Life Link

Want an application that provides an avenue to release stress, enjoy relatable characters, and a hub for resources? Play Life Link.

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Inspiration

We took inspiration from the trolly problem. The way your choices affect/have a conscience on your future. Our game offers a unique and calming atmosphere where students can take a break to explore negative and ideal approaches to common situations that an average student can face in their scholarly career.

What it does

When we were thinking about the theme: "educational challenges", we had numerous different ideas, but the best idea we all agreed on was: Stress. Stress is one of the main educational challenges that students face, and it leads to burnout, mental pressure, and physical deterioration. Many students use outside sources, like games, reading, or doing hobbies to comfort themselves. We try our best to reflect that in the situations presented in our game. One of the most widespread and appealing system that students will be attracted to use is playing a game. It's short, understandable, and appealing. It connects with a student through common experiences and uproots curiosity inside of a student through the multiple endings we implemented. This is a great way for students to use their break from studying or want something to relate to during a time of stress (family/friend fights, touch decisions, etc). Games, especially ones with soothing atmospheres and appeal, have been known to make a person feel relaxed and less anxiety-ridden.

How we built it

Seeun- Since I was the graphic designer, I used Figma to design the UI of the entire game. For the drawings, I utilized Clip Studio Paint and its copyright-free models to speed up my workflow tremendously. Since Alan helped me gather Pinterest resources, I could use his references to quickly draw characters!

Alan: I used Milanote and Pinterest as well as Google Slides to plan and execute our pitch. I used Pinterest mainly as a tool to give Seeun reference photos for our characters. I used Milanote to plan the storyline in a detailed manner.

Artur: I used HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript to create the website.

Challenges we ran into

Seeun- A major challenge was time crunch, but it was very relieving. I love drawing comics, and I knew how to use my resources in Clip Studio to speed up my workflow! But with this being my first hackathon, I could really feel the exciting thrill of ensuring we turned in our stuff in time.

Alan: The time was a big struggle. However, I really enjoyed creating the slides and working on the story. Creating the storyline to be as efficient as possible in the 2-day challenge was a challenge.

Artur- The music wasn't playing as it should, that was hard to fix using JavaScript.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Seeun- Definitely creating all the graphics and UI in such a short amount of time. I struggled to finish it, but with the clock ticking, I'm very proud of the fast work I could produce!

Artur- I am proud of working hard and consistent.

Alan- We know that 2 options is not enough since most situations are not black and white, so I had to think of working the options to give a little bit of nudges on what could possibly be the better situation–I wanted the player to think, and when we reviewed the game, I felt we did that!

What we learned

Seeun- I learned how to use more 3D resources/scaling. I didn't use 3D resources very often, but it was fun to experiment with it more! I also researched a lot about how video games relieve stress, especially ones that are calm, which was the direction of the game we wanted to go into. Choosing specific colors that emit a calm and meditative vibe was super fun!

Artur: I brushed up a lot on my CSS skills, it was definitely a language I struggled with, so this Hackathon helped me become more comfortable with the language. Overall, I'm glad this was a positive learning experience.

Alan: I loved leading the slides and managing the scripts. I personally enjoy making the story and being the lead on that.

What's next for Life Link

With our time limitations but large aspirations, we actually wanted to create an IOS/Phone/Tablet version of the website. We even created an example UI of how it would look but due to the time crunch. We also would implement better graphics (like our splash screen) and a more options for a more extended story.

Options in life are complex, so we tried to reflect that in the time we had with options that required more nuance and decision making! Another thing we wanted to implement was to contact nearby schools to introduce the game for students to play. This game could help students connect with their counselors and teachers regarding the importance of mental health.

We wanted to expand on our email templates that we included on our resources page in the game, so students won't have to be afraid or overwhelmed with writing a personal but not overbearing email to their school.

We would also research more resources that will help students with time-management and organizational skills! https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-a0034857.pdf <-- One of the best research aspects we found!

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