Dodge the Debris Storms

Inspiration

We were inspired by how space debris has become such a prevalent issue overtime in space.

What it does

The goal of our game is that the rocket which is controlled by the user’s mouse has to survive by not colliding with the space debris. If the rocket collides with the space debris, the user is taken to a Game Over screen containing background information about the current space debris problem. The point of the game is to be able to avoid the space debris for the longest amount of time.

Our solution is making a game that is a call to action for users to solve the issue of space debris in space. It simulates how much space debris there is in space and how it is constantly increasing and how overtime it has become nearly impossible to avoid space debris in space, and if this continues space debris will be all over space.

How we built it

We started off by brainstorming an idea, we knew we wanted to do something related to the issue of space debris and bringing awareness to it. We weren’t exactly sure how to do that, whether it was a visualization or a website or a game. We ultimately decided on going with a game, because we thought it would be the best and most effective way to get our point across. Then, we found a software that we could use to make our game. We decided on using Processing, so we started by familiarizing ourselves with Processing tools and resources. We started by coding the rocket which is controlled by the user’s mouse. We modified Processing Example Easing for this, and loaded an rocket image into Processing. We then continued by coding the space debris that randomly move around the screen, and also continue to increase randomly. We did this by modifying the Bouncy Balls Processing example, to not use gravity and also increased the number of balls. We then coded the collision method which detects when there is a collision that occurs between the rocket and the debris and ends the game when that occurs. Next, we made the game over card that is displayed when there is a collision that occurs between the rocket and the debris, this card has information that helps users to develop a deeper understanding of space debris in space, and shows the user that brings space debris to the user’s attention as an important issue that needs to be solved. Finally, we added a timer that times how long the rocket lasts before colliding with the debris.

Challenges we ran into

We had some issues with image loading in Processing, some issues with figuring out how to detect collisions that occur with images that we had loaded in.