Aqua Mermaids

Inspiration

Our inspiration for our project is that there are many environmental issues because of human-made developments, so we wanted to address one of the issues. We chose to focus on the ocean because it was an interest of ours to help bring awareness to how the ocean and the animals are being affected, which is starting to cause irreversible damage. We know that people might feel helpless when it comes to trying to solve this issue and that is why, with our project, we want people to know they can do something to help.

What it does

Our game has mermaids images as the main characters that players can move around the screen with the arrow keys. This allows players to be able to collect coins that are scattered around. If the player moves the mermaid off the screen, then it will die and a skeleton will appear, which wouldn't allow it to collect coins.

How we built it

By using Replit, we are able to share the update or made the change for the code. Each member has a different role and mission to work on. Creating the scene and background is the very first thing we do, then we try to figure out how to add the image to decorate the background to suit the theme we chose. Next step, we add the player to the scene and apply the movement for them. We also add a death state for the player when they go over the edge. And we add some enemies and coins.

Challenges we ran into

We encountered many challenges as it was our first time coding with Pygame. We had to watch many tutorial videos to learn about the syntax and figure out how to do simple tasks such as displaying our characters on the screen or more challenging ones such as moving them around. From adding classes for players to adding a function so that the player would change characters if they move out of the screen, we had to spend hours researching and figuring out the bugs. We tried out some software to share our codes so that we would stay updated with the latest version and in the end, despite all our ...

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We developed great communication throughout the time we created this project by updating each other on the new functions we have added or what we are working on and helping each other with any questions we had. Working as a cohesive team was also important and something we are proud of because we were able to create the beginning of our project idea. We are also proud of our dedication because, although we know the Python language, using the different functionalities of Pygame was difficult. Overall, we are proud of any little aspect of this project, as we had fun.

What we learned

As mentioned, we are new to pygame, so there is a lot of stuff we have to learn for us to make a game or stuff. But mainly, we learned basic game design, like setting up the display or processing events using .blit() and .flip(). We also worked with sprites images, like adding background images or alternative object constructors.

What's next for Aqua Mermaids

While our project is not completed, we look forward to extending and adding features such as pop quiz, obstacles, enemies, and characters. Aqua Mermaids purpose is to educate our players about environmental issues. Therefore, to check the understanding and comprehension of our players, quizzes will be given in the game to enhance their learning capabilities. Additionally, our goal is to donate to organizations that help battle the issues affecting the ocean based on the amount of coins each player collects. We will also provide resources at the end of the game, so people are aware of what they can do to help with the well-being of the environment. Moreover, obstacles will be added to mirror real world obstacles that affect the ocean, such as pollution. Enemies also go along with this concept. Aqua Mermaids has many more updates to come.