MarsVille

Develop a game that simulates conditions in an off-Earth located permanent or temporary colony. The game could be a sandbox that offers the possibility to simulate various facilities that would support a reduced gravity environment far from earth’s atmosphere and magnetosphere. Users could be given power allowances, atmospheric conditions, and in situ resource options (using resources available on site for life support or other needs). The game could include a variety of scenarios including:

• Arranging a GPS-like system on the Moon or Mars to support navigation for the human inhabitants. The simulation could allow the users to explore different solutions such as a constellation of satellites, a network of masts or other Earth based methods at the challenger’s discretion.
• Players could build a habitat that could withstand the Lunar or Martian environment while also taking into consideration that its inhabitants need to have adequate power and supplies, be able to produce food, have locations sleep, live and work.
• Build a Virtual Moon telescope. The simulation could allow the user to conduct a research mission using a telescope on site near their habitat. Explore what instruments make sense for the location of the telescope (and what the user wants to observe). Game players could explore settings such as exposure times or wavelengths to observe. Observations could vary based on the position of the telescope on the Moon or Mars, and the relative position in the sky of the pointed object. After each simulated capture, show an appropriately generated image reflecting the exposure and wavelength settings.

MarsVille is a colonization game set, as you can guess, on Mars: while establishing and nurturing your colony, you will learn what is actually needed to support life on the Red Planet.

Please keep in mind that the solution proposed was developed during a 30ish hours non-stop hackathon: only a subset of the intended features has actually been implemented (some of which are displayed in the presentation video).

Documents provided by NASA (as well as some others from different sources) have been used to identify and study the challenges to be overcome when colonizing Mars. All items presented in the videogame have been introduced following a fairly thorough analysis.