Growtopia

Inspiration

• Our team's dedication to environmental conservation and tree planting has been the driving force behind our game development.
• We took cues from Forestapp's mix of gaming and tree planting to create games that promote eco-awareness and good habits.
• Inspired by Lumosity, we love the concept of a main goal, and then the user can develop it by playing multiple mini-games.
• Our goal is simple: entertain players while encouraging a love for nature and boosting mental skills.

What it does

• Our games revolve around planting trees using water drops as currency, allowing players to actively contribute to reforestation.
• Players witness the growth of their trees through different stages, reflecting real-life tree development.
• Earn more water drops by playing mini-games like Word Tetris, Pacman, Doodle Jump, Quizzes, or by watching ads.
• Compete on leaderboards for each mini-game to earn rewards based on performance.
• Engage in daily and hourly tasks for additional challenges and rewards, enhancing the gaming experience.
• Interact with the other users, view their forests, and achievements, gift them water drops, and share virtual tree cards with friends.
• Integrate with Google Wallet for collecting virtual tree cards, adding a personal touch to the game.

How we built it

• Our team consisted of three members: one project manager who also developed the game and served as the main game designer, one game designer who provided project support, and one artist who created assets.
• We utilized Flutter for the front end, ensuring a smooth and responsive user interface.
• The backend tasks for user management and game result management, APIs, and Dashboard backend were handled by Supabase.
• Animations were created using Lottie files, and Flame texture atlas, while assets were provided by our artist.

Challenges we ran into

• We faced challenges due to our limited experience in game development, which posed a steep learning curve.
• Lack of time because we joined the challenge quite late. We only have 1.5 months to start and finish the project
• Lack of documentation for Google Wallet integration in Flutter required extensive research efforts.
• Managing states in Flutter for game development proved to be challenging for us.
• Building games without a dedicated engine led to an increase in the size of our codebase.
• The performance of our audio player fell short of expectations, prompting the need for optimization.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• We're proud to integrate tree planting into our games, contributing to environmental sustainability.
• The game is fully cloud-based and can be accessed from any device without losing progress with the help of Supabase.
• Almost completing our games signifies a significant milestone in our journey.
• Successfully deploying our games on both mobile app and web platforms expands our reach.
• Despite distance and limited interaction, working effectively as a new team demonstrates our resilience and collaboration skills.
• Contribute a small part to environmental protection

What we learned

• We've learned how to develop games using Flutter, enhancing our skills in creating interactive user experiences.
• Flame is a quite good game engine, and easy to start building games, even for beginners.
• Through the game development process, we've gained insights into the importance of thorough planning, including documentation, gameplay design, and asset creation.
• We've discovered that Flutter excels in building UI, even for gaming applications, due to its flexibility and performance.

What's next for Growtopia

• Partner with tree planting groups to plant trees when users make donations or when the games generate revenue or gain traction.
• Add more games to our collection to provide users with a wider variety of options.
• Incorporate social features into our games to encourage sharing and virality.
• Submit the app to the App Store and PlayStore to reach a wider audience.

Built With

• chatgpt
• flame
• flutter
• supabase