High-Level Project Summary
We developed the platformer game “Quest For the Telescope” for this year’s challenge. Our goal was to let players learn more about the parts of JWST and why it is an outstanding telescope while having fun throughout the game. To achieve this, we designed each level with different themes. For example, in our optical telescope element level, we required the player to collect all 18 pieces of mirror to get the optical telescope element module. Additionally, we added an explanation before each level to demonstrate what part the player is collecting and why it is important to JWST.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
The background story of our game “Quest For The Telescope” is that there is an archeologist from 3022 who finds out that ancient humans designed and built an excellent space telescope called James Webb Space Telescope a thousand years ago. Therefore, the archeologist decide to collect all pieces of the James Webb Telescope and rebuilt it. There are 6 levels in which a player will explore 6 different maps. Each level of the game consists of one important component of the JWST, and the ultimate objective is to collect all 6 components. For instance, in the second level, sunshield, a player will collect sunshields to avoid getting burned under the sun, and must collect 5 layers to proceed to the next level. While doing so, the player will learn how the JWST demands a low temperature and needs sun protection in order to observe the infrared light emitted by distant objects. We hope that by playing this game, a player could learn about the parts of the JWST in a fun and enjoyable way with the future archeologist. We are able to program the first level of the game using the software, unity, in the two days allotted for this challenge. However, the final version should ideally consist of 6 levels to give players a thorough grasp of the JWST's most crucial elements!
Space Agency Data
We used some JWST images from https://images.nasa.gov/ in our demo and as backgrounds for our game.
Hackathon Journey
This year’s NASA Space Apps experience was fun and exciting. We had to overcome a few challenges such as sometimes working separately rather than together, and finding a way to share our project with the team members. We also tried to find times to meet up in person to make collaborating a little bit easier. Overall, it was a great experience to learn and compete in the hackathon.
Our team chose this challenge because we ourselves wanted to learn more about the new telescope, and we also wanted to try to make an educational game for the first time. It also appealed to our team since it did not require too much coding and none of our team members have much experience with coding. Throughout the challenge, we learned how to use libraries like pygame and os.path to load, show pictures, and make the game. We learned how to collaborate online with Visual Studio Code’s Live Share extension. We also got to practice our time management skills, as two days is a very limited amount of time to do the project.
We created a 2D platformer game where players explore different levels and collect different parts of the JWST Telescope. Our approach started with trying to use python to make a simple demo game to use in our demo video. We used pygame to understand how the game would work and made our first level. Afterward, when we wanted to add more functionality, we realized that our code was unorganized and unclean, so we decided to work on the video first, and remake the game in Unity.
We would like to thank our parents for supporting us and helping us manage our time throughout the hackathon. Without them, we might not have planned our time much and would have had a hard time making time to finish our project.
References
background - https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/12165158/web-jwst.jpg?width=800
JWST picture screenshotted from - https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/the-james-webb-space-telescope-dcb95b3193be49e7a60192055df2315d
dirt texture - https://devforum-uploads.s3.dualstack.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/4X/c/4/5/c4569518fd25954d11069ac70b7c264b7aada917.png
portal - https://klazen.com/IWBTG/tutorial/img/gm_view_objSmoothCamera.gif
model for title screen - https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/james-webb-space-telescope-f9e4b03e63624e7aa050a798b63bc9c4
information for Spacecraft Bus - https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-observatory-hardware/jwst-spacecraft-bus
Information for Scientific Instruments - https://webbtelescope.org/news/webb-science-writers-guide/webbs-scientific-instruments
JWST mirror - https://webb.nasa.gov/images/JWST-HST-primary-mirrors.jpg
Astronaut asset - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/free-2d-mega-pack-177430
Tags
#software #jwst #game