Galactive Gallivanters| Breakthrough
Breakthrough
Rocket Technology Demonstration
Summary
The team Galative Gallivanters presents the project Rocket Technology Demonstration in the form of a video game. The project's purpose is to stimulate its players with a greater interest in the advancing rocketry technology and the evolving space industry. The project is a third-person perspective 3D game developed on Unity. Players are able to control one of four rockets with different engines. The goal of the game is to dodge asteroids and planets. The repeatability and simplicity of the game allow the players to easily interact with the rockets and understand each engine's unique characteristics.
How We Addressed This Challenge
We intended to develop a video game that visualizes different types of rocket engines through interactive space maneuvering gameplay. The typical depiction of rockets in the modern time is that of the rockets that were launched in the late 20th century: huge cylindrical rockets propelled by chemical reaction. With the fast growing rocket industry, shifting the attention to newly introduced rocket technology is necessary to boost the advancement. We addressed this issue through our project.
Our game combines the retro game style and modern technology designs. The player can choose to play as a rocket with one of the four different types of rocket engines: liquid fuel engine, ion thruster, solar sail, and nuclear thermal engine. The player can choose between the rocket types freely. The gameplay involves dodge asteroids and planets of the solar system. Each rocket with different assets gives its player a diverse experience.
Players are able to physically experience each engine's advantages and drawbacks. Through the hands-on experience we hope to invoke greater interest in the evolving space rocket industry to players.
How We Developed This Project
Our team first began by brainstorming various concepts and direction of development in an online meeting. We assigned ourselves roles based on the skills and experiences each member has for different software, mainly Unity, Blender, and Audacity. Due to a minor discord in the direction of our development, we worked on the framework of the projects, such as the main menu, UI, and background modeling. Once we agreed on making a asteroid-dodging game, we continued to work toward finishing the project.
Our team used the game developing tool Unity, the 3D modeling tool Blender, and the sound designing tool Audacity to develop a game that visualizes different rocket engines.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
We used the space agency data to reference rocket engine designs, the engines’ relative differences in performance, and the information about their mechanisms. We tried our best to project the most accurate representation of the rocket engines based on NASA’s data.
Project Demo
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TUmIRPjnWpC7W9rUoyiD6IV8QqK6bdy3yTMgqBJGb28/edit?usp=sharing