High-Level Project Summary
*We did? An educational video game for children between 10 and 14 years old*How do we solve the challenge? Detecting the characteristics that the game had to fulfill to be: fun, educational, interactive, didactic (skills not found in current space games)*Because it is important? Since there are currently no games that encourage children aged 10-14 years to make a trip to Mars, as well as games that stimulate the cognitive part
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Challenge: -The Trail to Mars: Can You Keep Your Crew Alive
Members: Jonathan Javier Alvarez, Marisol Fernández, Ivan Gimenez
Location: La Plata, Buenos Aires
- Mission and vision
We provide a solution to an educational problem that affects us all directly or indirectly. We fight for education, for the dissemination of information, and for expanding understanding of interplanetary travel. We give children a tool that is attractive to them to be able to inform themselves of very important topics and at the same time to be able to pass the time having fun with a game.
- Context and Need
Currently there are several games that cover themes of the space genre, but many of these raise issues that are not applicable to reality, they are not attractive and some of these even move away from educating children since it is more like a medium of entertainment. Adolescents are interested in the theme of space games, but this desire is not addressed by the educational side, and even sometimes it generates rejection and boredom when such a theme is touched. It is clear to propose a game in an educational format with a spatial theme to inform, educate and raise awareness among the adolescent public. It is important to note that, if it is not attractive, it does not attract attention.
- Problems suffered by a crew member aboard an interplanetary journey.
The game is designed to educate children on the consequences of interplanetary travel, it focuses on what events can happen and their possible solutions.
The following is answered to:
What consequences does your body suffer from an interplanetary trip?
Bones: They undergo a decalcification process that reduces bone mass between 1% and 2% per month.
Cells: Exposure to some radiation, such as cosmic rays, can cause serious damage to DNA.
Kidneys: Increases the natural rate of filtering substances. Calcium lost from the bones can form stones. Spinal column: It stretches slowly, which can make the astronaut gain up to 5 centimeters in height.
Head: When the terrestrial attraction disappears, there is a redistribution of body fluids that causes the astronauts' heads to swell and suffer headaches.
Inner ear: Distortions arise that affect the perception of inclination, acceleration and balance.
Heart: The heart rate drops due to microgravity. The muscle gets bigger and weaker.
Stomach: The sensation of free fall causes space sickness and even vomiting, a very dangerous circumstance if the astronaut is crammed into his suit.
Reproductive system: Although sperm motility increases in space, radiation can negatively affect fertility.
Legs: The lack of gravity produces atrophy in the muscles; the limbs lose volume.
Immune System: Closed spaces favor the reproduction of bacteria, which astronauts are more likely to be in contact with possible diseases. In addition, the lack of gravity causes the cells of the immune system to not work properly. Isolation weakens the immune system.
Sleep: isolation and lack of sunlight, generates changes in sleep, which can lead to anxiety, insomnia, and depression.
Psychological: isolation, separation from family members and repetitive surroundings can cause crew members to suffer from stress, anxiety, depression, mood swings, among other associates.
"Spaceflight affects most of the body's systems, but the most worrying is the ocular retina and optic nerve, possibly associated with an increase in intracranial pressure," Jeffrey A. Jones, professor at the OpenMind, describes to OpenMind. Baylor School of Medicine (USA).
Identical twins share 100% of genetic information, but space altered that similarity and now Mark and Scott share 93%. According to the scientists, that 7% has to do with long-term changes in genes related to the immune system, DNA repair, bone formation networks, hypoxia (oxygen deficiency in the blood) and hypercapnia (increased carbon dioxide in arterial blood).
What problems arise from the context of the mission?
Space Scrap: small particles can have a negative effect due to the speed they travel and be dangerous for satellites, space stations and rockets. They can obstruct communications.
Cosmic Rays: Exposure to cosmic rays would increase the risk of cataracts and loss of fertility, cause cancer, damage to the internal organs of the person, can cause a failure of the operation of the ship's machines, among other effects.
Signal with the Earth: long distances, the speed of information transmission and the climate on earth can cause disconnections between the spacecraft and the earth.
Limited Medical Attention: the health problems that arise must be resolved by the crew as possible, since in the face of a great inconvenience they cannot turn around and return to the ground to be treated.
Technical problems: ship failures, repairs, machine changes and more.
Asteroids: if they become very small and combined with the fact that it is traveling at high speed, the impact with it can cause severe damage.
Darkness of the environment: can lead to depression and other negative psychological aspects.
Solutions to most of these problems:
* Solar radiation problem (galactic cosmic rays) - can cause cancer, inflammation and damage to the brain, heart, lungs, and other organs. This can be reduced by controlling exposure doses and with medications.
* Problem of isolation and lack of sunlight - generates changes in sleep, alteration of the heart rhythm -. This can be avoided with light therapy and behavioral health.
* Earth distance problem - distance and travel time -. They must generate self-reliance and thorough planning.
* Serious problem - loss of muscle and bone mass, damage to the heart and blood vessels - Solution: exercise.
* Problem: confinement - It implies lack of oxygen. Keeping the ship in good condition is key.
Once the problems and solutions are detailed, we go to the game section.
4- Audience analysis
To begin with, we saw if there was interest in the space game genre. We use the Google Trends tool to see statistics on how much people search for such a concept.
Image 1 - Search for the keyword "space games" by geographical areas.
Image 2 - Graph of the evolution of the keyword "Space games" over time
From these images we can see that there is interest in the genre.
Image 3 - Search for the keyword "Juegos Espaciales" by geographical areas.
Image 4 - Graph of the evolution of the keyword "Juegos Espaciales" over time
This search represents that in Latin America there is a lot of interest.
What we can draw as a conclusion is that there is interest in these games, therefore, there is an audience that we can reach.
5- Genres of interest
We look for the most played genres
A report published by the ESA has allowed us to know which are the video game genres that the current era players like the most, as well as, consequently, those that arouse the least sympathy among the most gamers. According to data provided by NPD Group, Real Track Service and Digital Games Tracking Service, shooter games are the titles that generate the most expectation among users.
27.5% of all video games sold in the United States during 2016 were shooter titles, without specifying whether they are FPS, third person shooters or shoot'em ups. In second place we have action games, which accumulated 22.5% of sales in 2016. In other words, one in five games that were sold last year were action titles. Finally, the third place falls on RPG titles, showing that the role is still in top form; represented 12.9% of total video game sales in 2016. In fourth place we had sports games with 11.7% and adventure games with 7.8% of sales.
Our proposal is to propose a game that unites the genres of Space Games - Trivia - Roguelite - Simulation
Simulation since we take many concepts from the SIMS game, we must keep the crew alive and take care of their statistics. This contextualizes the players to understand how an astronaut should lead their life in space and the habits they have.
Roguelite, since we incorporate concepts of this genre such as repeating games and that the games are not always the same, progression for each time it is played, among others. This genre provides re-playability, decision-making, and game progression.
Trivia, we rely on this genre to educate children in a dynamic way.
6- Competition
We analyze the most popular games of the space genre that would be our competition and substitutes.
We clarify that in the space genre there are several massive games such as EVE online, No man's Sky or others, but we do not consider these for this analysis since their public is largely not interested or looking for other concepts within a game.
For the competition, we considered many trivia games since their objective coincides with ours which is to educate, plus they also have questions about astronomy.
Table 1 - Games Vs. Characteristics
From here we can see that several characteristics that are repeated in these games, such as competition between players, response time, variety and quantity of questions, lives, streaks, speed of the game and collectibles. All these aspects are important to consider if we want to create an attractive game.
After investigating, we found several trivia games with a space theme, but in all of them we identified practically the same flaw, lack of content, too simple in the artistic section and they are not attractive to the general public, less for boys between 10 and 15 years.
Some of these games are:
Trivia: Exploración Espacial – Google Earth https://earth.google.com/web/@0,0,0a,22251752.77375655d,35y,0h,0t,0r?hl=es
¿Cuánto sabes sobre astronomía? -National Geographic
https://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/ciencia/test-cuanto-sabes-sobre-astronomia_10398/1
Trivia Espacial
https://lanzamientosespaciales.com/trivia-espacial/
Space Place
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/menu/play/sp/
It should be noted that there are more games related to the subject, but all are repetitive and lack of creativity.
The most important thing to note is that it helped us to contextualize what the market was failing and that we could give a twist so that really boys between 10 and 15 years old are interested in our proposed game.
7- Considerations in our idea
We were able to observe that many of these games only focus on the questions, they forget the interaction that must exist between the player and the experience, which causes desertion or lack of interest in it.
When we established what parameters we should attack to generate engagement with the public, 5 pillars emerged
* Artistic Section
* Game speed
* Immersive History
* Competitiveness
*Decision-making capacity
These pillars are fundamental, but the following points were also taken into account when planning the game:
Colors - generate visual appeal
Interactive Game - so they don't lose their taste
Prestige - encourages kids to want to do their best
Cooperative - encourages forming friendships,
Community - essential for the game to be maintained over time
Azar - part that generates down payment
Dynamic Mechanics - generates attractiveness
Secrets (easter eggs) - rewards and
Multiplatform - to reach more audience and diversify
Free - easily accessible
Influencers - to publicize the game
Novelty - so that if after a while playing they don't get bored
Rewards - essential part to see that your time is worth it
Sounds - return feedback and create immersive environments
8- Our Proposal
Our proposal is based on a game with important realism that seeks to educate children about the consequences of an interplanetary journey.
Below we consider several aspects that we considered for the development of our idea.
Having touched on all the previous points (genres, competition, characteristics), we form an idea of the game that would be feasible to carry out.
What games are we based on?
SIMS Saga - No Man’s Sky - Astrooneer - World Geography - Trivia Crack - Space Trivia
We take artistic concepts, game formats, questions, experience designs and interaction with the game.
The game that we propose consists of choosing a crew to make the interplanetary trip, the team will have five (5) members of which the player will have control of one (1) single crew member. The objective of the game is focused on the crew surviving a round trip to Mars. During the trip, the player will face various events that occur in reality (obviously we are going to contextualize these events and gamify each one of them) and will be given several options as possible solutions, the boy will be able to decide what to do in each situation, appealing to him to learn what things can and should be done in space, and what would harm an astronaut. The crew member will have a status bar that the player will try to keep at bay so that they do not lose in the game.
The objective of the game beyond entertaining the public, the goal is for the boys to immerse themselves in concepts that they did not know, related to space.
In the following table the technical sheet of how we plan to design the game is attached.
9- Game development
The player controls the life of a character, satisfying his needs. The action takes place in a ship that is heading to Mars that consists of a series of events that could happen in a real trip. At the beginning of the game, you choose the crew you want to take, each character is endowed with intelligence and emotions, has a unique appearance and personality. The user interface with the astronaut is implemented in the 3rd mode.
When you choose the crew you can choose the visual aspects of each one, these are collectible costumes that are unlocked as you progress through the game. When the selection of characters is finished, it starts with an initial score that will depend on the combination between professions and that are also related to each other.
The game is divided into acts, each act is made up of three (3) days, in which progress is made and each day the difficulty increases slightly. The duration of a day is around three (3) minutes. In each act the entire crew and the player will be tested with a series of challenges that could occur (these challenges are random). The game will have 7 acts, where the difficulty will increase. It should be noted that the trip will take place in hypothetical nine (9) months if there is no event in the game that advances or delays the arrival.
The player will have to make decisions to take care of his health and that of the crew, and as a reference he will have the status bar that serves to guide how well he is developing. The status bar is made up of five (5) aspects to take care of: Hunger, Thirst, Energy, Physical, Hygiene and Psychology
Hunger: referring to food and good nutrition
Thirst: refers to hydration
Hygiene: referring to the crew member's own hygiene and that of the environment.
Physical: referring to physical exercise.
Energy: referred to stamina and sleep.
Psychology: referring to emotions and mental state.
Each aspect has its implications and is worked on in a different way.
The events are random and are part of the game, these are focused on what should be done in the real world if such events happen.
Each event has a range of possibilities to be solved. Each event and its possible solutions award a series of points that are added to the performance of the crew.
As time goes by, the player will sometimes have to answer questions related to the subject of astronomy, but it will focus on the questions of what happens to a person on an interplanetary journey. When the crew member rests, time continues to pass in the game.
As an example, there is an event where NASA makes a call to the ship and the player is asked a series of questions to put it to the test. If you answer all right there is a prize, if you answer all wrong NASA applies a punishment to the player.
Question style
Closed questions, with a maximum time to answer, if you go on a streak for well-answered questions, the game becomes complicated, but you are adding more points.
Each character will have a Notebook that will serve as an aid to answer questions that the player considers necessary. Each Notebook is different for each playable character. As you play and answer the questions well and learn more about the game, the notebook gets more full. The progression of the notebook is maintained for the rest of the games.
Final stage
The more distance you travel, the more final score you will get
The game ends when the hunger status bar reaches 100% or when the game is won.
When the rest of the bars reach 100% they collaborate to make the game more difficult and the hunger bar increases faster.
The game consists of two (2) stages, the trip to Mars and the return to Earth. You win when you return to earth. Getting to Mars unlocks features.
At the end of the game, a final score is awarded that will be used to buy astronaut suits, unlock music, unlock new spaceships, collect collectibles, and even the incorporation of reaching to unlock the phase of going to Jupiter.
When we talk about the educational part, the game will have an Encyclopedia in the start menu where players will complete as they play with the characters since their progress in the notebook is added to this encyclopedia. The advantage of the encyclopedia is that it adds more information than notebooks.
In addition, it will have a series of links on popular science articles from NASA where children if they read posts they will understand more and be more prepared to play again.
Game secrets - For the most curious and persistent players, they will be able to go to the planet Saturn if they meet a series of conditions. They will unlock unique costumes and ships. They will unlock Hidden Achievements. They will be able to unlock different game modes.
Game modes.
Classic - Standard game mode
Challenge: similar to the classic but the time of the day goes a little slower, and new challenges are added.
Astroman - New challenges added, events occur with higher probability, there is a random initial debuff to increase the difficulty.
Customizable: the player is allowed to touch some aspects to make the travel more challenging or friendlier (it is unlocked by winning the game several times).
10- About our work
Once we had chosen the challenge we were looking to face, the whole group began a data collection process. We informed ourselves about the themes and gave a general overview of the subject.
We started with a Brainstorming of about 10 minutes with the rule of space travel and astronauts.
Once the brainstorming was done, we did a filter of these ideas and started again in the data collection, but this time we delved into the subject.
At the same time a member of the group began to make the demo of the game programming in Visual Basics 2010.
Another member looked for information about the problems and their corresponding solutions and later incorporated them into the demo as playable events.
Another member was in charge of facing the creative part of the game, looking for what makes them attractive, the pros and cons.
After a filter of the information collected, a SWOT was made, an Excel template where various events and their solutions were detailed.
An extensive report was also produced on how we faced the challenge and its considerations.
Finally, a Word document details how the game operates.
11- Conclusion
Our game brings together the best of various genres to form an innovative idea. As we explained previously, several games with this theme do not serve the boys who are interested as they should.
Our idea focuses on both aspects, seeks to educate and at the same time that the children have a good time having fun.
We take various aspects of games such as progression, an immersive story, rewards, decision making and more so that when it comes to playing the game it is attractive. But we do not neglect the educational part since to play you have to learn. The questions referring to travel, the use of the encyclopedia and even its gameplay, are all concepts that emphasize that the player learn about what happens on a trip and not only memorize what the correct answers would be.
We rely a lot on empowering the player and making him feel the consequences of his decisions.
Space Agency Data
- https://genelab-data.ndc.nasa.gov/genelab/accession/GLDS-288/
- https://genelab-data.ndc.nasa.gov/genelab/accession/GLDS-211/
- https://genelab-data.ndc.nasa.gov/genelab/accession/GLDS-270/
- https://genelab-data.ndc.nasa.gov/genelab/accession/GLDS-326/
- https://genelab-data.ndc.nasa.gov/genelab/accession/GLDS-135/
- NASA GeneLab Brain Data GLDS-352: análisis transcripcional resuelto espacialmente de cerebros de ratones volados en la misión RR-3
- NASA GeneLab Brain Data GLDS-32: Efecto de la microgravedad en la expresión génica del cerebro en ratones
- Datos del sistema inmunológico GeneLab de la NASA GLDS-288: análisis del transcriptoma del bazo murino en el espacio
- Datos del sistema inmunológico GeneLab de la NASA GLDS-211: análisis transcriptómico de bazos de ratones sometidos a radiación crónica de baja dosis, descarga de las extremidades traseras o una combinación de ambos
- NASA GeneLab Bone Data GLDS-345: LC-MSMS de fémur de ratón sobre ingravidez
- NASA GeneLab Heart Data GLDS-270: análisis transcripcional resuelto espacialmente de corazones de ratones volados en la misión RR-3
- NASA GeneLab Muscle Data GLDS-326: Red de metabolitos genéticos vinculada a la bioenergética inhibida en asociación con la pérdida del músculo cuádriceps inducida por vuelos espaciales
- NASA GeneLab Muscle Data GLDS-135: El análisis de expresión génica global destaca genes clave sensibles a la microgravedad en longissimus dorsi y lengua de ratones de 30 días de vuelo espacial
- Biología espacial de la NASA
- Publicaciones recientes en biología de los vuelos espaciales
- 5 peligros de los vuelos espaciales del programa de investigación humana de la NASA
- Los efectos de la radiación espacial
- Artículos de estudio sobre gemelos
Hackathon Journey
Our experience as a team made up of three people who did not know each other, and from different professions, was excellent. We have learned to debate, work as a team, plan, sweep goals together, help each other. The three of us learned new tools and concepts for our day to day.
Without a doubt, we would participate again!
References
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
drive folder with all the resources and documents used:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rtKPoNAQJyvns9mm9s1fiT_IG8ftidtg
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://www.esa.int/kids/es/Juegos
https://www.esa.int/kids/es/Aprende/Vida_en_el_Espacio/Vivir_en_el_espacio/El_ejercicio_fisico
https://www.esa.int/kids/es/Aprende/Vida_en_el_Espacio/Astronautas/La_ciencia_y_la_ingravidez
https://www.esa.int/kids/es/Aprende/Lecciones/Por_que_Marte_es_rojo
https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html
https://www.esa.int/kids/es/Aprende/Vida_en_el_Espacio/Vivir_en_el_espacio/El_ocio_en_el_espacio
https://www.esa.int/kids/es/Buscar/(q)/marte
https://www.esa.int/kids/es/Buscar/(q)/viaje
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4bZlhhwOP8&ab_channel=UnMundoInmenso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybn7MRpsGwE
https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/bodyinspace
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-food-022811-101222
https://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/venus/q2811.html
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/IVGEN.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLJ4Gh0FSLw&ab_channel=ElRobotdePlat%C3%B3n
https://ciencia.nasa.gov/su-sistema-inmunitario%E2%80%A6-en-el-espacio
Tags
#GOTOMARSANDBACKS, #ARGENTINA,#ENTERTAINMENT, #EDUCATION,#FUN,#MARS,#VIDEOGAME,
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.