Game Goals
In this geometry game set in Ancient Egypt, you have been prematurely mummified and entombed within a pyramid. The object of this maths game is to help your mummy to escape to freedom, by solving geometry puzzles and building a path across the voids of the pyramid`s burial chambers.
Unfortunately, the pyramid contains many evil characters such as skull bats, skeleton thieves and a ferocious mystical Egyptian demon called Ammit, all of whom are intent on preventing your escape.
Stay ahead of Ammit and zap other enemies with your Ankh Sceptre while you select shapes and build a path out of the tomb.
How To Play
At the beginning of every turn, four puzzle stones appear at the top of your screen, and a red arrow appears in front of your mummy. Each puzzle stone has a shape on it, with one of the key lengths of the shape indicated in red. You are given enough information to be able to calculate each of the red lines in the puzzle stones.
Build a path by selecting a puzzle stone where the length indicated in red on the shape is equivalent to the length of the arrow in front of your mummy, and dragging that puzzle stone onto the arrow.
Choose the angle of your path through the pyramid by dropping the puzzle stone onto the arrow at the right moment.
If you choose a puzzle stone where the red line is not an equivalent length to the arrow, the puzzle stone will explode and momentarily stun your mummy.
Navigate wisely across the voids, collecting the maximum number of gems and pick-ups to boost your score and prepare you for enemy encounters.
Enemies
You are pursued by Ammit, a demon from the ancient Egyptian underworld, who has the head of a crocodile, the body of a lioness, and the hind legs of a hippopotamus. Ammit is an implacable enemy and can be briefly frozen, but not destroyed, by firing your Ankh Sceptre at her.
Skull bats appear from time to time and will stun your character if not targeted and destroyed with the Ankh Sceptre. Successful attacks by three skull bats in succession may knock your character off the path, to certain death below.
Skeleton thieves pursue you along the path and will steal gems from you if they reach you, stunning you in the process. Different skeletons steal different colours of gems. Destroy them with the Ankh Sceptre.
Boss Level
At the end of each Zone, the mummy collects a canopic jar containing one of his own preserved body parts, and then faces a head-to-head battle with Ammit.
On this occasion, out of the four puzzle stones presented, only one bears a polygon or circle with a red line that is NOT equivalent in length to the arrow in front of the mummy. Select and drag this non-fitting puzzle stone, which will then explode and knock Ammit back into a pit.
Don`t worry about being stunned - each canopic jar is guarded by a Son of Horus, who will magically appear and protect the mummy from puzzle stone blasts.
Map
The pyramid has four Zones, each of which features three Levels and a Boss Level, making 16 Levels in total. Each Zone contains a unique mix of mathematical problems, with the problems becoming more challenging across the Levels. The Zones contain the following mathematical problems:
- Zone 1
-
- Perimeter of a square
- Area of a square
- Perimeter of a rectangle
- Area of a rectangle
- Sides of an Isosceles Triangle
- Sides of an equilateral triangle
- Diameter and radius of a circle
- Zone 2
-
- Perimeter of a kite
- Area of a kite
- Area of a parallelogram
- Area of a trapezium
- Area of a triangle
- Circumference of a circle
- Zone 3
-
- Pythagoras: Length of the hypotenuse
- Pythagoras: Length of the short side
- Area of a circle
- Zone 4
-
- Trigonometry including sine, cosine, and tangent
Game Controls
Click and drag a puzzle stone onto the red arrow in order to select it.
Position the pointer over targets and then click to fire at them using the Ankh Sceptre. The Ankh Sceptre power bar is the green line at the top left of the screen. Recharge the Ankh power bar by collecting silver Ankh pick-ups.
If you get stuck in a dead end, use the "Back" arrow button (in the middle-bottom of the screen) to make the mummy retrace his steps. You can use this as many times as you like.
Pause the game by clicking on the Pause button at the top left of the screen.
Access the in-game instructions at any time by clicking on the question mark at the top left of the screen.
Pick-Ups
There are many treasures and special items to find; simply move your mummy near them to collect them automatically:
Golden Scarab
- These is an exciting treasure that rewards the player with a big score boost.
Silver Ankh
- This item tops up the Mummy`s sceptre power and restore it to maximum
Eye of Horus
- Temporarily gives the player invulnerability from monster attacks (although not from the jaws of Ammit).
Heart Amulet
- Contains the mummified heart of a grave robber. It provides a tasty snack for Ammit, pausing him in his tracks and giving the mummy time to get further away.
Akhanaten`s Death Mask
- Collecting one of these rare and hard-to-retrieve items rewards the player with an extra life or "try".
Accessibility
The Pyramid Panic geometry game can be configured for access by colour-blind students affected with red-blindness. To use this feature, start the game as usual, then pause it, and select the blue box. Hereafter, all red lines in the polygons and circles will be rendered in blue.
Scoring
The difficulty selected determines how fast Ammit and other enemies move as well as the effectiveness of certain pick-ups, such as the Eye of Horus. But the higher the risk, the greater the reward! The scoring is as follows:
| |
Easy |
Medium |
Hard |
| Puzzle Stone |
150 |
300 |
600 |
| Green Gem |
25 |
50 |
100 |
| Yellow Gem |
50 |
100 |
200 |
| Red Gem |
100 |
200 |
400 |
| Golden Scarab |
2000 |
4000 |
8000 |
| Skull Bat |
150 |
300 |
600 |
| Green Thief |
150 |
300 |
600 |
| Yellow Thief |
200 |
400 |
800 |
| Red Thief |
500 |
500 |
1000 |
| Ammit bonus (per metre) |
Level x 10 |
Level x 20 |
Level x 40 |