My final project “Navigate in Space” is designed for people who are passionate about the space and all the superhero movies and would like to have an experience of traveling in space with their own spaceships. Since science fiction is first introduced, Space has always been a popular theme for writers and scriptwriter, which indicate people’s born curiosity in space and the unknown myths. With modern technology and the effort of scientists as well as astronauts, we became more and more familiar with the idea of space, yet people always remained an interest in exploring more about it. For instance, according to a survey conducted in 2018(Majority of Americans Believe It Is Essential That the US Remain A Global Leader in Space), the majority of people think that NASA plays an important role in modern life. That is also the reason why video games and movies set in space could often sell well. Being a fan of space and starship myself, I understand such passion for the infinite world and the desire to control a starship. However, despite this huge market of space fans, there are currently few games that really allow players to drive their own starships and explore more on themselves.
Therefore, I came up with the idea to make a first-person game for space lovers to navigate their own starship. However, since my skills and the limitation of Processing, it is impossible for me to really make a game to explore the space. The challenge I seek here is how to use simple equipment, simple operation, and simple visual effects to bring players a sense of navigation in Space. I intend to let the game satisfy space fans’ desire for both exploring and navigating, leading them to a short experience of being a space warrior.
For an individual project, designing a game could be a lot of work. Here, I intend to split it up into several parts. The first part is the visual design. There would first be instruction on driving the starship, followed would be a space background and a cockpit(first-person perspective) on the canvas. I would find image (maybe also video) resources on the Internet and use Photoshop to edit them so that they could serve my purpose perfectly. I would also consider how I design the battle and the flying space junk(some changes may be added to this part according to how well I could make use of Processing). This part is considered as the most important one for the whole game since it directly influences if the player could feel in Space and whether they know how to control the starship. The second part is the connection with Arduino, or more specific here, the control panel of the starship. I intend to use buttons to control the directions and I may as well add a brake to it with pressure sensor attached. All these part will first be tested before Arduino is connected to Processing. The third part is the actual game part — how I could make the players seem like controlling the starship. Since it is a first-person perspective game, it is improper to move the starships. Thus, I must move the space junks and maybe even the background to make the starship seems like moving.
My design of the final project is under the guidance of my definition of “interaction” which I developed earlier in the final research. I intend to use this special game to get the space fans an emotional feeling of satisfaction, excitement and even a sense of belonging. If my plans are conducted successfully, the game could engage the player into the driving process by giving visible signals and sound, which encourage more reaction from the player. This game could also encourage people’s passion for the infinite universe, inspiring people to explore more about those seemingly small stars. With high-tech and more advanced visual technology like VR, it could reach my original proposal for this project — actually, build up a digital space, the image, and data of which are all collected from satellite and real spaceships. People could actually have a glimpse of the myth of the universe and the stars they watched every fine night. Such a project goes beyond a simple game. It could be a museum for space fans to gain more knowledge and an education system which tells children where we come from. The core is the method of the first-person perspective, which I found most interactive among all methods of experiencing. That is where the uniqueness of my project lies and also where I hope could have further implications.