Billy McMath Solves Problems

by armanky
Overall★★★★★★★★★★4.18
Fun★★★★★★★★★★4.01
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.73
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.10
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.68
Audio★★★★★★★★★★4.53
Humor★★★★★★★★★★4.66
Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.08
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★73%
Young Billy McMath has a lot of problems! With what weapon shall our young hero confront the challenges of violent bullies, peer pressure, and romantic misadventure? Why, his own mathematical prowess, of course!

Help Billy make his dreams come true in this educational adventure for all ages!

==========
TOOLS USED
==========
-Unity 5
-Paint Tool SAI == For the artwork.
-Intuos 4 Drawing Tablet == Paint Tool SAI's partner in crime.
-Photoshop == For some UI stuff and touching up random things.
-Audacity == Primary sound editor, used to record dialogue and edit sound effects.
-FL Studio == Used to write music.
-SGM V2.01 == Soundfont used to write music.
-PTCollage == Used for the "8-bit" sound effects.
-Press Start 2P (font) == Awesome old-school font. I love this font.

------------
EDIT 4/20/15
------------

SOME BUGS:
-A flipped comparison operator was deciding that everybody was perfect. I have fixed this bug and you are no longer all perfect. Please get over yourselves.

-Now you don't have to worry about accidentally selecting hard mode after emphatically declaring how bad you are at math.

-I'd left a developer hotkey that manipulated the timer. I wonder if any of you even noticed it? Well it's gone now so forget about it.

Also, I've added OSX and Linux builds. I don't have either of these operating systems, so please yell at me if anything is broken!

------------
EDIT 5/4/15
------------

I've written a post-mortem for Billy McMath! If you're interested, please take a look!

http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/05/03/billy-mcmath-solves-problems-post-mortem/

Comments84

Havacore
Havacore20 Apr 2015, 03:49
I don't know how to say this, but I think it's official... I'm bad at math. I told the game I was good at it and, well, turns out, nope.

This was interesting though, sort of like an interactive movie, and a cool play on the theme. I really hope that you weren't alone in your place when doing all of these recordings, at the very least let me know you had a cat or something silently judging you.
vini60
vini6020 Apr 2015, 04:33
I died laughing at this game, legit. Makes you feel stupid for not knowing 9+10. Really good sounds.
stuffedgravy20 Apr 2015, 04:36
Can I give a 6 for audio?
Gameplay-wise, it's pretty limited as an interactive story that isn't that complex, but like who even cares because the narrative was hilarious and compelling. Great job!
Interface
Interface20 Apr 2015, 04:37
This was really funny, great mood with the voice acting and the music - lol.
GAFBlizzard20 Apr 2015, 05:09
Creative, but the voice is annoying, presumably on purpose. :P
SolomaZ20 Apr 2015, 05:12
Crindy Lou will be MINE!!
SolomaZ20 Apr 2015, 05:26
Your overall style and presentation is spot on for learning math. Although you might benefit from studying similar interactive story games like Call of Duty. #CrindyissoLumpy
BraindeadGeo
BraindeadGeo20 Apr 2015, 05:50
This is amaaaaazing. Are you like a professional voice actor or something? Might not be the best game but man I want some kind of cartoon where we follow round Billy McMath
Garris20 Apr 2015, 05:52
Break out the five cannon! Seriously. This was great in pretty much every way.
seankimdesign
seankimdesign20 Apr 2015, 05:54
That was outrageous!!! I loved the cringe-inducing (in a good way) voice acting as well as the hilarious drawings. Awesome!
Azure_Kyte20 Apr 2015, 07:12
Just a heads up, but the Windows download link is faulty. You have linked only the .exe. In order for Unity executables to run they need to be accompanied with their _Data folder, as well. zip both of those things and reupload, and it'll be fine.
Armanky
Armankyauthor20 Apr 2015, 07:16
Thanks for letting me know. It should be good now.
Yamzho20 Apr 2015, 07:35
Great acting !... ;)
headchant
headchant20 Apr 2015, 07:58
Is it me or does Bill sound like Morty from Rick and Morty?
Almost
Almost20 Apr 2015, 08:00
This is hilarious, and a pretty original idea. I got the max score. The love interest sounds like a man though.
SilentNight20 Apr 2015, 08:35
I loved it. Definitely funner than I initially thought it'd be. Love the usage of the theme in this.
KedumeBits20 Apr 2015, 08:55
Very funny game. Nice speed graphics. I love the dialogues too. Congratulations.
TheBigShot20 Apr 2015, 08:57
Great game. Very intereting how it maes me feel liek an idiot hahah. Good job
syawqy
syawqy20 Apr 2015, 09:28
I'm bad at math
I never get the question right, how am I going to do now with my life...?
Figglewatts
Figglewatts20 Apr 2015, 11:32
This is one of the best games I've played this Compo! You need to make more!
Joystikman
Joystikman20 Apr 2015, 12:30
Nice but hopefully I don't need maths every days >_<
Ditto
Ditto20 Apr 2015, 16:42
Oh my goodness, that was the sweetest thing I ever saw! I love all the details in the drawings, so cute! Haha, and the characters are so lovably stereotype! I've never played a set of quick time events that I actually enjoyed before and it made me burst out in laughter at several occasions, great job! :D (ps. the "I'm in a dangerous mood" line is perfect xD )
maunovaha20 Apr 2015, 20:15
wow. I was amazed how good this game was when I started it.. I was first skeptic about the graphics, but it worked brilliantly with the game! :D
Managore
Managore20 Apr 2015, 22:14
It's like Morty meets Lumpy Space Princess and it's amazing!! I wish I could give you a 6 for humour. Wow.
gruhn
gruhn21 Apr 2015, 00:05
Fun game and with a very interesting proposal. The graphics, even simple, are efficient, with good feedback. Personally, I just think that the story is a little time consuming, but nothing detrimental to the game.
Park21 Apr 2015, 01:32
That was absolutely fantastic. I'm still laughing, everything is perfect!@!
Hambone21 Apr 2015, 03:37
Neat game!

I like how we both went the educational route!
AtomicVikings21 Apr 2015, 17:29
The story is funny. Loved to play this game. Continue this great work. Sounds are AWESOME!!!!
BabaJaga21 Apr 2015, 17:33
Awesome voice acting! And the graphics really fit.
Im absolutely sure this game will win in Humor section.
Sogomn
Sogomn21 Apr 2015, 17:36
This is too hilarious to be real.
Xgor
Xgor21 Apr 2015, 17:37
This is with no doubt the funniest LD game I've ever played. Laughed the whole way!
S0lll0s
S0lll0s21 Apr 2015, 17:39
Extremely cool voice acting, nice art, funny gameplay.
Innovation not so much, rather generic interactive novel and no real choices.

There's almost nothing to critisize here, maybe the "HUD" could use some work (the hearts).
Rulrite
Rulrite21 Apr 2015, 17:49
A wonderful game - I had no idea that maths could be enjoyable! The voice clips and the images are very funny, and the music is surprisingly well done. One of the best games I've seen so far.
SecondDimension
SecondDimension21 Apr 2015, 18:59
I loved this, the voice work was seriously top quality. The drawings seemed to fit with the voices well too. I'm not very good at maths, but it was a cool gameplay mechanic to advance the story
Jan Marcano21 Apr 2015, 20:51
All my stars are belong to you, this made me laugh way too much
UannaFF21 Apr 2015, 20:54
This is a great story man!! I loved all the characters and the voice of crindylou is so beautiful xD
Azurency
Azurency21 Apr 2015, 20:58
Really funny game! And that acting!!
nassi21 Apr 2015, 21:42
Tried to get all the different scenarios, but I couldn't manage to catch the football (handegg?) even on easy, although I managed to rest on hard :(.

It was actually kinda neat how the ending played out when you failed compared to the "ideal" situation.

This was perfect. Thanks.
Incredible Ape21 Apr 2015, 22:36
Wow, this is really something! I've never really seen a piece of interactive fiction like this before. Great job!
OnlySlightly21 Apr 2015, 23:19
That was amazing and hilarious! I love how you pretended to have bad art but it was easy to see that the artist was incredibly talented. With your unique style for each character and how well you were able to articulate every moment (like the moment their fingers accidentally touched) The writing and dialogue was great. I could go on and on about how happy this game made me :)
aquisenberry
aquisenberry22 Apr 2015, 00:02
THIS GAME ROCKED MY SOCKS!!!! major fan
Wertle22 Apr 2015, 00:04
Super great work and hilarious drawings and voice acting! Even though I was terrible at the math, it was still fun to see what the results would be. My one piece of feedback is that when "OK" appeared I thought it was a prompt, so I was trying to hit enter or click on it and panicked a bit because I thought I was doing something wrong. Otherwise, I thought it was a clever interpretation of the theme and made me feel like I was terrible at math (but that's okay because I still learned an important life lesson). Well done!
Ludipe
Ludipe22 Apr 2015, 00:18
This is very fun game and the voice-acting is really awesome. Adding math problems instead of the typical QTEs.

The narrative and the art were hilarious. Good job!
wg_phancock22 Apr 2015, 01:11
I like how it was basically nigh impossible to not get hit in the face with the football! True nerd power right there.

Voice acting is superb, story hilarious. I love how you just went for it and didn't hold back on doing all the characters, even C-C-C-Crindy!
Omiya Games
Omiya Games22 Apr 2015, 01:29
Take all my stars, now!

In actual criticism, the game is basically a bunch of math flash cards, but the ever-changing and comical scenarios are just too absurd NOT to laugh. Those negative formulas threw me for a loop. Overall, nicely done.
MrShoestore22 Apr 2015, 05:58
wait.... is this Frog Fractions 2?

Nobutseriously, these beans never taste right.

(I think this is the first LD game that I will walk away from with quotes I'll randomly say. impressive)
ss64games22 Apr 2015, 17:45
Bahaha... I thoroughly enjoyed this. Reminds me of the good ol' days of flash games. Difficulty level was ridiculously high when the player does claim to be good at math. I'm good at math but apparently I'm slow at it haha.
Saltysandwiches22 Apr 2015, 20:28
That's one of the funniest things I have ever played.
cdrch22 Apr 2015, 21:25
This is probably one of the best math games I've played in a very long time. (Not that I regularly play math games...) I normally don't like games with timed challenges between cutscenes, but I liked this a lot. Good job with all of the audio, from the music to the voice acting - it really made the game enjoyable when added to the humor of it all.

A game with a complete story? That is actually pays attention to the story? And ends up being funny and enjoyable? You deserve applause for that alone. Good job!
iapc
iapc22 Apr 2015, 22:19
I laughed my ass off on this game. Great theme, unique (enough), concept and a very catching story. The gameplay itself is a trip down memorylane for me, it's a bit like the educational games we played in primary school.

Good job!
Bashabookoos
Bashabookoos23 Apr 2015, 17:29
Great drawings, great characters!
Dorgam24 Apr 2015, 00:33
The funniest game I played here so far XD
SonnyBone
SonnyBone24 Apr 2015, 02:43
I mean, I can sit here and talk about how awesome this is and how entertaining it is but instead I'm going to take the time to say that the high school cowboy outlaw is the best character of all times. ALL TIMES.
TrickGames24 Apr 2015, 15:00
This is great!!! Good stuff!
badlydrawnrod26 Apr 2015, 17:43
Is it wrong that I kind of wanted the ending going the other way with all of the hearts breaking? An excellent game - made me laugh a lot! My wife thinks the bully looks a lot like Iggy Pop. Highly enjoyable.
mildmojo26 Apr 2015, 20:57
There's a lot more to this one than I expected based on the screenshots. Great job with the whole script and voice acting, even for the failures. I played it a few times to hear everything you had. That football scene kept kicking my ass, even on easy. =)

My favorite art part was the pirouetting football players. There were lots of clever background gags, though.

It's a pretty straightforward series of linear scenes with math problems in place of quick-time events, but in that respect they were tied into the theme of the game pretty well. Cute adventure.
EthanWebster
EthanWebster27 Apr 2015, 20:34
Easily one of the funniest games I've played in some time, really enjoyable. Math sure is an unconventional weapon.
Jakob37
Jakob3727 Apr 2015, 21:33
This was awesome. Really hard. Feel a bit ashamed to admit that I failed to calculate the 2 - 1 in time..
Tselmek
Tselmek27 Apr 2015, 22:23
What to say except this is one of the best thing I've ever played. Amazing job!
omaha27 Apr 2015, 22:51
5/5 across the board. This was the best game I've played since Nuclear Throne. Nice work.
Sergi Montaner
Sergi Montaner28 Apr 2015, 19:18
Amazing programmer art here.
Maybe there is too much waiting time between math questions.
The story is quite entertaining, and the voice acting is sublime. Specially when the nice girl talks and sounds manlier than the protagonist.
Jupiter_Hadley
Jupiter_Hadley29 Apr 2015, 01:28
Love the handdrawn graphics, and sound! Cool weapon! I included it in part 7 of my Ludum Dare 32 compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/Cnio28O-EgI
jprogman
jprogman30 Apr 2015, 03:36
Love the story. Great creative writing too. Reminds me of some flash animations but with interaction.

Sometimes the math problems only last as few as 3 seconds. At least I'm alright with math.

I take it you done everything yourself, including the voices? Otherwise, very impressive array of skills.
RyanNielson
RyanNielson3 May 2015, 18:48
I love the hilarious drawings and voices, one of my favorite games so far. Well done!
zerocreativity14 May 2015, 03:57
Really like how the math problems changed to fit the situation. reflecting the main character feeling based on the complexity of the problems was pretty. fun little game.
stoarch
stoarch4 May 2015, 16:30
Best game I ever see and play (in ld32 :) Mood is unspeacable. Story is interesting and fast math solving make game tense but interesting.
broknecho7 May 2015, 03:19
This was great! Amazing job for 48 hours! Great job! Voices were incredible! Deeper love story than Twilight.
Simon7 May 2015, 09:34
Great entry and great use of the theme :)
ButtonMasherBros8 May 2015, 00:37
Played this game on stream. This game is GLORIOUS. 5 stars across the board.
Team Ex-Sword-Stential
Team Ex-Sword-Stential8 May 2015, 00:51
Hey there! This is Taunia. :)

Okay, so, first of all -- I am horrible at math. I'm not even ashamed to admit that I clicked "NO!" faster than the Unity plug-in could process it.

That said, I was undoubtedly, entirely, completely entertained by this. In fact, the gameplay almost took an auxiliary back-seat to the amusing story, the quick but articulate (in terms of visual storytelling) sketches and the amazing audio/voice-overs.

This was basically a really long cut-scene with math-related QTE's, but by golly was it ever a super entertaining really long cut-scene with math-related QTE's. I began really loving the character and his situation, and looking forward to the result of all my hard work solving elementary-school-level math problems.

While not entirely innovative, it met the criteria for the theme, and certainly had a really big heart and soul. I found the MSPaint graphics to be really expressive, believe it or not.

Great job, guys! :) I had fun!
mike.cullingham8 May 2015, 02:16
Wow. That's my biggest surprise of LD so far. Excellent storytelling, amusing graphics & voice acting. Thanks for making this.
Mach60KAS
Mach60KAS8 May 2015, 16:32
Probably the funniest game I've ever seen at a ludum dare - Billy's life just seemed like utter chaos in the best possible way. The comedic art style and voice acting completely sealed the deal for me, and Billy's crush reminded me so much of Lumpy Space Princess that I had to laugh. Picking hard mode was maybe not the best decision, but I still got a happy ending! Keep up the good work, that was a fantastic entry! :)
ConflictiveLabs
ConflictiveLabs8 May 2015, 16:44
Man this game is GREAT! My only complaint would be the lack of variety in the gameplay department but it definitely doesn't take much from the game overall. The music is great, the humor is top-notch, the voice acting is superb and the story is entertaing! GOOD JOB!
RHY3756547
RHY37565478 May 2015, 18:16
Amazing. What an experience. Reminds me of Gitaroo Man for some reason...
grillaface
grillaface10 May 2015, 22:17
Really great. I love that the horse had a gun :) Bravo!
Pixel Heart
Pixel Heart11 May 2015, 23:33
The art and the idea were really impressing!
Zeriver
Zeriver12 May 2015, 00:00
Hhaha really funny game, i'm glad i didn't miss it :D

BTW: Did you hire voice actors from Adventure Time? xd
MegaBrutal12 May 2015, 00:32
At the last few questions, the game didn't allow me to type answers. Is it intentional, or something went wrong?

Anyway, at first, I thought, I wish it was true that you could beat bullies with your Special Interests. It reminds me when I daydreamed that once I'll humiliate my bully by knowing what is Program Segment Prefix while he doesn't know it. OMG, I haven't told this anyone, ever...

In the end I got friendzoned by the girl &ndash; it's pretty much how it used to happen in reality.

Actually, being a master of your SI really brings some confidence, and it can really help you to face real-life troubles, so in this sense, your game is quite realistic. The girl friendzoning our protagonist is also realistic, and telling him that he doesn't always need to be perfect is also very nice and true, this is the lesson of this game. I wish the best of luck for Billy for the future. :)

I will surely replay this game, but for now, I must hurry with rating more games...
ShaunJS
ShaunJS12 May 2015, 02:59
I'm so, so, so glad you got first place in humour. <3

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