High-Level Project Summary
Human missions to Mars are moving from the realm of science fiction to science fact. Our new generation must know about the historical and latest proceedings towards MARS exploration. That's why thought of to develop a video game which should be able to portray the complete journey of MARS exploration so far by human race. In this game, a variety of Infographics on MARS has been placed at various locations, which a player can explore by roaming around the Rovers, Landers and Orbiters at MARS Museum.This project is worked out to create awareness and interest amongst school students towards space exploration and in particular MARS exploration is chosen via video game.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Project Details and Functionality:
I worked out a solution for one of the assigned challenges "Planetary Lander Video Game", which is able to simulate landing and navigation on MARS and let the user feel his/her presence on MARS, simply by playing a video game. It's a very user friendly game wherein so much controls not required, only user need to explore the Martian Base by roaming around and system AI will notify the user about essential information like Objectives and goal of the game.
To create an ambience of MARS, multiple 3D assets are used, keeping in mind those which are critical for survival on MARS. Maximum 3D assets are fused with the desired information and it is expected that the player should closely visit them to get the informative pop ups.
It’s an interactive and educational video game which enlightens you with the Martian facts and figures in a very interesting way, simply by playing a video game.
Pictorials and Infographics are the best mediums for learning and development, hence let’s use the power of Learning with Fun and explore the multiverse.
Game Flow / Theme of Game:
A humonoid robot named "Ellen" is sent on MARS by year 2050 and till that time, human race has already established a habitat on MARS. Ellen is sent on MARS to complete certain objectives i.e collection of Martian samples which are kept safe in a chest.
These samples are collected by Rovers out there and stored in chests placed at various locations of the game scene.
Ellen is suppose to find those chests by following the instructions and lastly these samples need to be sent back on Earth by launching a Starship from Mission Control Room.
Even after launch of the rocket, still user may explore the Martian base as per his liking and choice.
Objective:
Concept:
City Aerial View:
Key Points:
Layout:
Learning Method & Resources:
City view from Landing Pad:
City view from Skybridge:
Educational Content via 3D Modelling:
Educational Content via Infographics:
What's Inside the MARS Museum?: (Rovers, Landers and Orbiters)
What's Inside the MARS Museum?: (Ingenuity and Perseverance)
What's Inside the Mission Control Room?: (A Trigger to launch a Starship)
Experience the thrill by launching a Starship on your own:
Goal:
Overall motto is to provide an astronaut's experience to the user and it's core target audience would be the school students (Age group - 10 yr to 20 yr) those who may gain the interest and knowledge about space exploration at the early stage.
The goal of the game is to learn new things for yourself and use this information directly to survive on Mars. To acquaint the user with life on Mars, To study the technologies that are used on this planet.
Tools and Resources used:
This particular game is developed on UNITY platform with windows set up and compatibility. C# scripts has been put in use for creating features and animations.
Various 3D Assets has been put in use to create Game scenes. Things has been put in use those which are essential for ambience of MARS. This is to also acknowledge that free 3D Assets has been put in use for this particular game creation.
1) For 3D Assets, some of them have been taken from NASA 3D Resources.
https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/models
https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/search/mars
2) For Infographics of MARS, information has been taken from given below website.
https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/facts/
https://trek.nasa.gov/mars/
3) Project original work has been shared below via Github.
https://github.com/CAM05-Rajan5264/MARS-MISSION.git
Software used:
Unity (for overall game design)
Programming Language : C#
3D Free Assets
Hardware used:
Machine : hp Probook
CPU : Intel Core I7 08th Generation
RAM : 8 GB DDR4
Space Agency Data
1) For 3D Assets, some of them have been taken from NASA 3D Resources.
https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/models
https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/search/mars
2) For Infographics of MARS, information has been taken from given below website.
https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/facts/
https://trek.nasa.gov/mars/
3) Project original work has been shared below via Github.
https://github.com/CAM05-Rajan5264/MARS-MISSION.git
All the basic information of MARS has been extracted after studying various NASA's web pages and put in use as per Game scene requirement. In Game scene, Billboards, Signboards are used to display the Infographics of MARS.
The same has been displayed in form of Exhibition at MARS Museum.
NASA 3D Assets of LANDERS, ROVERS & ORBITERS are displayed at MARS museum and they tell their own story, when the Robot Ellen closely visits them.
An amazing animation is also shown at MARS Museum, regarding the coordination of Rover PERSEVERANCE and Helicopter INGENUITY. This animation will help the students to know about the objects sent on MARS. They will also come to know about how they work and what purpose will be served by sending them on MARS.
Hackathon Journey
How I Choose This Challenge?
Few years before, i watched a Hollywood movie "The Martian", somewhere it inspired me a lot. Thinking of this movie, i decided to create a game plot with Martian Terrain and also planned to create a Bio dome for cultivation of herbs and plants as same as the hero did in the movie. This particular movie addressed the farming challenge on MARS so well that it forced us to brainstorm the solution, if we really had to do farming on Martian lands.
Since MARS contain maximum of CO2, hence in game plot, farming has to be shown under controlled atmosphere that's why i used Pipes, Domes and cisterns to simulate the overall feel of controlling the atmosphere.
How I Addressed This Challenge?
The game provides scientific information about the planet MARS. All this is presented in the form of a game, where the character has the ability to move freely around the map. Learn new things, with entertainment.
Will create awareness and interest towards space exploration amongst school students.
How I Develop This Project?
Over the course of two days, continual research on relevant 3D Assets, Infographics, Journals and news of MARS.
Simultaneously also had to work on scripts in C# to create features and animations into the game.
Space Apps hackathons are always a great portal of learning and development. These forums allows you to open up your skills to the whole world. Also it motivates to develop new ideas and technology.
I learnt coding at beginner level and also applied to my game. At initial stage, also faced challenges with C# scripts and was struggling to implement any animation into the game, but at later stage successfully resolved the errors and now the packaged game is working fine.
References
1) For 3D Assets, some of them have been taken from NASA 3D Resources.
https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/models
https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/search/mars
2) For Infographics of MARS, information has been taken from given below website.
https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/facts/
https://trek.nasa.gov/mars/
3) Project original work has been shared below via Github.
https://github.com/CAM05-Rajan5264/MARS-MISSION
Tags
#MARS, #GAME, #ROVER, #LANDER, #ORBITER, #SPACEX, #STARSHIP
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.