Presentation

Project GitHub: https://github.com/mgajewski/spaceappchallenge2019

PDF presentation: The Planeteers

Background

As a science enthusiasts, we find promoting science through interesting forms like games a promising direction. We are interested in topics of life creation in universe, especially in the midst of new scientific discoveries made by Kepler mission regarding potentially habitable exoplanets. So during the Space Apps Challenge we have come up with an idea of an educational game, which in a colorful, enjoyable way can pass the basic knowledge about some characteristics of a solar systems, stars and planets, which could probably result in sparking life. We think that mixing science with fun is the best way to inspire younger generations.

We have made research and specified some key components and characteristics of stars and planets which have influence on possibility of blooming of life. Then, upon them, we have built a story to tell in a form of a educational card game.

What it does

The Planeteers is a game about building a solar system. The game is a card game based on resource management and decision making, involving catastrophic (or not) events impacting on how the solar system behaves and evolves. You need to use following building blocks to build a system and spark life in it:

• Hydrogen
• Carbon
• Oxygen
• Iron
• Energy
• Antimatter

The game gives the player random cards and forces him to make some pretty important decisions with some major consequences. It also lets the player gain, lose and exchange resources in order to achieve a bunch of major milestones needed to unlock the life harboring potential of a system:

• Building a star
• Building a planet
• Igniting the planet core, in order to create magnetosphere
• Putting the planet into habitable zone
• Changing the size of a planet
• Bringing water to the planet
• Starting volcanic activity
• and finally - seeding the life on the planet

Between the milestones, many things can happen - asteroid strikes, solar storms, unstable star behavior - all of them giving players the opportunity to manage his resources and find the perfect mixture to unlocking the next milestone.

The gameplay is simple. Game prepares a random deck for the player, in which current milestone and some random events related to the current solar system state are present. The order of the cards is random. Game takes each card from the deck and presents it to a player as a list of actions he can perform. Each action can cost some resources, some actions give you resources, in some actions you can exchange one type of a resource for another. After deck is finished, game shuffles it creating a new random order and game progresses further. If the player sees a milestone action, he can unlock it but only if he has enough resources. Selecting one of milestone actions changes the state of the solar system and moves player closer to reaching the ultimate goal. Each unlocked milestone puts new cards in the deck, for example building a planet can result in some "Android Impact" cards giving player resources.

Some decisions can be bad - if the player chooses to bring water into planet before the planet lands in the habitable zone, it will either freeze or evaporate, forcing player to rethink his decision and go step back.

What's the perfect chemical composition of a star? Will a Gas Giant be a good starting planet? What does a solar system need to unlock the potential of life? Find it all out with The Planeteers!

Resources

• JPL Space Place in a Snap: The Solar System's Formation https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/video/space-place-in-a-snap-the-solar-systems-formation/
• JPL Modeling the Structure of the Solar System https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/modeling-the-structure-of-the-solar-system/
• An abundance of small exoplanets around stars with a wide range of metallicities https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22722196
• Habitable Zones Around Main-Sequence Stars: Dependence on Planetary Masshttps://arxiv.org/abs/1404.5292
• Brian Koberlein - Why Is Earth's Atmosphere So Different From Other Planets?https://www.forbes.com/sites/briankoberlein/2016/08/15/why-is-earths-atmosphere-so-different-from-other-planets/

Future plans

• More action cards
• New mechanics
• New levels
• Functional prototype
• Balancing

Potential to extend for other topics like:

• Renewable energy
• Global warming
• Environmental protection

Built With

Game is in the concept and early design stage. Mainly we were using flipboard and markers. Cards design, UI Design and all graphics was made on iPad using Apple Pencil and Procreate software. As a collaboration tools we were using Google Drive and Google Docs

Tags

#game #boardgame #cardgame #mobile game #exoplanets #educationalgame #resouresmanagement #habitablezone