Ocean's Whisper

Real Time Strategy Game that simulates ocean pollution from dumping and how it affects us and the economy.

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Inspiration

Marine pollution results from land-source pollutants, most of which are dumped or floated into the ocean. The contamination can affect the health of organisms, the daily life of marine creatures, and even the worldwide economic structures. However, in the current industry, some firms target short-run profits by dumping trash directly into the sea without considering the consequences in the long run. Through this project, we wanted to give an awareness of recycling and sustainability for both private and public goods.

What it does

Our simulation shows the relationship between the total trash dumped into the ocean and the profit firms can make in both the short and long run.

How we built it

We used Unreal Engine 4 and Blueprint Visual Scripting to build a simulation game.

Challenges we ran into

  • Lack of reliable information: At first, we wanted to gather real-life data to generate a trustworthy calculator of the amount of trash and profits. However, we could only make the simulation based on assumptions due to the lack of scientific research we found. We attempted to implement economic models for various prices such as recycling, waste disposal fees, carbon credits but didn't have enough time to implement all of those.
  • Lack of experience: This is the first time we have worked with Unreal Engine and Blueprint Visual Scripting. We needed to learn and do the project at the same time.
  • We have attempted to implement multiple systems mentioned in the video, however, ran into problems while trying to connect them and make them actually work. It was challenging to structure visual script variables to run functions so that they work as a single system.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • We could give back to the community a tool that may help people raise their awareness about environmental issues.
  • It was our first time participating in a hackathon! We are so proud that we can build a project together over two days.
  • We shot for the stars but didn't work as well as we expected but learned new things and had fun working towards one goal.

What we learned

  • We have learned steps to create games using Unreal Engine and Blueprint Visual Scripting.

What's next for Ocean's Whisper

  • Use machine learning to detect pollution and profits in the long run given a hypothetical situation
  • Upgrade visual aspects and add more features to the game
  • It would be nice if we could make a mobile/web version of Ocean's Whisper and include multiple languages.

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