Recyclic

• GIF

  The trash compactor works a little too well.

• GIF

  Recylic!

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  The furnace of failure

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  A good sort!

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  An incorrect sort

Inspiration

The process of recycling is complicated as there are many rules for what can and cannot be recycled under what conditions. Because of this and also the fact that the results of recycling aren't immediately apparent, many people are apathetic towards the process.

We feel that simple text or video is inadequate to express all of the scenarios that happen in the world and the benefits of recycling. Virtual Reality, and especially the tracked controllers of the HTC Vive, however, allow intuitive interactions that are similar to actions with hands in the real world.

What it does

It places the player in a recycling plant and tasks them with sorting incoming trash into trash, recycling, yard waste, or battery waste bins.

If the player makes mistakes, it informs how the materials should be sorted so they can learn. If the player does well, more trash comes faster and faster, but is worth a higher score.

The game also gives a motivation of recycling correctly as the room becomes messier and messier as the player misses.

How we built it

We used the Unity game engine which is well integrated with the Vive. After that, we explored various sites to get the necessary models and research.

Challenges we ran into

One of the most challenging parts was finding all the assets online and modifying them to fit our project. We had to get a good variety so that it wouldn't get boring seeing the same pieces of trash repeatedly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This is one of the most polished games we've made. We kept the scope relatively small and focused on making the main gameplay loop as entertaining as possible.

What we learned

Small simple games are more fun than large complex games sometimes.

What's next for Recyclic

We could add more complicated interactions. For example, having to wash food out of containers or crush containers before they are ready to be disposed of.

We also had the idea of having a virtual house that must be navigated to reduce water and electrical wastage.

Built With

• 3ds-max
• internet
• unity
• vive