Inspiration
We were inspired by the various changes on our planet recently both due to the pandemic and also various climate changes recently due to increased carbon emissions and also how well the technology was available for people in the remotest places of earth with even difficulty to get basic needs and how people spent hours gaming in recent times, so we thought what if we divert even 10% of that time to help build a better planet which can also be fun and rewarding, that is what inspired us to create this game which is both rewarding and fun for people to care for our planet because passive learning like seeing a video about environment might not be as interactive when compared to an active learning method like gaming for a change.
What it does
It is a game and social media combined to form one in which the player can do actions in real world like plant a tree or do an awareness campaign to get in game XP and virtual currency called ecocoins and these ecocoins can be spent in the game to do various purchases and also the ones who earn most ecocoins in a month get few monetary benefits for their efforts of sustainability for our planet, we should say we built a gamcation rather than saying we built a game because it is both a game and an educating platform which educates people and urges them to take sensible choices rather than easy ones, we are considering various styles of games but we would say we are leaning towards a city building choice based story driven game at the moment and you can also interact with various people both friends and strangers in the social space and review what their doing as a part of keeping Earth healthy.
How we built it
We build a basic pseudo code of our app which needs to be converted into a working logic algorithm in either kotlin or C# and also we want to use various platforms like adobe or canvas to design the art style of our game.
Challenges we ran into
One challenge we ran into was our inexperience with coding, being Chemical Engineering students we don’t know coding very much so we had to learn various syntaxes of coding languages and the other challenges for the environment that we ran into were the coal which was burned to charge the laptop that was used to design this, the minerals that were used to produce the laptop we worked on, the various non sustainable choices we made that effected the earth and writing this here might look like sarcasm but we believe there are many more challenges that the earth is facing to provide us with the facilities to finish this project and we'll work hard to make sure those challenges aren’t a waste and make earth proud.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We discovered about this hackathon just 2 days before the deadline and we’re very happy that we could complete the work in parallel to the tight schedule we had and also we’re quite happy with the new ideas we were able to incorporate into our app/game and irrespective of result we are happy that we ran into people who are passionate about the planet and who are trying to change the world recognising the harm for our future generations, and we’re proud that we were able to connect with them.
What we learned
We learned the various aspects of how various pitching platforms work, had a productive discussion with both our mentors and organisers who are the zenith experts in their respective fields of climate protection and this made us analyse problems of the world in a superior manner and how to go on the right track for a desirable outcome while trying to be as carbon neutral as possible and also we understood the power and ripple effects of small actions.We also learned how to be a more effective team and we thank The OATHE Project for giving us this delightful opportunity.
What's next for Ecothereum
We want to incorporate various features like being able to request our organisation to plant a tree on behalf of the person using the app if it is their birthday or any special event by using their share of ecocoins earned in the game and the ad revenue which was earned from it would be used to plant a tree in a highly deforested area and also incorporate various NGOs into our game as characters which propagate the ideology of them to players so that we can educate them about efforts of various organisations.
Our Team
So this is a story on why, how and what is the major motto for formation of our team, instead of a single person generalising the team, we wanted to share the personal perspectives of each and everyone of us to be included here.In actual most of the conversation happens in our native language Telugu but this is an unabridged version of that in English.
I am Chanakya Akhil
I want to share my perspective on how I met these two perfectly imperfect beings I call my teammates today, so after the COVID pandemic in Jan 2022, our University gates were finally open for offline mode of teaching and I was already in my 2nd year of Chemical Engineering by that time and it was too strange to have been a 2nd year student with no physical interaction with my classmates and at end of January our classmates decided to go on a trip to Araku Valley, there while we're moving out I saw two of my classmates picking up litter disposed by our classmates and I went to them and asked if I could join them and they allowed me to help them, and in the process I asked them what inspired them to do such an action and my friend Rajvardhan replied that he felt as if his house is filled with garbage and he felt like he needed to clean that and that inspired me very much and all it took was 10 minutes to clean that place that day but the satisfaction we felt is present till date and doing these minor 10-15 minute things a day can help us immensely.Later we went on to many events and places and did many clean-drives that gave us inner relief and bonded strongly on our similar ideologies.I saw people change their words when it comes to money, but organisations like The OATHE project are really working towards a better future and in return all they asked for is just some commitment towards planet.Me and Sreekar interacted with various mentors and Organisers like Sherry Heschuk, Mikellena Nettos, Katie Larson, Anga Mbeyiya and Shitangshu Roy in the event and we really feel that while people idolise on actors and celebs it is in reality you people who are the real heroes of our planet.
Sreekar here.
Together with our classmates, we took the trip to Araku Valley as a part of practical learning and to broaden our horizons. The trip is fantastic. We made our way through the hills on foot and slept there one night. The surrounding nature was incredibly entertaining and devoid of city noise and pollution. nonetheless, we discovered this evil plastic rubbish in such lovely surroundings. The majority of our classmates paid little attention to the rubbish and litter that was all around us. But one day I discovered my friend Rajvardhan diligently scrubbing the area clean. I initially didn't understand why he was cleaning the area when we were leaving in a few days.When I asked, he responded, and his response left me feeling shaken from the inside out and with it ever since. "Either ignore it just like a blind man and destroy the humanity inside of you, or work hard in your limits to create a change till your last breath and let the humanity live for millennia," he stated. this one statement immediately made me aware of how limited my classmates' perspectives were, and I immediately joined him in the cleansing process.Later our team mate Chanakya Akhil also joined us in the cleaning process and our ideologies are so similar and we developed a great bond among us in very short period of time.
Hello this is Rajvardhan.
I'm a bit shy in social situations, so spending time with nature is very relaxing for me. I believe there is an unseen link between us and Mother Earth. We are born from the earth, take resources from the earth, live on this planet, and eventually mix in this soil. We are completely dependent on nature from the moment we are born until the moment we die. It pains me to see people destroying nature in the name of progress. I'm not opposed to development, but I believe the economy and the environment must coexist. I also took part in Sadhguru's cauvery calling mission, where I worked to protect and clean water resources.I'm not much of a talker, and I'm ready to dive into the field and make a difference for a clean and green planet. Intentions are more important to me than impact. Your effects may be minor, but your intentions are not. Be truthful about your intentions and begin working for a better tomorrow. The Earth, the Air, the Land and the Water are not an inheritance from our forefathers but a loan from our children.So we have to handover it to the next generation atleast as it is handover to us.
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