Into the Universe

https://github.com/Into-The-Universe/IntoTheUniverse

https://youtu.be/_rfrX5lmqtQ

We wanted to create a Zelda/Pokemon-type RPG world. The story of our game is that the James Webb Space Telescope has crashed on a distant planet. You (the player) are sent on a mission to find the telescope fragments. Upon landing the player realises the fragments have been captured by Aliens. The Aliens have been studying the technology in awe and believe that the knowledge has come from a divine source. They are only willing to give up the fragments if the player can prove that they too have this knowledge.

The main game is an open-world 2D game, where the player can explore the hostile alien world to locate the James Webb Space Telescope fragments. The game is complete once the player has found all the fragments and launched the telescope back into space.

Each JWST fragment is closely guarded by a master alien who will only hand it over if it can be defeated in a JWST knowledge challenge.

The knowledge challenges are mini-games where the player is required to solve puzzles, answer questions, and match images related to JWST, Hubble, and WISE.

The mini-games are the essence of this game. They are designed to be educational.

As a Learning Technology Environment, "Into the Universe" uses Ryan's and Deci's Motivation Theory to stimulate both intrinsic (no dying involved in the main game) and extrinsic motivation - table league and points-earning games

Moreover, we added gamification elements to ensure players assimilate the information through an enjoyable process. These are present in the form of these mini-games.

JWST Image puzzle mini-game:

JWST vs Hubble image comparison game:

Quiz mini-game on JWST:

Image comparison mini-game:

As a team, we decided to use the Unity game engine. A few of us have limited knowledge of Unity and others have wanted to learn. We worked together to produce the Story, The world, and mini-games.

Unity uses C# as the scripting language. We have a vast knowledge of this as a team already.

Some of our behind the scenes design process:

Used:

Image Galleries Webb/NASA for images in our mini-challenges to obtain JWST fragments from the alien race.

James Webb Space Telescope (nasa.gov) for doing the background research for our side machines that require knowledge from the player to progress through the world

James Webb Space Telescope: What’s New? | Canadian Space Agency (asc-csa.gc.ca) to do comparisons between JWST and Hubble. Also to understand the capabilities of the telescope to help us incorporate this information into the game for our player to learn.

We all had our own reasons for doing this challenge.

Chris:

I wanted to do this challenge. Our company decided to host the event. I was very interested in being able to work with members of our development team who I wouldn't normally work with on a day-to-day basis. I wanted to be able to test myself using tooling that I haven't used before. I was instantly interested in the Learning Through the Looking Glass project as this was a game. I had always wanted to learn to use unity, but never really had the time.

It was a challenge to start writing a game with very little pre-knowledge but I am happy with what I have learned and also with what has been produced.

Rux:

My reason for joining the challenge was actually to push my own boundaries. I used to do digital media in the past, but in my day-to-day job, I don't get to use it. 

This challenge enabled me to get back into it while learning interesting stuff about the Universe. I am actually passionate about astrophotography and lately, I wanted to learn more about the Universe. I also got to act a little bit like a Project Manager and realised I would really like to become one while relighting my passion for editing.

I got to use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the video and Aspire to create some of the assets for our game. I was always passionate about gaming and this was a really exciting opportunity to do something about it. Even more, I got to use some of my UI/UX theory knowledge too. I am really looking forward to the next year's challenge too! 

Jony:

The James Webb Space Telescope fills me with great excitement. It’s basically a cosmic time machine that enables us to view the earliest galaxies in the universe.

I welcomed this challenge because it gave me the opportunity to learn more about the telescope, the mission objectives, and the amazing STEM projects behind making this human milestone a reality.

I’ve also always wanted to learn how to make a game. So, this project was highly motivational and rewarding for me. Our team comprised of people from multiple Engineering disciplines such as Electronics, Firmware, Software, Mechanical, and Quality Assurance (QA).

This was the first time any of us developed a game and we are very proud of what we achieved in a short space of time. Just like the achievements of the JWST, it just proves that we can do anything if we put our minds and focus to it.

Our approach to this challenge was to leverage on technology such as Kanban boards (Trello.com), Chat rooms (Discord), Source Control (GitHub), Documentation (Confluence), Game Engine (Unity), and much more to make us productive, efficient and focused. Our main objective was to learn as much as we can about the journey of the JWST.

Thank you NASA for giving us this opportunity. 

Jean-Marc:

I saw this hackathon as a great opportunity for team-building with work colleagues, learning a new set of skills and producing something to facilitate scientific education.

I was motivated to do "Learning Through the Looking Glass" because the recent press coverage of the JWST amazed me, which made me want to learn more and share the news of this feat of human engineering with others. And the best way to do it, was to gamify it and make it fun for those who especially find learning difficult in conventional environments.

I've been able to learn the aspects and features of the Unity Toolkit, which I hope will inspire me to pursue more game development in the future! It had a steep learning curve which caused us to have a number of setbacks. In addition to that, I've learned how to work in a time-constrained environment where time management is imperative.

In order to dampen the effects of setbacks and unexpected events, we held regular meetings to inform other team members often. This enabled us to bounce ideas off each other and help each other out.

My role comprised mostly of the backend mechanics of the game. This included controlling the player, animating the characters and pathfinding for NPCs.

I'd like to thank Paxton Access and my team for making this weekend the best experience it could be!

Paul:

Space and Game design are a great combination of topics, I’m very interested in game design and telling an interactive story, the Nasa Challenge gave me the opportunity to explore this and to work alongside an extremely talented group of people 

Exploring the great expanse of the universe through a game makes learning much more fun and interactive. I invested a huge portion of time in the game design, trying to create a cohesive and immersive overworld, which ties the core gameplay elements and the overarching story. Creating a world that was simultaneously alien, yet intuitive to the player was a challenge, too alien and the world would be difficult to decipher and navigate, too recognisable and it wouldn’t feel like the player was exploring this new planet, In the end, I believe we found the right balance.

Commercial Motivate Company_Adobestock_533230199 -> licence from adobe stock ->ASLC-1C3E09E3-22352F46E6

Electric Typewriter Typing at Medium Speed 

Complex Sci Fi Alarm

from https://freesfx.co.uk/sfx/space 

Game assets:

Tile Assets - https://www.gamedevmarket.net/asset/topdown-tileset-forest-7301/

Misc - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/free-2d-mega-pack-177430

#art, #gaming, #education, #jwst, #jameswebb, #alien, #rpg, #game, #unity, #2d, #adventure, #hubble, #wise, #quiz, #puzzle