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The air pollution measured by the physical satellite is translated into the game. |
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The way you tilt the satellite in your hand will control its directions on the screen. |
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If you want to interface your physical prototype with Flash, try some InstantSOUP to get started!
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Going around and measuring the levels of air pollution in your city seems to me an exciting thing to do. However, not being a scientist, I wonder for how long those numbers will keep my attention and, even more important - how can that surveying endeavour become an engaging activity for a greater group of city people?
Those numbers needed a translation into a language that would be both, intuitively understandable for a large group of people, and fun to read.
Using videogame as medium promised to suit those requirements and show the measurements in great detail.
Therefore, I made a small game that offers a brief, but nevertheless challenging interaction with the environment on a virtual level. It is an entertaining way of checking conditions, and gives a better sense of what those conditions are like than a mere glance at a status bar can indicate. |
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| How the air pollution affects the game |
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| Just as the satellite has no way of cleansing the air of pollutants, neither by filtering, nor by shooting them, there is naturally no way inside the game to take such action either. In fact, the operations of sampling and collecting are rather delicate to conduct and become incredibly risky as pollution levels increase. |
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| Also inside the game you find yourself as the satellite navigating through the current environmental conditions. |
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The nose of the satellite functions as a probe for carefully extracting data from approaching pollution clouds. |
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| When contaminents settle on the body, they can be shaken off by rotating the satellite sideways. |
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However, once it becomes overwhelming, the player will have to go search for cleaner air in the area to replenish. |
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| How the light conditions reflect inside the game |
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| Real space satellites run on solar power, and even though this one is not equipped with solar panels, light is essential for its virtual energy. When running the game in daylight, the player will not face any problem with his virtual power supply. However, with increasing darkness, the energy levels in the game will slowly drop, and eventually cease. |
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At night, players will therefore need to find bright illuminated places to recharge - places that represent light pollution that is generated by the cities.
The intensity of the surrounding light value also alters the game’s visuals, turning the image negative with increasing darkness.
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| Status |
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| Players also record the development of conditions over time. Later they can check what the light and air conditions were like, how long they managed to play in those conditions and how many samples they were able to take. |
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| Map |
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Not a working feature, but something that could well be implemented with today's mobile network technologies. With many people playing, maps could be drawn in realtime of neighbourhoods and their conditions.
It is not a scientific mapping of air quality inside a city, however it would draw a rough image of where more or less polluted areas would be found by many people taking measurements. It would help players to find cleaner areas to walk, dirtier areas to play high level games and give a sense of a sharing community. |
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Players are represented through the conditions they are sensing. |
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| The game invites people to discover their neighbourhoods from a different perspective, and hopefully stimulate some sensibility to environmental conditions in general. |
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