Team Winnable| Orbital Scrap Metal – The Video Game V2.0

Awards & Nominations

Team Winnable has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!

Global Nominee

Orbital Scrap Metal – The Video Game V2.0

Orbital debris is an ever-increasing threat to space assets such as Earth observation satellites and space stations and explorers. Your challenge is to create an orbital debris collection videogame web-app and imagine the possibilities of new companies that collect orbital debris and salvage the scrap metal to manufacture new products in space.

Debris Defender

Summary

Debris Defender is a 2D bullet hell simulation game where the player’s spaceship destroys orbital debris and collects useful scrap metal while avoiding the dangers that come with the mission. Players can choose from an navigation map where to deploy for their mission, and each location around satellites has a unique challenging feature such as more asteroids, faster asteroid speed, larger debris, etc. The player’s task is to survive, destroy debris, and collect metal to be used for production, as well as clean up space. In the future, we plan on having a trading system where players can trade in the scrap metal they collected for various cosmetic items and upgrades to the spacecraft.

How We Addressed This Challenge

Through this game, we aim to create a fun and interactive medium to raise awareness about the issue of orbital debris. Valuable space assets are in constant danger of taking damage and must be protected. That is why the space surrounding our planet must be kept clean.

How We Developed This Project

We created Debris Defender in Java using the Slick2D game library. IntelliJ was used as the primary IDE for team members. Github was employed for version control and to share the code with all the members of our team. The majority of our team already has experience working with these platforms, which is why we chose to use them to develop our project. The artwork was original and created using pixilart.com. The video demo was recorded with AMD Radeon Software and edited in DaVinci Resolve.

How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project

NASA's data was extremely influential in the creation of the project. The vast amount of debris we discovered around Earth inspired us to create a project that would bring attention to this issue and address the challenges that it creates. We used NASA’s SpaceBirds code base to obtain a listing of all the objects that are in orbit around Earth and picked 4 specifically to include as missions in our game. We also used the SpaceBirds website to obtain an image that shows the location of the object.

Project Demo
Project Code
Data & Resources
  • pixilart.com - Used to create original artwork for the game
  • worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/spacebirds/ - Used to obtain image of location
  • raw.githubusercontent.com/WorldWindLabs/SpaceBirds/master/data/all_on-orbit_bodies.json - Complete listing of all in-orbit obejcts
Tags
#game #debris #educational #fun
Judging
This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Judging process.