OrbitZero

Orbit Zero is a sci-fi RPG that turns students’ in-game decisions into three explainable career directions, university pathways, and next steps.

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Inspiration

“Orbit Zero began with my cousin. She is in Grade 12 and still struggles to choose a career path that fits her personality while also offering financial stability. She tried many career-guidance tools and completed hundreds of multiple-choice questions, but none gave her a direction she could truly trust.

Her experience reflects a wider challenge for high school and pre-university students around the world. That is why we built Orbit Zero: a website that transforms a boring career test into an engaging sci-fi adventure, where meaningful choices create a personalized career path and help students make one of the most important decisions of their lives.”

What it does

-OrbitZero is a pixel-art career-exploration RPG. Players create an alien character, explore a galaxy, avoid planets, and complete three problem-solving missions. Their choices, values, education stage, country, budget, study-time preference, and income urgency generate three possible career paths. Each result includes a study route, an experience-building timeline, and school guidance labelled Reach, Match, and More Accessible

How we built it

-We built OrbitZero as a responsive web application using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Node.js. JavaScript powers the canvas-based galaxy, WASD movement, missions, puzzles, local profile saving, career scoring, and results. The Node server securely handles the AI pathway request. When OPENAI_API_KEY is available, it can use OpenAI live research; when it is unavailable, the app safely uses a curated school database so the experience still works

Challenges we ran into

-The biggest challenge was keeping the experience engaging without making it feel like a complicated game or an unreliable personality test. We also had to protect API keys, validate AI responses, avoid inventing acceptance rates or admissions promises, and make recommendations relevant to students in Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam. Another challenge was reducing text so the results remain useful rather than overwhelming.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Creating a new wesite for younger generation to have a bright, clear pathway for them to accomplished their career with flexible schedule.
  • Bringing an idea to life ## What we learned
  • We learned that gamification is not only about adding points or animations—it can help users reflect on difficult choices in a less intimidating way.
  • We also learned that AI career guidance needs strong boundaries: it should be transparent, source-aware, privacy-conscious, and clearly presented as guidance rather than a prediction of someone’s future. ## What's next for OrbitZero -Next, we want to improve the game with more missions, more countries, verified university, and optional educator or counsellor dashboards. We also want to test OrbitZero with real students to learn whether the game is engaging, understandable, fair, and genuinely helpful for career exploration.

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