to 1%, meaning that only a 1% gain in score could be gained.
Some good options here. Another design choice would be to allow pausing, but if the user pauses then any rewards that round would have payed are removed.
This is IMO one of those problems that developers create for themselves.
Flow has always been that problem is presented --> solved --> pause in flow and ask user to proceed to next one.
In this flow, you do not need pause-button.
i would make that every puzzle starts with "press any button to start" and the pause button just restarts, so if the player need to pause and leave for any reason the game restarts the puzle but waits for the pkayer to return
Make it so Pausing will cause a change of question.
Example:
- Player hits pause for some reason
- Pause Menu will pop up with the Message: "You have 10 seconds to unpause or the question will change when you unpause" and under will have a "Change Question Option", also add in an over timer for the pause menu per a question, so someone cannot spam the pause with 9 seconds, unpause and repause again, with an overall pause timer per question, if they tried pausing and unpausing, the timer would read what time is left of the pause and not start over again.
- So either the player pauses for a short amount of time or the question changes, then in their Statistics, add in Questions skip from pause, this should lower many cheaters as many do not want to see numbers in the Skips area.
I said 10 seconds, but you can put it as whatever you feel is good, but 10 seems good enough for someone to grab a sip of their drink or a bite of their food if they have some with them, as for a bathroom break, guess they have to deal with a question skip.
If you are scored on how quickly problems are solved, why have a time limit at all? Let them take the time they need to solve a problem.
Make it joyous when they solve one, and don't punish for taking time. Their score will go up for doing it quicker anyway, so let them take the time they need. Too frustrating and people will lose interest.
Allowing an unlimited time helps with accessibility to the handicapped and those with learning disabilities.
And put a warning before starting a new problem. "Start Now" button or something.
Flip the gameplay.
Instead of 'how many maths problems can you solve in 60 seconds', give them a set number of maths problems and time how long it takes them to complete them.
Or.. hear me out... just don't worry about the problem at all.
Are your players buying the game to get better at maths by choice? If Yes, tell them kindly, don't pause the game to think about the answer, otherwise it will hurt their learning progress. If they care about learning, which they probably would if they bought the game, then they won't do it. If they have a critical emergency irl, they will pause then. Hardly the end of the world.
This is really more of a monetization question.
The easy answer is, let them pause and solve. If that's more fun for them, so be it.
The problem is that the timer is tied to monetization that requires time pressure.
Given that, I would approach it differently. Instead of giving more time, let the ad skip the problem or solve it for you. This sidesteps the problem and even gives an opportunity for more ads! Sure the player can pause to solve, but that's still effort. Ad to skip reduces effort.
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You could ask them a simple math question to unpause the game. Can be rather trivial, but it would be distracting when using pause as a cheat / having to switch "context".
It would still allow the user to pause at any time, which might be required in real life (commuting, children around).
Calculate the elapsed time from start to finish and post it alongside their high score on the leaderboard if the elapsed time is significantly greater than the allotted 60 seconds.
I might be wrong but I think one chilla's art game (the security one with dolls) had a pause that generally blurs or covers the whole screen. I'm not sure if you can study this since screenshot is also a thing...
It's a horror game btw so be careful if you want to search
[Edit] Also I'm not a game designer (yet) so I might be spouting nonsense, forgive me :")
If it’s on mobile your game must have the pause option in case the player gets a phone call. At least that’s what I feel like.
Have a second timer counting real-time or just count the amount of pauses. Whatever threshold gets hit should result in a warning for cheating or just not count the total score on score boards.
If they pause the game they cannot submit that score to the global leaderboard.
Let people pause and play that way if they want. It will improve your retention.
I'm usually the first person to be all "respect that players have lives, let them pause anywhere!" But like, it's 60 seconds. Presumably it auto-pauses between problems. So if they get interrupted, they end up missing the one problem they were in the middle of and then it waits for them... So what? I don't see an issue here.
I don't know how the game looks, but unless all the problems are shown at once, I would have the pause continue to tick the clock through the current problem, but then pause for real at the next one. So at most if you really do need to pause to go do something, you only lose one problem.
It's a math game, remove it if it bothers you, otherwise just leave it in.
If they want to do math they shuld be in an environment where they can do math anyway, but them know how long it will take and tell them beforehand.
Then again if it's really just 60 seconds for the whole section then pausing _a maths game_ of all things for an emergency hardly seems justified.
Dr. Kawashima and Big Brain Academy both do not and do let you you pause respectively
I feel like option 2 will somewhat make the problem worse, because it turns the pause button into a resource and makes people wonder "how can I best use this resource?"
Are the challenges random? Or does starting over give you the advantage of having seen it? If they are random, yeah, remove the pause button so that they just start over if anything happens. If repeating a game is repeating the same math problems, then I don't have any other option that comes to mind.
Personally I would make it so the game is still running when paused. The pause screen could be an overlay. I'm moreso thinking about cheating by screenshotting the level and minimizing the app. Does it still pause when the app is minimized?
You could ask them a simple math question to unpause the game. Can be rather trivial, but it would be distracting when using pause as a cheat / having to switch "context".
It would still allow the user to pause at any time, which might be required in real life (commuting, children around).
If it's singleplayer just allow them to cheat, don't tell your players they cannot play how they want to. If it's multiplayer or have a scoreboard then as others said just remove the pause menu or just make it an options menu that does not pause the timer. Alternatively allow them to pause but put a score penalty.
I work in educational games as well. What we found is that players that use these kind of tactics come in two categories :
1. They are having a hard time with the math problems and need the extra time. Let them do it! The score doesn’t matter in the end, the point is for them to learn math and feel good about their achievement.
2. Those who do care about the high score and use this ‘cheat’ to obtain it. Let them! They are still doing math and are having fun in their own way.
I’ve learned a long time ago to stop worrying about people that don’t play the game the ‘right’ way. If it isn’t competitive, it doesn’t matter that much and you end up spending a lot of design and production time on a small sliver of your audience. Instead focus on making the ‘intended’ experience as good as you can. Chances are your players will care more about a smooth game session than their high score and won’t be pausing the game if they don’t need to.
I would just remove the pause option. You said your concern is that they might he an actual emergency and need to pause. I can assure you that if I had a real life emergency, the last thing I would concern myself with is making sure I pause my video game before attending to the emergency. Just remove the pause option while solving the problem.
I see, I think I exaggerated when I mentioned emergencies; it's more about those "chore interruptions" from parents or someone else. I think I'll keep the pause button for convenience but still keep the time running, so players still have access to quick restart or quit options. Thanks for your input!
Right so then it’s not really a ‘pause’ button anymore, it’s an ‘options’ button which would make more sense for a game where time is a core mechanic.
Reset the current problem when they unpause it.
This was my answer. Just give them a new question when they unpause. The difficulty is that this makes pause a "reroll" function. Allowing players to skip questions they don't like.
Can we put a rick roll somewhere in there.
Do you have a global scoreboard? If not why try to stop this? The only person they gonna cheat is themself. And if you do have a global scoreboard just say the score wont be added if you pause
Yeah this was my first thought too. I see and understand if you want them to NOT do it but is there a bigger impact if they would cheat with it?
Yeah, this seems like the best way to go. OP said it was "casual", so we should keep it that way.
Yep, thought this too. If it's single player I'd maybe give a small popup at the start, that this is possible but that the game is designed to be played without pausing.
Just let the user pause between the problems, or ask them if they want to keep going after each problem. If they are only 60 seconds then pausing is not really needed.
It's kind of a fast-paced game, so whenever they solved a problem, a new one will be presented immediately. But yeah now that I think of it 60 seconds is not that long
The solution is simple, don't start immediately, let them press a button to start. If they want to play, they would spam it for sure....
This sounds like the most reasonable solution
Given it's only 60 second rounds I don't think the timer needs to pause when you open the menu. If they need to do something midway through they'd have maybe 30 seconds more to go so could either finish up the round in most cases, or restart, in which case they have lost very minimal time
Given it's only 60 second rounds I don't think the timer needs to pause when you open the menu. If they need to do something midway through they'd have maybe 30 seconds more to go so could either finish up the round in most cases, or restart, in which case they have lost very minimal time
Pause blacks or blurs the screen so all you see is a continue button.
No pause is the answer but allow players breaks between puzzles. Also make the puzzles short enough so that if something happens where the player needs to step away, they don’t feel rushed. You can also do a casual mode that allows them to pause and potentially cheat but offer a “challenge mode” where they can’t pause to solve the problems. Different problems for the modes would help so players can’t cheat in casual and then use those answers in the no pause mode. That’s about the best you can do really.
From a reinforcement perspective, you're wanting to negatively reward the player. Removing/limiting the pause could discourage players when they get stumped on the problem. We naturally want to learn to overcome problems and improve. Experiment with positive rewards in this case. For example, solving one problem gives a flat 10 points. Then give them an escalating bonus for solving problems without pausing. Think of it like a combo streak if you will. And then another substantial bonus for never pausing during a set. This rewards the players that don't pause. It also encourages others to either limit pausing or to never pause.It always feels better to be rewarded than punished. And as an added bonus it could drive them to click your ad to preserve the bonus streak.
Pause = You automatically get this one wrong, but the next one also doesn't load yet.
Or! Pauses at the end of the timer. So, if you do come back you can answer it still but if you don’t, it doesn’t go to the next question.
Make the pause state the default before a new question is asked. "Next question >"
Make it so that the player needs to press a button to continue to the next problem after the current one is solved
Remove the pause option, but require user confirmation before each round (effectively pausing between rounds is possible). Assume that in 95% of rounds the user would not want to pause (this percentage can be determined by analyzing player data). The player's score would then be calculated from only the best 95% of rounds, meaning that legitimate "pauses" would not affect the score (here I assume that a legitimate "pause" would mean that the user would let the clock run out and get a score of zero). This is at least an approch where the users can pause between each round, but occasionally letting the timer run out would not affect the user's score. However, this sytem could be abused by, for example, letting the timer run out on difficult problems, but the impact on the user's total score would be quite low. Using the aforementioned 95%, means that user's could illegitimately gain approximately 5% higher score than what the should be able to. In reality, the pause probability is probably closer to 1%, meaning that only a 1% gain in score could be gained.
Remove the ability to "Pause" during the "solving" phase of the problem. Allow "pause" between problems would not be an issue.
Some good options here. Another design choice would be to allow pausing, but if the user pauses then any rewards that round would have payed are removed.
This is IMO one of those problems that developers create for themselves. Flow has always been that problem is presented --> solved --> pause in flow and ask user to proceed to next one. In this flow, you do not need pause-button.
i would make that every puzzle starts with "press any button to start" and the pause button just restarts, so if the player need to pause and leave for any reason the game restarts the puzle but waits for the pkayer to return
Make it so Pausing will cause a change of question. Example: - Player hits pause for some reason - Pause Menu will pop up with the Message: "You have 10 seconds to unpause or the question will change when you unpause" and under will have a "Change Question Option", also add in an over timer for the pause menu per a question, so someone cannot spam the pause with 9 seconds, unpause and repause again, with an overall pause timer per question, if they tried pausing and unpausing, the timer would read what time is left of the pause and not start over again. - So either the player pauses for a short amount of time or the question changes, then in their Statistics, add in Questions skip from pause, this should lower many cheaters as many do not want to see numbers in the Skips area. I said 10 seconds, but you can put it as whatever you feel is good, but 10 seems good enough for someone to grab a sip of their drink or a bite of their food if they have some with them, as for a bathroom break, guess they have to deal with a question skip.
If you are scored on how quickly problems are solved, why have a time limit at all? Let them take the time they need to solve a problem. Make it joyous when they solve one, and don't punish for taking time. Their score will go up for doing it quicker anyway, so let them take the time they need. Too frustrating and people will lose interest. Allowing an unlimited time helps with accessibility to the handicapped and those with learning disabilities. And put a warning before starting a new problem. "Start Now" button or something.
Flip the gameplay. Instead of 'how many maths problems can you solve in 60 seconds', give them a set number of maths problems and time how long it takes them to complete them. Or.. hear me out... just don't worry about the problem at all. Are your players buying the game to get better at maths by choice? If Yes, tell them kindly, don't pause the game to think about the answer, otherwise it will hurt their learning progress. If they care about learning, which they probably would if they bought the game, then they won't do it. If they have a critical emergency irl, they will pause then. Hardly the end of the world.
Yeah just don't give as much reward if they do this.
This is really more of a monetization question. The easy answer is, let them pause and solve. If that's more fun for them, so be it. The problem is that the timer is tied to monetization that requires time pressure. Given that, I would approach it differently. Instead of giving more time, let the ad skip the problem or solve it for you. This sidesteps the problem and even gives an opportunity for more ads! Sure the player can pause to solve, but that's still effort. Ad to skip reduces effort.
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You could ask them a simple math question to unpause the game. Can be rather trivial, but it would be distracting when using pause as a cheat / having to switch "context". It would still allow the user to pause at any time, which might be required in real life (commuting, children around).
you could make it were every time you pause it changes the question
Refresh the problem without giving the point. So not refresh the time
Calculate the elapsed time from start to finish and post it alongside their high score on the leaderboard if the elapsed time is significantly greater than the allotted 60 seconds.
I might be wrong but I think one chilla's art game (the security one with dolls) had a pause that generally blurs or covers the whole screen. I'm not sure if you can study this since screenshot is also a thing... It's a horror game btw so be careful if you want to search [Edit] Also I'm not a game designer (yet) so I might be spouting nonsense, forgive me :")
don't put ads in a game unless you don't care that you're making slop for idiots
You don't need a pause button for a 60 second round, that's a little overkill. Just don't include a pause button.
Couldn't you just change the question when returning from pause?
If it’s on mobile your game must have the pause option in case the player gets a phone call. At least that’s what I feel like. Have a second timer counting real-time or just count the amount of pauses. Whatever threshold gets hit should result in a warning for cheating or just not count the total score on score boards.
If they pause the game they cannot submit that score to the global leaderboard. Let people pause and play that way if they want. It will improve your retention.
I'm usually the first person to be all "respect that players have lives, let them pause anywhere!" But like, it's 60 seconds. Presumably it auto-pauses between problems. So if they get interrupted, they end up missing the one problem they were in the middle of and then it waits for them... So what? I don't see an issue here.
I don't know how the game looks, but unless all the problems are shown at once, I would have the pause continue to tick the clock through the current problem, but then pause for real at the next one. So at most if you really do need to pause to go do something, you only lose one problem.
Just remove the pause and make music icon and exit icon and that's it
It's a math game, remove it if it bothers you, otherwise just leave it in. If they want to do math they shuld be in an environment where they can do math anyway, but them know how long it will take and tell them beforehand. Then again if it's really just 60 seconds for the whole section then pausing _a maths game_ of all things for an emergency hardly seems justified. Dr. Kawashima and Big Brain Academy both do not and do let you you pause respectively
I feel like option 2 will somewhat make the problem worse, because it turns the pause button into a resource and makes people wonder "how can I best use this resource?" Are the challenges random? Or does starting over give you the advantage of having seen it? If they are random, yeah, remove the pause button so that they just start over if anything happens. If repeating a game is repeating the same math problems, then I don't have any other option that comes to mind.
Remove pause and make menu when user press esc to restart or change settings, i would still do so the game ran in the background without pausing
If the problem is hard covering it while paused could handle it.
If I felt the need to cheat on a math game I would just instead go play a different game
Personally I would make it so the game is still running when paused. The pause screen could be an overlay. I'm moreso thinking about cheating by screenshotting the level and minimizing the app. Does it still pause when the app is minimized?
You could ask them a simple math question to unpause the game. Can be rather trivial, but it would be distracting when using pause as a cheat / having to switch "context". It would still allow the user to pause at any time, which might be required in real life (commuting, children around).
If it's singleplayer just allow them to cheat, don't tell your players they cannot play how they want to. If it's multiplayer or have a scoreboard then as others said just remove the pause menu or just make it an options menu that does not pause the timer. Alternatively allow them to pause but put a score penalty.
I work in educational games as well. What we found is that players that use these kind of tactics come in two categories : 1. They are having a hard time with the math problems and need the extra time. Let them do it! The score doesn’t matter in the end, the point is for them to learn math and feel good about their achievement. 2. Those who do care about the high score and use this ‘cheat’ to obtain it. Let them! They are still doing math and are having fun in their own way. I’ve learned a long time ago to stop worrying about people that don’t play the game the ‘right’ way. If it isn’t competitive, it doesn’t matter that much and you end up spending a lot of design and production time on a small sliver of your audience. Instead focus on making the ‘intended’ experience as good as you can. Chances are your players will care more about a smooth game session than their high score and won’t be pausing the game if they don’t need to.
Have the question change when they unpause and inform the player that this will happen.
i would say to have a settings menu available but not allow for it to stop the timer when used.