Mars Landing

Inspiration: We wanted to create something that used the space theme with an interactive learning experience. Mars is one of the most realistic candidates for future human colonization, but many people underestimate how difficult it would be to survive there. So, this is a game for children that helps them understand how they should survive.

What it does: Users must establish a functioning colony and keep its colonists alive. Players learn about the importance of oxygen, shelter, water, food, and supply storage. They learn fun facts along the way.

How we built it: We used the Godot Game Engine to implement the core mechanics of the interactive puzzle game. We divided the tasks by having half of the team make the art assets with pixel art softwares, and the other half implemented the code logic with the help of AI. Once we had the game built, we added data science implementation by pulling data from NASA's API: Curiosity Rover and Mars24, so that the environment of the game is dynamic and matches the current day/night cycle and temperature of Mars.

Challenges we ran into: One of our biggest challenges was exporting the game from Godot to HTML5 and getting it to run properly through a web server. We luckly found Netlify and it was as simple as dragging our project export into their UI which gave us the link where the game is hosted.

Accomplishments that we're proud of: We are surprized how much goes into gamedev, and that we got a working prototype. This did feel like a impossible task mid-day however we got through it.

What we learned: We learned how to import real data science implementation and incorporate it into a game so that the product stays educational providing real information about Mars pulled from NASA's APIs.

What's next for Mars Landing: Since this is presented as a game, we can add as many features as we want - further adding complexity to the game. This would open up possibilities to museums, classrooms, and any educational purposes.