Cosmic Capybaras

Rzeszow | Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Stargazing

High-Level Project Summary

We have created an educational game about star variability, with an interactive sky map. Unlike traditional maps, our one is not stationary - the stars' appearance is not fixed, just like in real life. By manipulating the time, players can see how different stars change their brightness. Our game solves the challenge by teaching people about space in an accessible way, that everyone can enjoy in their free time. It is important because by using games as educational tools we can reach more people - regardless of age or education level - and teach them something in a fun way. Moreover, the competition mode encourages challenging one's knowledge and stimulates curiosity about the world.

Once the app is opened, the user is shown the title screen with 3 buttons: "Play" (where the game modes can be selected), "Library" (with data about different star types) and "Settings" (where the user can switch the music on and off).

Play:

In our game players have four modes to choose from:

Sample mode: In this mode, players can see how stars change their brightness in time - within the course of 25 days. Each star's name and category is displayed after selecting it.

Guess mode: after learning about the behaviour of different star categories, players can challenge their knowledge. In the second mode, a player is shown five stars, and their challenge is to assign each of them to an appropriate category. The goal is to correctly categorise the stars as quickly as possible.

Duel mode: the third mode is for playing with friends. Both players receive the same 5 stars to categorise and they take turns in guessing. Once they finish, a summary shows who assigned more stars correctly, and what was the time of each player.

Man vs machine mode: the last mode is a challenge versus a machine. Players can challenge themselves if they are able to select more stars correctly in a shorter time that the bot.

In each mode, the player can choose between manual and automatic time control. Manual manipulation can be performed by dragging the slider on the left screen side with a cursor. Automatic control is available in three speed modes - slow, medium and fast, which can be selected by clicking on the buttons in the upper left corner (three buttons with one, two or three "play" symbols, respectively). To stop the simulation, one can also choose the "pause" button.

Additionally, in the Guess, Duel and Man vs machine mode there is also a timer above the time control buttons.

Days which have passed since the beginning of simulation are displayed on the right side of the slider (the time can change from 0 to 25 days, and the changes in brightness can be observed every 6 hours, so every quarter of a day).

Library:

In the "Library" section players can read additional information about star categories and see their brightness graphs over time. It is recommended to familiarise oneself with the Library's contents prior to playing the game, as understanding and remembering the light curves is the key to guessing each star's category correctly.

What do we hope to achieve?

The aim of our project is to present how night sky changes in an accessible way, and encourage people to learn about different types of stars. The topic is extremely interesting but complex - this game-project provides the user with basic knowledge in a simple and entertaining way, which makes the learning process much easier. We hope that the simulation of stars' changes in brightness will be helpful in understanding the light curves (the light curves might seem a bit abstract and difficult to understand to an inexperienced person).

Tools, coding languages, software etc.:

The game is available in the form of a web app, so it is easily available for everyone without installation. The game is made using unity with c#. Star data has been written in a JSON file, which allows for adding more stars in the future in an easy way. Data was collected from the internet sources (see: References) and transformed to a game-friendly format using python 3.

Pixel art graphics were created in Aseprite, music was generated with AIVA AI, other in-game sounds were created in BFXR.

Space Agency Data

Light curves and what they can tell us: https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/timing1.html

Cataclysmic variables:

https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/cataclysmic_variables.html

Cepheids:

https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/cepheids.html

Inspirational image for the entire project (we selected a sky fragment similar in size):

https://archive.stsci.edu/missions-and-data/kepler

Data processing – “lightkurve” TESS Data Analysis tool - useful for obtaining light curves and the stars' brightness and coordinates

https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/tess/software.html

https://docs.lightkurve.org/tutorials/1-getting-started/searching-for-data-products.html

Hackathon Journey

The challenge that we've chosen seemed interesting and unusual - if you look at the sky at night, you don't realise how many types of stars exist there, and how often their brightness varies. We thought that bringing this knowledge to others would make them wonder about the surrounding universe and interest them as well. We chose to make a game, because it seemed like the most accessible and fun way of learning. Moreover, simulating the night sky changes seemed like a task that could result in a visually attractive solution.

Our Space Apps experience has been quite intense but enjoyable. We had to learn about different types of variable stars, and present the information in a succinct and possibly simple way. We broadened our knowledge in data processing and astrophysics, and we learned how to use new tools such as the powerful "lightkurve" Python package. The most difficult part was filtering the data and finding appropriate examples - it was very time-consuming and it would have been better if we had browsed the datasets prior to the hackathon itself. Because of that, we limited the number of examples and focused on diversifying their categories, so that the changes in brightness would be more distinctive. We split the tasks between the team members to optimise the time - two of us were responsible for data analysis, and the other two had to create the web application which utilised the data. This enabled us to finish the project in time. Consulting the problems with other teammates and mentors was extremely helpful in finding appropriate solutions, as we all had different experiences and backgrounds.