Our game is called “SmokeBusters!” and it is on Scratch. This game addresses the issue of smoking and the impact it leaves on the environment. The topic of our game is “A Clean & Happy Earth”. Our game is made by four middle school students, Matthew C., Aishwari P., Amaryllis S., and Gabriel M., for awareness of the environment. The problem in today's society is that smoking can not only harm people, but also the environment.
Cigarettes, e-cigs, and vapes have very harmful chemicals that can leave a very bad impact on the human body. For example for people who smoke, they have an increased chance of coronary heart disease and stroke two to four times more than the average person who doesn’t smoke. Additionally, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, known as the CDC, cigarette smoking is responsible for 480,000 deaths in the United States per year, including 41,000 of those deaths secondhand smoke exposure. Not only that, but this is also about one in five deaths annually or 1,300 deaths every day caused by smoking!
With that in mind, let's go to the issue of the environment. If all these chemicals are harmful to humankind, what would happen if these chemicals leaked out into the Earth? It would cause major damage! According to truth initiative.org, cigarettes and cigarette butts makeup nearly 38 percent of all collected litter, making them the most prominently littered item on U.S roadways. If that is the case, all of those toxic chemicals in cigarettes can cause land and air pollution. A study shows that 1,312,796 pounds of toxic chemicals were reported disposed of, or otherwise released, from tobacco facilities in one year. ONE YEAR! If this happened every year, our society’s air and water wouldn’t even be able to help us survive; it would harm us even more.
With the intention of receiving awareness of all these harmful impacts, the four group members worked very hard to portray the player of the game disposing of cigarettes and vapes, while giving a brief explanation of all the detriments of smoking. We chose this topic so that we could encourage others with our game to trash cigarettes/e-cigarettes properly or to maybe quit smoking in general, which could greatly benefit the world. The URL to our game is https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/356840491/. To play the game, the player has to listen to the characters speak about their different abilities and then pick a character. Finally, the player has to carefully time their shot so that the cigarette will go through the basketball hoop and into the trash.
The purpose of the game is to let people know, especially kids, that they are the future and they can help alleviate this problem of smoking. Today, smoking has already caused a negative effect on the world today, causing illnesses and contributing to global warming. The future is in their hands and their choices will impact the society of this world.
We uploaded a slide presentation explaining what our game is about, the purpose, and why we chose this topic.
Emoti-Con 2020 has ended and leaving new reactions is now off.
I must say that I've seen a few games that were pitching something related to smoking, vaping and it's impact on individuals and the planet and this was one of the most informed and entertaining ones. I really liked that you found a way to use basketball as a way to convey your message-- which I feel makes it more accessible and increases the fun factor. I also appreciated you had a scoring system in place and I def spent some time trying to hit that Excellent Expert title! I love that you included so much research and information both at the beginning and at the end of the game. As for feedback, I think that I agree with one of the other judges in that you have an awesome game here with tons of visuals-- that means that you can export the sprites or background from your game and include them in your presentation to give it that visual appeal.
The research done behind this project was great! The environment needs to be looked after and its up to us to do our part. The game had nice visuals and I appreciated being able to pick from different characters (the dog is my fav!). Good job!
I commend you on the thorough background research you provided and in stating clear research thesis. The game is so well design; a fun environment to be in. The changes in environments (basketball court, park) helps keeping players engaged!
This game is a ton of fun to play! Great job! I especially liked how you gave real quoted statistics to help make this game informative to its players. One thing I think you can do to expand on your game is to change it up between levels. This could be as simple as changing the background, or moving the net. Looking at your code, I see you used a lot of conditional statements. This project is proof that it doesn't require that many different types of code objects to create a fun and dynamic piece of software.
Hi, Matthew, Amaryllis, Aishwari, and Gabriel! I love the background you provide on how you chose your game and why you think your game will impact the environment and public health in a positive way. If you start every project with a clearly defined purpose, it’s a lot easier to make it happen! One thing to consider for your presentation is to add a few more visuals so your audience can get better a sense of how your game works before they play. I also think it could be fun to include a photo of each character and their ability. When it comes to playing the game itself, I love how easy the game is to figure out—you lay out the instructions right away, and I really like your use of speech bubbles! It’s such a fun interface and really engaging. It’d be cool to see another level added in between 1 and 2 so the speed progression is more gradual between levels. Maybe you could even add new characters!
I am especially impressed by your well written game description and slides, not just your fun game!
