Toad Road
Toad Road is a puzzle game that teaches young learners about logical reasoning and the scientific method. The game was created as part of Hero Elementary, a transmedia initiative led by PBS to improve STEM readiness in underserved communities.
Toad Road is playable online and in the Hero Elementary Games app.
In Toad Road, players help a group of toads journey across a swamp by placing bridges along their path. There’s just one problem - the toads are picky! Some toads will only cross bridges with certain attributes. In order to get the toads across safely, players must correctly deduce which bridges match each toad’s preferences and arrange a path that works for everyone.
In each level, players are given a limited number of bridges. Each bridge has different attributes.
The game models the Scientific Method by breaking up each level into two major phases: Planning and Testing. In the Planning phase, players observe the problem and make a hypothesis by placing bridges in the world. Then, they test their hypothesis in the Testing phase by navigating toads across the bridges one by one. Players can iterate through each of the phases and try different solutions until they solve the puzzle.
Big toads will break a bridge if it isn’t strong enough. Players need to choose which bridges to use and which order to move the toads in order to solve each level.
As the lead game designer on this project, my responsibilities included:
Collaborating with PBS and an internal development team to define the game’s concept and mechanics
Co-developing the game narrative and dialogue to support the existing Hero Elementary IP
Defining and iterating on each of the puzzle components including toad types, bridges, and attributes
Designing puzzles for all 40+ levels
Implementing each level in Unity/C# using proprietary engineering tools