Inspiration
While brainstorming about what kind of project I should make, I always kept one thing in mind: how can I educate people about staying green while making it fun?As our world grows to face bigger challenges due to climate changes, we need to educate one another so we can work together and protect the Earth. However, it's widely known that reading a lengthy article or sitting through a monotonous lecture can be a tedious task. So I sought to find an innovative approach to captivate people's interest while educating them about the pressing issue of climate change.
With all that said, I introduce to you, Shell, a game that makes education fun.
What it does
Shell is a fun game based off popular games like Pokemon and Prodigy, where you have a fun 2D map you can explore while interacting with NPCs and animals. When interacting with an animal, you try and save them from dangerous fishing nets or plastic they got tangled with, providing users a real life simulation of what they may need to do in case it happens in real life.
In order to proceed with an "action" to save the animal, users will be prompted with a question directly sourced from the official United Nations climate change website in order to help them further their understanding on the pressing matter. The prototype for this vision provides a fun, interactive demo of the idea.
How I built it
I used unity to build the game and C# to code it. I also used sprites online from Open Game Art, which is a website that provides free images for people to use for video games. I also used Pixilart to draw some of my own sprites when needed.
Challenges I ran into
As someone who was not very experienced with Unity, I had to spend a lot of time learning how things worked first which was a very hard challenge, especially since this was a solo hack and I didn't have any teammates to split the work with. If that wasn't enough, I didn't know much C# either, which were 2 learning curves that I struggled to overcome.
Accomplishments that I am proud of
Managing to make a prototype that well-demonstrated my idea. I was very worried I wouldn't be able to get it done with all the new things I had to learn, but I still managed to finish. Learning how Unity and C# worked was also very fun and gratifying, and is definitely something I am interested in working with in the near future.
What I learned
C#, animating in Unity, how to use Unity, how to use tilemaps, and my favourite: making and implementing character sprites.
What's next for Shell
With this prototype, some things have been simplified. In the future I’d like to add systems where you can collect photos of the animals you have saved to encourage the user to continue using the game and learning about what it means to be someone who defends against climate change. With Shell, I hope to create an immersive and engaging environment that not only entertains, but also inspires players to learn more about our natural world and the importance of protecting it!
Also the tiles have tiny little gaps that make green lines show up. Need to patch that up when I can.
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