The Sustainability Game

Game screenshot
Title screen

Inspiration

Gameplay:

The Uber Game: https://ig.ft.com/uber-game/
Time for Payback: https://www.timeforpayback.com/
Reigns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zaLmx9yMr4

Graphics:

Hidden Folks: https://hiddenfolks.com/

What it does

This is a 2D choose-your-own-adventure-style game, which places you in the role of someone who just moved to Middletown, and walks you through various scenarios in which you have to make decisions about living sustainably throughout different times of year.

How we built it

Game programmed with GameMaker Studio 2 and GameMaker Language. Graphics created with Goodnotes 6, GIMP, and Inkscape (for the logo).

Challenges we ran into

GameMaker was a new program to most of us (I had experience with it, but with a much older version). As such, we faced the challenge of learning how to use GM in the 24 hours. Collaboration on the code was also a problem we had to work through, because we couldn't work on the same thing at the same time. Creating graphics was also difficult, in terms of time considerations and importing the graphics into GameMaker. This was also the first hackathon for all of us, so we were learning on the job with regard to assigning roles for the group.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of having gone from not even having GameMaker installed to having a playable game with a solid foundation that executes our premise along with graphics that effectively enough presents the game’s necessary visual information. We’re also proud of our team being very collaborative and cooperative with one another despite none of us meeting each other beforehand. We’re also proud of managing our time well enough in under 24 hours to get each essential aspect of the game done. We’re lastly proud of our game helping contribute to its cause of sustainability awareness.

What we learned

Each of us learned new skills depending on the tasks we assigned ourselves to do to contribute to the project. Duy especially learned how to design graphics in Goodnotes 6 and how to use GIMP to edit and finalize images. Andrew especially learned how to contribute ideas to the design process of a game and how to organize them on a Google Doc. Wilder and Nyla especially learned how to use GameMaker’s most recent version. We all learned more about effective collaboration and communication and doing productive research into the subject.