High-Level Project Summary
In line with the objectives of the chosen challenge, our team created a flow diagram. In it, the algorithmic logic based on the possible decisions of the player has been expressed with textual and visual content. Depending on the scientific research regarding the psychological and physical challenges that space crews face through their journey, there have been several actions to combat these problems. Since the application is a decision-based game, it will be the player’s task to decide the actions. Eventually, the player will either achieve or fail based on their decisions. Thus, the target audience of middle schoolers will be able to grasp how hard it is to accomplish a voyage to Mars.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
“Per Aspera Ad Astra'' is a 2D, decision-based survival game in which you explore the vast plains of the universe. The game simulates a crew travelling through space in order to reach the red planet — Mars. Your main objective is to keep yourself and your crew members alive by the means of making decisions which you deem fit. Talking about the crew members, the game uses precise RNG (Random Number Generator) mechanics to keep the content fresh and colorful. There are a whopping 191,400 possibilities in terms of characteristics that contain different personality traits and physical traits for every new character created. The game consists of several endings as most of the classic decision-based games in the market also do. Each one of your decisions have consequences that will affect the journey itself.
The game uses five fundamental stats which are radiation level, mental state, physical health, bodily fluid intensity and spaceship conditions. As listed in the game rules, the player has 300 energy per day (this stat can change depending on your crew’s personal traits and professions) and they have to perform required actions in order to survive throughout this six-month long voyage. Each action requires 100 energy points, which will obviously not be enough for the player to complete all the necessary actions in a day. The uncompleted actions will result either in an increase in the radiation level and upper body fluid intensity or a decrease in mental state, psychical health, or the quality of spaceship conditions. After the end of each single day the RNG system will calculate the odds and pros to decide whether you will survive for one more day or become a dead metal can floating in the galaxy.
The primary objective of our project is to teach middle schoolers how difficult and complex it is to perform such a journey in six months. While teaching the basic principles of an ordinary space travel, we also avoided presenting the information with long texts that could possibly bore the teenager as much as possible. Instead, we prefered to use colorful characters with multiple endings so that our audience can have fun while learning new and exciting information. Nevertheless, the development process was quite challenging since none of our team members were capable of using programming languages. Therefore, we decided to use Miro and mixed it with our mathematical knowledge in order to create a chart-based system that covers countless possibilities. Although it is a fact that it would be perfect to code such an entertaining game, we are all satisfied with the final project that we completed in such a short amount of time and are planning to actualize this piece of work in the future.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We highly reccomend you to visit the final project link for a better view of the diagram. Since there are a lot of texts, please view the diagram <1% viewving scale.
GAME RULES
Energy System
1- Each individual in your crew possess 100 energy.
1.1- Doing duties cost 100 energy per crew member and leftover energy transfer to the following day
Daily Result System
2- At the end of each day, the system decides your fate based on your actions which both include the present day and former ones.
2.1- This system uses RNG to calculate your chances of survival.
2.2- At the beginning the chance of survival is 100% and the chance of one crew member dying is 0%.
2.3- The main factors that influence the chance of crew member's survival will be listed in the following articles.
Radiation Levels
3- Radiation level of the crew starts from 0% and increases by 10% per day up to 100%.
3.1- If the radiation reaches the 40% threshold, then the system increases the chance of one of your crew member dying at the end of the day by 10%.
3.2- If the radiation reaches the 60% threshold, then the system increases the chance of one of your crew member dying at the end of the day by 20%.
3.3- If the radiation reaches the 100% threshold, then the game is over. You lost.
3.4- Monitoring the RAD (Radiation Assessment Detector) decreases the radiation level by 15%.
Mental Helath
4- The mental state of your crew starts from 100% and decreases by 5% per day until it drops down to 0%.
4.1- If the mental state of your crew reaches the 70% threshold, then the decrement becomes 10% per day.
4.2- If the mental state of your crew reaches the 50% threshold, then the decrement becomes 15% per day.
4.3- If the mental state of your crew reaches 0%, then the game is over. You lost.
4.4- Socializing with the crew members increases the overall mental state by %10
Gravity Fields' Results
5- Intensity of the bodily fluids in the upper body is stable when it is 50%.
5.1- Everyday, the measure of bodily fluids located in the upper body of your crew members increase by 5%.
5.2- Using compression cuffs stabilizes the distribution of the bodily fluids.
5.3- If the measure of bodily fluids in the upper body reaches 75%, each crew member undergo sight loss and all of them become obligated to spend their daily energy to use compression cuffs.
5.4- Undergoing temporary sight loss causes 15% decrease in terms of mental state.
5.5- Repetition of this process causes the sight loss to be permanent and the game is over. You lost.
Hostile Closed Environment
6- Air quality, temperature and pressure levels should be regulated.
6.1- All these essential scales start with a 100% regulation rate and the rate of regulation decreases by 10% per day until it drops down to 0%.
6.2- Monitoring the air quality, pressure levels and temperature increases the regulation rate by 15%
6.3- If the rate of regulation reaches 60%, then the system increases the chance of one of your crew member dying at the end of the day by 10%.
6.4- If the rate of regulation reaches 40%, thenthe system increases the chance of one of your crew member dying at the end of the day by 20%.
6.5- If the regulation rate drops down to 0%, then the game is over. You lost.
Physical Health
7- The physical state of your crew members start from 100% and decreases by 10% per day until it drops down to 0%.
7.1- Doing Aerobic and Resistive Exercises increase the physical state by 15%.
7.2-If the physical state of your crew reaches 70% threshold, then the system increases the chance of one of your crew member dying at the end of the day by 10%.
7.3-If the physical state of your crew reaches 40% threshold, then the system increases the chance of one of your crew member dying at the end of the day by 20%.
7.4- If the physical state of your crew drops down to 0%, then the game is over. You lost.
Professions
8- Each profession provides different benefits to the crew.
8.1- Having a doctor in your crew provides you a one time chance to use compression cuffs without energy.
8.2- Having a professor or/and physicist in your crew provides an additional message system that warns you when you reach the thresholds in terms of radiation levels.
8.3- Having a psychologist in your crew prevents the mental state from decreasing by 15& (as stated in article 4.2). Instead, it stays at a regular 10% decrease per day.
8.4- Having a body trainer in your crew provides a 15% increase for physical state every five days.
8.5- Having an engineer, technician and/or programmer in your crew, then the rate of regulation increases by 20% whenever you monitor the air quality, pressure levels and temperature instead of 15%.
POSSIBLE EDUCATIONAL ENDING MESSAGES (ANECDOTES) OF THE GAME
1) The types of radiation astronauts would encounter on a Mars mission are much different than on Earth, and much more damaging. While the International Space Station sits just within Earth’s protective magnetic field, astronauts are still exposed to ten times higher radiation than on Earth. However it's much less than deep space. Above Earth’s protective shielding, radiation exposure may increase your cancer risk. It can damage your central nervous system, manifested as altered cognitive function, reduced motor functions, and behavioral changes.
2) It can be extremely challenging for astronauts to be away from everything they knew and people they loved. not socializing enough can and will hinder mental capabilities greatly.
3) Space motion sickness is a popularly encountered challenge containing symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, vomiting and more. Similarly, crew mates must adjust to another gravity field, facing post-flight orthostatic intolerance in which crew members cannot maintain their blood pressure, possibly causing fainting and/or lightheartedness.
4) As microbes can change characteristics in space and the immune system is altered which could lead to increased susceptibility to allergies or other ilnesses, it is gravely important to monitor the air quality of the space station. along with taking blood samples from crew members to monitor health and important data such as stress.
5) Muscle loss poses great danger to crew members as no gravity means almost none of the muscles needing to work for movement, thus, crew members are required to keep their body in good shape by training their muscles.
Space Agency Data
During the development process of “Per Aspera Ad Astra”:
- NASA’s Human Research Program website has been used as a resource regarding the hazards of human spaceflight. In this sense, the factors that might negatively affect spaceflight are determined, elaborated based on the results of scientific articles and implemented in-game as mini anecdote boxes. Moreover, these studies have been used for the specification of actions that are presented to players as decisions.
- The information provided about the possible diseases related to space by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - National Institute of Health was used for the ending scenarios of failure (death of the crew). By means of this, it was aimed to maintain the relevance of the game with the solid, scientific and accurate realities.
- Canadian Space Agency’s articles about space medicine have been a crucial guide for our team to elaborate more on osteoporosis and muscle loss due to the external factors.
Hackathon Journey
Before the beginning of the hackathon, we had initially decided on a different challenge in which we would have to write an academic essay, since we had believed that we wouldn’t be capable of developing softwares or graphic designing due to our lack of experience in those fields. However, after discovering that Hackathon is not all about coming up with a fully-developed, 100% properly performing application but only innovative ideas that would have a significant impact, we decided to move to our current challenge, “The Trail to Mars: Can You Keep Your Crew Alive?” on the first day of the event. As a natural outcome of such a sudden, marginal decision, our first moments of work had been doubtful about whether we could succeed or not. However, as the time passed, the process started to become even more engaging and fun, since we realised that with the help of teamwork, it would no longer be a big deal to implement the outline of a game application, which was the most suitable thing to do considering the time period. The fact that every single team member had interest in similar video games and spaceflight also had an impact on this improvement.
References
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-021-00143-x
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jRxgvwhGC0
https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/bodyinspace
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16935570
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3-96ZbY5NA
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/spatial-orientation
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronauts/space-medicine/bones.asp
https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/hazards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_pbs8dG1oM
Miro
Google Documents
Google Slides
Tags
#highschoolers #game #idea #mars #spacetravel #flowdiagram #redplanet #AdAstra #2D #RNG #decision-based #multiple-endings #6-monthjourney #educational #dynamic #fun
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.