I recently had an idea that seemed interesting enough to post here: "Shut Up and Multiply!", the video game

The basic idea of this game is that before each level you are told some probabilities, and then when the level starts you need to use these probabilities in real time to achieve the best expected outcome in a given situation.

The first example I thought of is a level where people are drowning, and you need to choose who to save first, or possibly which method to use to try to save them, in order to maximize the total number of people saved.

Different levels could have different scenarios and objectives.

You are given time to examine the probabilities before the level starts, but once it starts you need to make your decisions in real-time.

Another twist: You see the actual outcome of your actions, randomly generated by the probability formulas. However, you aren't scored based on the actual outcome, but instead you are scored on the expected outcome of your actions, using the expected utility formula. I originally intended this to prevent people from getting a high score just by luck, or to prevent low scores caused by bad luck. Though I later realized that this doesn't actually fix the problem - you can still play repeatedly until, by luck, you happen to guess high-scoring actions. Still, I think it would be a good idea to show both scores.

Other random ideas:

The first few levels should be a tutorial. Showing how to do the calculations in order to maximize your expected score. Or there could be a separate turotial mode. Or maybe the game itself is a bad idea, but the tutorial might still be useful.

During each level you need to make your decisions as quickly as possible - the longer you wait the worse you score. Though maybe only some levels should be like this.

Later levels require more options to choose from, and more complex scenarios.

As much content as possible should be generated randomly, to prevent the game from being the same if you play it again.

Maybe the player could also be scored based on some calculations they do before the level starts? Or just integrate this with the tutorial?

And most importantly: Specifically design the game so that the player must learn to overcome some of the standard biases, in order to maximize their score. We should try to work in as many of these biases as possible. And also plenty of generally useful advice for working with probabilities.

So, now that I posted this idea, I'll let you decide what, if anything, we should do with this idea.

First, is this a stupid idea, that couldn't possibly work as described?

Or is it a good idea, but a low priority, compared to the other projects we're working on?

Should this be a group project? Does anyone volunteer to lead the project? Does anyone want to take on the project entirely on their own? Or should I lead the project, or work on it on my own?

What language would be best to implement this in? Flash? Java? PHP? Python? Something else?

I still haven't earned much karma on this site (only 1 point actually, when I originally posted this). Mainly because I don't expect to have anything original to say. And so I'm posting this here as a comment in the Open Thread, rather than making an actual post of it. If this comment gets enough upvotes for me to be able to make this into its own post, I plan to do so, unless someone objects. Or if anyone would like to take over the idea, please feel free to do so. I don't care about credit, and generally prefer to avoid it. Possibly by the flawed reasoning "credit = responsibility = blame", which I suppose might deserve a post of its own.