Inspiration
This game comes from a real-life poverty simulation experience that has informed how I understand differing socioeconomic classes and how we can all gain empathy by spending a day in someone else's shoes.
What it does
You leap into a character you know nothing about. It's not clear who you are, what your gender is, what pronouns you would use, or your skin color. It's your job to interact with other Non-Player Characters (NPC's) to navigate the world, gain points, and eventually discover a mirror to reveal who you've been playing.
Attempted Build
The goal for this hackathon was to develop a prototype game that would lead to a larger conversation on how the game could evolve and grow with support from a team of interested gamers. The pilot has yet to be built, but a rough prototype is in progress using the Unity Game Engine.
Challenges we ran into
The first challenge was learning how to use Unity. Luckily, Unity provides a sample game with a working scene that you can download and use. The sample game is set to work with a specific instance of Visual Studio Code. After getting these products up and running, it turned out Amazon Q was not an option for this version of VS Code. The killer error message stated: "Error while installing 'Amazon Q' extension. (Unable to install 'amazonwebservices.amazon-q-vscode extension because it is not compatible with the current version of VS Code (Version 1.52.1)"
To address this challenge, I used my personal AWS account to interact with Amazon Q to ask questions on how to get started with Unity. I wondered how to create an interactive text box when the character bumps into an NPC to begin a dialogue.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
The AWS Game Builder Challenge lit a fire under this idea that's been percolating for over a year. It's exciting that this attempted prototype has led to insightful conversations on making this game easily accessible.
What we learned
Despite the best intentions, we learned about the game developer challenge a month late and have struggled to create the type of prototype we were hoping for.
What's next for Dante's Mirror
The purpose of participating in this hackathon was to start a conversation around the feasibility of a sympathy game that can help educate people on what it feels like to be on the receiving end of micro-aggressions. Additionally, it can teach skills to those looking to better handle micro-aggressions in real time.
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