Portal & App Update: Narratives

Ahoy mateys! A new exciting feature for MathCityMap is now available both in the App and Web portal – Narratives. Narratives carry the app users away to new thematic settings. The route creators can optionally enable a specific narrative for each of their routes, the narrative gets automatically applied and can be experienced after downloading the route in the App.

The App’s text (such as task descriptions, hints, answer feedback, etc.), is replaced or expanded with dialogue lines from the narrative assistant: a companion that travels alongside the player and aids in their quest. The App’s graphical elements (banners, backgrounds, the map, etc.) are replaced with elements allusive to the narrative.

Our first narrative: Pirates!

And so, we present the first narrative: Pirates!

In this narrative the player is a pirate Captain that seeks to collect as many coins as possible and find the trail’s treasure! They are accompanied by their trusty parrot, Perry. Perry will help them solve riddles, getting them closer to the treasure one enigma at a time. When all the riddles are solved, the Captain finds the treasure!

To enable a narrative on a route, go to: Portal > Routes > My Routes and select the route. Then, on the route’s details click “Edit”, scroll down to the “2. Settings” tab and select the desired narrative from the dropdown list. After this, you just have to click “save” and the narrative will be applied. From that point on, when users download your route, they will have a new adventure awaiting for them.

Our objective is to provide the MathCityMap App users with fun experiences that feel distinct, fresh, but still follow the general flow of the original math trail solving experience. As such, narrative routes will immerse the users in a small story and improve their motivation to continue solving the tasks and try even more routes.

Other changes

• Introducing LaTex to MCM (App & Web): Writing mathematical formulas with the computer is not always easy. For a long time we have planned to support LaTex formulas in MCM. Finally, this feature is available to all users through the integration of the MathJax library. Find a documentation here.
• Click images to enlarge (App): Images such as the title image, hint images or sample solution images can now be viewed and zoomed in a separate view, just click them.
• Minor bug fixes.