Our team

We are a group of young students from the Slovenian minority in Italy. We come from various educational backgrounds (informatics, economics, architecture and engineering), so we decided to combine our diverse skill sets to participate in our first hackathon. We challenged ourselves with the idea of an engaging and fun video game, which was a new experience for all of us.

Game logics

The user would try to accomplish three main tasks:

• Build buildings
• Start researches
• Send rockets

Buildings

The user has the possibility to build multiple historically accurate buildings. For the demo version of the game we chose the first NASA headquarters: “The Dolley Madison House”. In the final game, different actions would be possible only in specific buildings, for example: you can launch a rocket only from a rocket site, or research only in a research center. To build a building the user will have to slide between the map and find a free spot where to build, then click on the spot and choose which building to build.

Researches

The research aspect would be the main point of the game. The user will have the possibility to do two types of research:

Research a character

When a research laboratory is completed you have the possibility to research different people related to NASA and/or space exploration, for example Van Allen. If you research the people before you launch a rocket you get bonus points.

Technology research 

There will be two different types of technology:

1. Incremental technology, which can be achieved by waiting for a specific amount of time;
2. Breakthrough technologies, which the user can achieve by completing mini-games.

Rockets

The user will have the possibility to launch a rocket at any time, however the more he invests in technology research, the higher the possibility of the launch succeeding, and vice versa. Researching a person comes into play with rockets. In case you research a person beforehand and combine her/him with the right rocket you will get bonus points.

Money

Money is one of the key factors of the game. The game starts with 100 millions dollars, which was the actual starting budget of the newly founded NASA. The user spends money every time he builds, launches a rocket or does research. The user earns funds from the congress every time a rocket launch is successful.

Awareness

Another factor is awareness. If it's high enough he/she can earn additional money by starting a fundraising campaign. Some research on a character can be started only if the awareness is high enough.

Time

The game has a timer too: the user needs to launch rockets in time or his awareness will slowly decrease. 

Events

During the game there will be the possibility of various events happening, some based on actual timelines, some will happen randomly to add/take awareness/money to your space program. 

Mini-games

In order to complete each breakthrough technology research, the user will have to win a mini-game. The mini-games will be based on teaching people how specific technology is made or how NASA came to develop that technology.

Example of mini-game: building a solar cell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_q6LRgKpTw):

the player would have to connect the different parts of a solar cell and then connect it to make electricity (drag and drop).

Example GPS (https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/gps-pizza/en/).

Simple mini-game of trigonometry with rings.

Future Plans

• Better graphics
• Storyline reaches the ISS start
• Implement more game strategy
• Implement all the logics we have explained before

All the future plans have the goal to reach "this is a game that I would play"

Tools

• Unity
• Unity tutorials - this was the most used tool ;-)  
• C#
• Photoshop
• Da Vinci

We used data from multiple sources to build the story line of events that happened in the first year of NASA foundation.

Alpha version

The alpha version of the game doesn't provide all of the game logics that we wanted to show, this is because of the lack of time.

To start the game you have to click on the Dolley Madison House, which will be instantly builded. All the task can be done from that single building. The Alpha version allows you to do just three steps, research Van Allen, research the Thor Able rocket system and launch you rocket.

What is missing from our game

• Missing an intro that explains you your goal;
• Missing the possibility to build different buildings and the task that every building allows you
• Missing minigames for the researching of the technologies;
• Missing a decent number of technologies and characters that makes the game fun and challenging;
• Missing a dialog flow that tells you what was happening on that date.

Our video presentation: https://youtu.be/Up2dh7p_LgU

Our Power Point presentation (full):

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18WoihD5T-Cb1QYxsNptgCJpuZNpsM3Sop5FgVkJEkWc/edit?usp=sharing

Our game demo (Alpha version):

http://nasaspaceapp.welb.it/

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