Aquarius

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  In game screenshot

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Inspiration

During my highschool and early college career, besides being a student I was also a snorkeling and science instructor for a water sports camp in Miami. My time spent in the water witnessing nature first hand and helping others witness it as well are some of my best memories and part of my motivation for being an engineer.

What it does

This simple video game is meant to be both educational and relaxing, allowing the user to explore a pixel art full version of some of the things I encountered while snorkeling or using an ROV in my youth. Hopefully this project inspires others to learn more about the ocean, make their own video games, or just simply enjoy a digital underwater dive.

How I built it

I created all art assets myself using piskel, an open source online editor for pixel art and sprites, as well as Tiled, an application to help create tilemaps in order to help in creating the tile map used for the game. Once the assets were made I used Phaser.js, a javascript video game framework to create the logic for the game as well as for animating sprites and connecting everything all together.

Challenges I ran into

Phaser's documentation can be lacking or ambiguous at times, leading to several hours, becoming familiar with .json files. Being faster and more efficient with my art skills was another challenge I had.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Creating a shareable digital memory of some of my favorite moments from my youth. Developing a videogame on my own in the 36 hours offered by the hackathon with art that is entirely my own.

What I learned,

How some memories can always bring a smile to your face, this project was a work of love, and the lack of sleep was definitely worth it.

What's next for Aquarius,

I want to flesh out the underwater environment more, adding dynamic fish and organisms, as well as including other activities such as sailing or windsurfing.

Built With

• javascript
• phaser.js