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Cairo | Build a Space Biology Superhero

A browser-based videogame that helps people learn about space exploration and hazards

High-Level Project Summary

A browser-based game that lets people explore space travel stresses in an engaging way. the goal of the game is to assemble a creature that has qualities from different organisms, and then travel as far as possible into space.After every failed attempt, some info about the journey is displayed along with some resources for further reading.Our project solves a big part of the challenge by grouping a lot of information in one place. the info is related to space travel itself and also survival mechanisms of animals in space.The game we made is really useful for exploring space hazards and behavior of animals in space

Link to Final Project

https://github.com/michaelhany510/space-super-hero

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1veOgLPRsO1iutf2CTtgtS0OVwyUjoyc7/view?usp=sharing

Detailed Project Description

What does the project do?

the project is an educational video game designed to teach people about:

Different space hazards (Radiation /Muscle Atrophy/ Neuro-Ocular damage syndrome/ DNA damage)
The effect of space travel on humans and different animals.

The way we achieve this is by integrating some simplified information about space travel into every part of our design, such as:

A user-friendly resources/info page that contains info about space travel/ animals in space.
The information in this page is essential for the player to be able to complete the game.
Every time the player fails to complete the journey, he is informed about the journey (hazards faced/ distance/ etc.)
After that, they would be encouraged to go read more at the user-friendly info page that we designed.
The player would only be able to complete the journey if they study the right information, they would be learning, but they won't feel like they're being taught

Space Agency Data

5 Hazards of Human Spaceflight

This resource provided a lot of insight into the main hazards that would affect the creature (or the player), and thus helped us design the mechanics and structure of our game.

NASA Human Research Roadmap: Risks

This resource gave us more insight into which risks and considerations are inherent to the space travel environment, and which ones are related to the survival mechanisms of humans.

NASA Space Biology Program

This resource provided info about the different experiments conducted on animals in space or near-space environments.

which later helped us balance the mechanics inside the game. (we needed to know if certain animals would be more suited for space travels than humans, and by how much).

Hackathon Journey

Our Space Apps experience was very fruitful. The environment of creativity and passion along with the hospitality provided by the organizers helped us get into the zone.

Our inspiration journey came as follows:

1) 5 Hazards of Human Spaceflight

This resource provided a lot of insight into the main hazards that would affect the creature (or the player), and thus helped us design the mechanics and structure of our game, and what's important to focus on when designing the game.

Afterwards we started researching different animals and how they would be affected by space travel.

NASA Human Research Roadmap: Risks / NASA Space Biology Program

This resource gave us more insight into which risks and considerations are inherent to the space travel environment, and which ones are related to the survival mechanisms of humans.

the second resource provided info about the different experiments conducted on animals in space or near-space environments.

which later helped us balance the mechanics inside the game. (we needed to know if certain animals would be more suited for space travels than humans, and by how much).

We learned a lot about web development, graphic design, and everything else that has to do with making a game/website. But more importantly we learned a lot about space travel hazards. We read a lot of studies about animals in space, and how their mechanisms for survival differ for the better or for worse.

We spent a lot of time getting through various bugs, errors, discarding ideas, but in the end, we got through them, and it was all worth it.