Eco Quest

Logo of the game

Inspiration

Back in high school when we were studying together, we completed many projects in the "Global Perspective" subject, but they were only presentations and written reports. Among all the projects we worked on, "Promoting Renewable Energy" and "Eco-Friendly Living" were the ones that held a special place in our hearts. We truly desired to bring them to life and implement them in the real world. After choosing our individual paths to success and going our separate ways, we are a team gain. Encountering the "Global Gamers Challenge" greatly motivated and helped us to pursue our goal and implement it in real world manner. We have decided to create an eco-friendly game that promotes the use of renewable energy sources in a very friendly and fun way, while providing crucial educational content that everyone needs to be aware of. It is one of the methods we researched that we truly want to apply.

What it does

Game offers users an eco-friendly atmosphere where players can build their own unique town from scratch with a focus on use of renewable energy sources to provide energy for the town. The game provides important information during in-game conversations and in descriptions of resources and buildings about how to use each source effectively and its benefits. There are different types of buildings to expand the town and progress and different renewable energy sources to provide energy for the town. It is highly encouraged to be efficient during the game.

Key features:

Town Building and Customization

Build and customize your virtual town with residential, commercial, and industrial zones Update buildings to increase efficieny

Energy Source Selection

Choose from a variety of energy sources, including solar, wind, hydroelectric, and biomass.

Resource Management Manage your town's resources, including energy production, consumption, and distribution. Monitor energy usage, adjust production levels

Education and Information

Learn about energy conservation, renewable energy technologies, and environmental impact through informative tips, facts, and tutorials.

Scoring and Progress Tracking

Earn points and rewards based on your town's energy efficiency, sustainability efforts, and overall progress. Track your performance through leaderboards and performance metrics.

Use real-time map viewing

See what others are building with real-time map viewing features to get insights

How we built it

We built the game according to the engineering design process. Initially, we brainstormed ideas focusing on given topics such as reducing home energy consumption, promoting renewable energy sources, minimizing single-use plastics, and advocating for the use of public transportation for sustainability. Subsequently, we evaluated these solutions using the decision matrix we created to determine which game to develop. Ultimately, the concept of 'reducing home energy consumption' received the highest number of points. To develop this game, we mostly used Agile Project Management approach tailored different practices depending on the developer’s preference, requirements and sometimes creativity and organization.

For the educational content, we initially researched how renewable energy sources such as solar panels, wind generators, and hydropower work, and how they contribute to sustainability. We included information on how to utilize these resources, their functionality, their role in enhancing efficiency, and supporting sustainable practices. Additionally, our team conducted research on the energy output of standard generators over specific time intervals and determined reasonable pricing for both generators and commercial buildings to ensure accuracy and precision in the cost ratios, offering users a realistic gaming experience.

Challenges we ran into

One of the challenges we faced during the building of this project was finding assets for buildings, generators, and other elements. It was really hard to find and implement moving assets in the game. The second, and more difficult, challenge was to build the game in an isometric view. We tried to develop the game isometrically to provide users with a realistic experience, but it was truly challenging for us to do so. That is why we decided to build a 2D game for now. Maybe later in the future, we will upgrade it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are really proud of ourselves that we have managed to collaborate well and build our first real-world project together. We are happy that we have implemented everything we planned: key features such as building and customizing buildings, using renewable energy sources to encourage reduction in home energy use, managing energy generation and consumption during the game, money income and outcome, tracking rank among other players, and additional features such as being able to view other players' maps to get ideas.

What we learned

As this is our first project as a team, we learned a lot about working collaboratively. We learned how to effectively communicate with other developers to discuss the project. Additionally, we utilized various project management approaches and applied software development cycle to build this project. We are really happy to have started this journey. Furthermore, we felt a significant improvement in our technical and soft skills throughout the process. As Project Manager, Game Developer, and Web Developer, each of us gained more knowledge and honed our skills.

What's next for Eco Quest

Having seen the results of our work , we are highly motivated to continue even after the competition. We will continue to work on the project and try to build a more realistic game using different techniques, such as 3D or isometric. After implementing these methods and improving our project, we aim to continually upgrade new versions of the game and publish them on different platforms for the public. Our goal is to encourage even more people to use renewable energy sources instead of home energy, while providing a realistic gaming experience and fun.