-
Main Menu
-
Level one
-
Inspiration
In our brainstorming session we were trying find topics that we were all passionate about. We knew from the beginning the we were interested in doing a Social Welfare project. Knowing our skill sets and the challenges available, we wanted to create something that would educate children about physics which would increase awareness in STEM fields. We decided on creating a game which would allow players to place objects in positions that solve the task that is laid out for them. We then thought of different level ideas to make the game appeal to kids.
What it does
It is a browser game made in Unity which contains two levels: A more gravitational accurate stacking level where the limit is only your imagination and an orbital mechanics level where the player must move a falling meteor onto a platform by using blocks unaffected by gravity.
How we built it
We used Unity and C# which for the most part our programmers had never used before and our artists used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
Challenges we ran into
Learning an entire game engine and a new programming language is quite the challenge! But we also ran into many design problems like implementing the main game mechanic of placing blocks into the level which was not completed until 2 A.M. today. We also ran into issues with turning gravity on and off, which allows players to build their structure with no forces acting upon them. Because of the way that we created the game, on three separate computers, we ran into some issues with scaling the levels and objects, which took some time to resolve.
Accomplishments that we're proud of...
We are very proud of what we were able to accomplish with this game, especially the main game mechanic and some of the unique ideas we thought of while designing the game. Specifically we are proud of the difference between our project one year ago, and our project today. Going into the competition, the number one thing that we wanted to do was get a finished project that accomplishes the basic parameters we set for the project.
What we learned
We learned Unity and C# as well as skills important to programmers and software engineers like having multiple team members working a project at the same time using a repository and finding the solutions to difficult programming challenges. Our team is composed of a mixture of computer/software engineers and mechanical engineers. For the Mechanical Engineering students, the ability to get more familiar with syntax in C# and Unity was valuable. While both of the mechanical engineering students have used other programming languages in the past, they were able to observe the students more familiar with coding and help to make sure the physics were realistic.
What's next for Behrend Blocks
The team is definitely interested in continuing development on the project by adding new levels and game mechanics in the future, or perhaps developing the game in 3 dimensions.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.