Inspiration
When we first started brainstorming, we thought about what was most important to us, which was sustainability. However, we didn't want it be a normal educational application where users could get bored of it quickly so we decided to do it in a fun way and create a game but with an educational intent.
What it does
Thryve is a virtual farming app that promotes social awareness for sustainable farming methods in the real world. Players choose from seven global farming regions—USA, Europe, South America, South Asia, East Asia, Australia, and Africa—and manage crops over a three-month harvest period. Starting with an initial budget based on their selected farm size--small ($10,000), medium ($25,000), or large ($50,000)--users are challenged to implement eco-friendly farming techniques.
After each successful harvest, Thryve donates a portion of its earnings to a non-profit organization supporting sustainable agriculture, encouraging players to engage with both the virtual and real-world impacts of responsible farming practices.
How we built it
After deciding on the idea and agreeing on making it a mobile app, we did some research to decide which platform we wanted to use to make the app. We ended up deciding on using XCode because it was the most accessible to us. We wanted to inform users about the native plants in the specific regions in the app, so we did some research about the native plants in each region and added them into the app. We emplyed a user-centered design approach, and created wireframes most accessible to users. We coded features like shopping for seeds, watering plants, and harvesting them using the language Swift
Challenges we ran into
We ran into multiple challenges like limited resources, technical issues, and debugging difficulties. However through communication and research we overcame these challenges.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Starting this project, we thought were thinking ahead of ourselves with how complicated the app was and with how many features we wanted to implement. With persistence, we motivated each other to keep going and keep trying. We successfully developed a plant growth algorithm, realistic environmental conditions, and an effective donation system to promote sustainbility.
What we learned
The team needed to communicate and collaborate clearly to ensure we were all on the same page. It was important that we say outright what we needed from each other in the frontend and in the backend so they matched.
What's next for Thryve
In the future, we want to be able to make this a mutliplayer game so users can motivate each other to keep growing their crops and allow for more donations from non-profit organizations. We also want to expand the app so it is accessible on an Android and a web platform to reach a broader audience. For the app design, we want to be able to change the map according to the current season to show what growing plants in temperatures other than optimal are like.
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