Schooled

This is the first page users see when opening my site. It includes eye-catching statistics and an interesting offer to hook users in.
GIF
This page introduces information that sets up the storyline using an animated gif.
This is the tutorial page which shows players how to schedule their time in the game, explaining the gameplay mechanics in detail.
On this page, the user chooses their schedule, and can choose from activities from three tabs.
An example of one of the everyday decisions players might have to make. The effects of these decisions will impact their in game stats.
This page shows the result of the option you choose when you are confronted with a decision.
When finishing the game, you're directed to this screen, showing how the results of your actions, decisions, and stats affect your future.
Finally, they are directed to the very last screen, where they are informed of the game's purpose and given the option to restart the game.

Inspiration

I was mostly inspired by another online simulation game called 'The Uber Game'. This specific simulation puts users into the role of a Uber Driver trying to make enough money to support their family. When I first played this simulation over a year ago, I remember being fascinated by how doing the simulation completely changed my perspective of Uber.

I made a huge list of problems that needed to be solved so I could build a simulation about it, but before I could finish narrowing down ideas, I remembered I still had an online SAT studying summer class. That's when the Eureka! moment hit me. Many adults don't understand to the full extent how broken the US School System is, and how much pressure it puts on students. One statistic that I found, which I later included on the first page of my website design, shows that 30% of 15.7 million high school students in America have experienced symptoms of depression, and 9% have attempted suicide. Many of these students attribute the cause of these mental health problems to school.

This is a very, very big problem, but the thing with problems of this scale is that you can't fix it with a quick website or an app. You have to target the very root of the problem- people's perspectives of what a good school system can look like. One of the main reasons why the US school system is struggling so much today is because it has failed to adapt to the times, and that is mainly due to the stigma around what school should look like. It was clear to me that I needed to somehow design a way for adults to experience the pressure high school students have to go through every day. And so, Schooled was born.

What it does

Schooled is an online simulation game that puts players into the role of a high school senior who has just been accepted to their dream college, trying to navigate through the rest of high school while maintaining high grades, making money for college, and having good mental health. There are 12 cycles in the game, in which the player has to schedule the high schooler's time and experience some of the tough decisions this teen has to make.

Sounds like a lot? That's because it is.

That goal of the game is to be practically impossible to beat, to showcase just how hard teenagers today have it. The vast majority of players won't reach their goal of balancing happiness, stress, and grades, while also developing IQ, EQ, Memory, and Imagination skill stats, because it is designed to reflect real life, where students are forced to make harsh sacrifices due to the lack of support from academic environments. I tried my best to make this game engaging enough to not make players quit from frustration, while also still making it insightful and perspective-changing.

How we built it

I started off by planning the actual storyline idea and compiling research. I made about a 5 page Google document with statistics that I wanted to feature in my game. I also sketched out some very rough drafts on paper, before proceeding to head to Canva. I'm very familiar with Canva, but I had never used it to design a website before. Deciding to use Canva proved to be a mistake, so I decided to make an account and design on Figma for the very first time.

It took me quite a bit of time to get familiar with the various functions of Figma, but I soon had a rough draft of the UI of my website, which I continued to refine over the span of 9 hours. For an animation I featured on one of my pages, I used Jitter, an animation platform that allowed me to animate the text needed. I also ended up using Canva to design a couple more minor assets. I have little web design experience, but I do have extensive research with graphic design, and I was able to transfer those skills over to the creation of Schooled.

I was able to design templates for most of the main pages of my website, and I have included screenshots in the Image Gallery. I didn't have enough time to build the whole website, but I have quite a fair share of game assets written and designed, and I can't wait to finish it up and turn it into a real website.

Challenges we ran into

I am a rising high school freshman. Meaning I don't actually have experience being a high school student. I had to email a ton of high school seniors and juniors to ask for their experiences to add to my research for this project, on my own, and hope they respond in less than 24 hours. Yikes. It's safe to say I encountered a variety of different challenges when creating Schooled, some of which I already mentioned.

If I had to choose, the biggest challenge for me was making the decision to give up my original idea in favor of an idea that I know would be a lot more meaningful. I will admit, for my original simulation game, I personally like the fantasy design of the site more, and I had already worked so much on developing characters and choosing music and sound effects. Essential I was choosing between a more developed final product or a more impactful idea. I eventually chose to switch because I wanted to have a project I was genuinely passionate enough about to continue pursuing after XHacks.

One other challenge I had to conquer was mastering the actual game mechanics themselves. It doesn't really seem so, but designing an addicting game is incredibly difficult. I completed an online course last year where I learned about the psychology of what makes a game addicting and fun, and even learning about this in so much depth didn't prepare me for making my own game. Everything from the writing to the colors had to be constructed in a way that improved the user experience and advanced the theme. This took a lot of revisions in order to get it to the way it is right now, and it still could be improved much further.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

-Being able to be a part of something bigger. I feel like by designing this simulation, I'm contributing to something bigger than myself. Once this website is published, I hope it will have an impact on the public perception of the school system, or at the very least change one person's mind enough to get them to take action. -Finally overcoming my fear of Figma. I was expecting it to be super complicated, and to be fair, it was at first. However, I managed to figure it out in time to design a draft of my idea. -Somehow being able to hear back from multiple high school juniors and seniors about their high school experience. I can't take all the credit for this one, because it was really the amazing students who were willing to reach back to me so quickly. -Creating the Video. Enough Said. -Getting out of my comfort zone. This is my first hackathon, and at first, it was super intimidating. But I guess there's a first for everything, and I'm happy I took the leap. -Doing this all on my own. In a way, this is also something I want to change in the future. I was kind of nervous about reaching out to be a part of people's teams, and because of this, I had to take on a lot on my own. I could've gotten a lot more down with a team, but I also believe I did a great job considering I did this on my own.

What we learned

Many, many things. Most of what I learned was building onto the skills I already had. My graphic designed skills improved so much over the length of this project, which is super apparent in all of my rough drafts. Like I stated above, I had to pay a lot of attention to detail, something I haven't really had to do in other graphic design projects. I learned a lot about how much the little details of a project impact the whole of the website, and your ability to convey the message you want.

Here's another interesting thing I noticed: Usually I think of graphic design as an art, but I found that when I was designing Schooled, everything was actually very technical. On the flip side, whenever I first used code, I realized it was similar to a medium used to create art. Yes, both coding and design require lots of precision, but I never really realized how similar they are. I feel like I've wired my brain to think of coding as something that is 'logical' and graphic design being 'artsy', and seeing those two definitions blurred while creating my project was very interesting. After today, I hope to take the leap and find ways to incorporate code into my project, because I think it will breathe life into my project.

What's next for Schooled.

I have a lot planned for Schooled's future. First of all, like I just mentioned, I'm going to try to incorporate Javascript, HTML, and CSS into my project. I have the design and many of the game components down, but right now, Schooled is just a pretty website. I need to use code in order to make this a game that is actually interactive, and I hope to get started as soon as possible. Outside of the hackathon, I will have more time to conduct extensive research and interviews which will help improve my project and make it the best it can be. I hope to publish it online, and maybe talk to people who can get my game in front of a larger audience, whether that might mean talking to journalists or educators.

I like the idea of creating a whole series called 'Prove It.' which tackles a wide variety of different issues. There's a lot of potential in creating simulations for issues such as climate change and poverty. I feel like it would be a great way to expand upon the initial concept of both 'Schooled' and 'The Uber Game' in a huge way, and it could lead to a snowball effect reaching a huge number of people.