High-Level Project Summary
The Space Observatory is a game that is for 8-10 years olds hoping to teach them about how good the James Webb Space Telescope is. The game does this by having the player search for space objects that get further and further away from earth, each time upgrading their telescope. The app also tells why the telescopes get better and better. Helping the player have fun searching through space and learn about how telescopes work.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
In this game, the user is in control of a telescope. They get to move the telescope to explore a big picture that was taken by either the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, or just a photo from Earth. The player is told to look for a specific object or part of the object, this object is also described to help the user learn about the object they are looking for. These objects could range from, a planet, the center of a galaxy, or some event in space occurring. Once the player finds this object they upgrade and go to a new one. After 3 object finds, they move from an Earth telescope to the Hubble Space Telescope, after 3 more object finds, they move from the Hubble to the James Webb Space Telescope. This comprises of9 different challenges for the user to complete. After the user completes the 9 challenges they are rewarded with their gained knowledge of space and hopefully with a curiosity to learn more. The main goals are for the user to want to learn more about space and to be introduced into deep space.
The app was made in HTML5 Canvas. All of the moving parts were written in Javascript. Our team used the IDE Visual Studio Code to program everything. We also used various online resources to get images to display and to display the summaries of the pictures shown.
Space Agency Data
To make our app we used images from Nasa and the description of the images. These images were the focus of the app and were shown as what was explored. The descriptions were used to tell the player exactly what they were seeing so they could learn about it.
Hackathon Journey
Our experience in this Space App challenge was really fun. Our team went from knowing nothing about telescopes to know how they work and what they are useful for. It was our first app challenge and we had a great time. We learned about teamwork and how to design an app from start to finish. When developing the project we did run into a few issues, finding the pictures and organizing the shown pictures in the right way. We got through this by splitting the work up and each member of our team does.
I would like to thank our Computer Science teacher and mentor for introducing this app challenge to us, as it was our first one. I would also like to thank each of our team members for helping out and working together.
References
https://game-icons.net
https://www.pngwing.com/en/free-png-vniyj/download
https://visualpharm.com/free-icons/arrow-595b40b75ba036ed117d546c
https://www.fonewalls.com/space-wallpapers/space-wallpaper-for-phone-024/
https://www.telescope.com/Full-Moon-11-1-12/p/103253.uts
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52303684090/in/gallery-szola08-72157721065361789/
Tags
#game #software #jameswebbspacetelescope