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Computer Science and Engineering

University of Nevada, Reno
Nitrogen Deposition and Climate Change Game
Team 10 (NVIROQUEST)
Travis Carter, Amelia Pasco, Elizabeth Kaminsky, Mikayla Arabian
Sara Davis, Vinh Le, Devrin Lee, David Feil-Seifer, Zach Estreito
Erin Hanan
University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science
January 31, 2024
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Table of Contents
1. Abstract…..………………………………………………………………………………..3
2. Project Description …………………………...…………………………………………..4
3. Significance ………………………………………...…………………………………….5
4. Legal and Ethical Aspects ...………………………………………...……………………6
5. Changes and Progress since the Initial Project Concept ..…....…….…………………….7
6. Project Responsibilities ……....…….…………………………………………………….8
7. Project Monitoring and Risks ……....…….………………………………………………9
8. Accessibility ……....…….……………………………………………………………….10
9. Contributions of Team Members ………....…….……………………………………….11
10. References ……....…….…………………………………………………………………12
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Abstract
NviroQuest is an RPG style educational game about climate change, nitrogen deposition,
and how these things affect watershed environments. We intend to implement this game to be
deployed in high school classrooms to teach students about the damage climate change can cause
and how watersheds can be restored to reverse this damage. This document will cover the project
description, why it’s important, any legal and ethical concerns that may be presented by the
project, progress thus far, changes being made to the original concept, who on the team is
responsible for what aspects, how we intend to monitor and mitigate risks, and how we intend to
ensure accessibility of our game.
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Project Description
NviroQuest is an RPG style educational game about climate change, specifically in
relation to, and using real world data from, watershed environments. This game is being
designed to be used in classrooms to teach high school students about nitrogen deposition and
how watershed restoration can be a great tool for mitigating and reversing environmental
damage. In the actual gameplay, the player will be moving an in game character around the map
to collect soil and water, which they will drag and drop on a plant or group of plants on the map
to adjust those plants’ water and nitrogen levels, until a sprite change is triggered, when they will
read the water:nitrogen ratio of that plant and report that in the player UI in order to level up.
Higher levels will include challenges like wider responsibility and climate change effects which
will push them forward or set them back depending on what kind of effect is triggered and how it
influences the environment. We are building this game in Unity, using built in Unity APIs and
C++ scripts for functionality. Since this game does not rely on internet connectivity, all logs will
be saved locally on devices and no usernames or passwords will be necessary, making this game
secure in that it cannot be used to collect data from users. We intend to make this game reliable
through regular and rigorous testing of code as we go and handling any edge cases that we can
think of and may come up during testing. We also intend to ensure this game is safe to play by
ensuring all animation is as smooth and/or slow as necessary to avoid any visual triggers for
players, and by focussing the main gameplay on positive improvements that can be made to the
environment despite the depressing subject matter it will be covering. These will be a focus for
us to avoid causing any harm to our players, keeping their data secure, and keeping their game
working to the standard expected of any computer application.
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Significance
The game we are building is an educational game meant to demonstrate to highschool
students the effects of nitrogen on the environment. We will be working with data provided by
the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science that accurately shows how too
much or too little nitrogen could cause an ecosystem to fail. This project has become very
fulfilling to pursue in that we get to create a fun and engaging game that teaches about real world
problems.
Considering our professional growth, we are learning a variety of new skills that will be
helpful to us when we enter the job force. Abilities like communication and teamwork are
invaluable along with practical experience in game development. We are working with the game
engine Unity, which is commonly used for creating games or apps by many professionals. We are
also learning the basics of game design and implementing gaming mechanics. We have been
working on implementing our nitrogen functionality, which would allow the player to access a
plant’s nitrogen levels and adjust it with either water or soil. The player would be able to do this
with the gaming feature we are designing. A similar game to ours would be “Caring for our
Watershed”, which lets players investigate water samples to determine the health of the
watershed. Another great example would be “The Watershed Game” made by CSERC, which is
an informational game that shows different scenarios that could affect a watershed. And although
this game is targeted towards a younger audience, the “Nitrogen Cycle Game” by Field Day Labs
also teaches kids how nitrogen moves throughout the world.
While there are already existing games about the nitrogen cycle, our game targets a
different audience of highschool kids. Additionally, its market potential is very promising as it
includes several different features such as allowing players to save their game and loading
previous attempts. Our game also lets users freely explore and interact with the map while
completing side quests, which is more engaging and interesting compared to other games. After
CS426, we could improve this game by making it in different languages. We could also add
harder levels that are set in different environments or with extreme weather conditions. The
social impact will be people becoming more aware of how they impact their environment and
hopefully lead to a positive environmental impact of them being more considerate of the earth.
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Legal and Ethical Aspects

Since we are making a game relating to environmental sciences, with actual research
data, we would need to make sure the gameplay surrounding the nitrogen ratios is accurately
implemented. Not only that, but we need to make sure that the data we use is used properly as
intended. We have to make sure that the gameplay and the data don’t give the wrong impression
in any way to the players. Plus, we need to make sure the research we put into implementing the
game as intended is trustworthy. We need to be able to accurately represent any other factors
such as climate change or different regions or differing plants. We do not want the players to
learn wrong information from playing this game, especially since this game is made with the
purpose to be an educational game.
Pertaining to the ACM code of ethics PRODUCT clause, we would need to keep up on
the research and data side of things especially since over time things may change. If anything
changes or needs altering, we would need to update the game and possibly the gameplay to
properly represent that to prevent misrepresentation. By being able to do this, we can keep this
game as accurate as possible for players so they can learn about all of this information as is
intended and desired.
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Changes and Progress since the Initial Project Concept

For our project, we have currently created a main menu with the option to open a new
game, load a previously saved game, and an options tab. The options tab is used to change the
volume of the music in the game. Once you open a new game you are able to walk around the
map and dig spots into the ground. We have an inventory system to store items in as well. The
map is basically done and we just need to expand the borders to complete it. We plan on making
our lore into quests for the player to complete and follow along too. We also changed from
wanting to be a mobile game to a computer game as it was easier to complete our goals for this
educational game and figured more students that age would have access to a computer then an
Ipad to play it. The basic ideas of the game have overall stayed the same and what we wanted to
do for the end goal is the same as how we wanted it in October. Some major developments we
have is that our entire main menu section is done and the map for the levels are complete. We
also have created our ideas for the quests/lore what we will be implementing soon. Overall, we
have made some changes and progressed pretty far in our project since starting it last semester.
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Project Responsibilities
The main components of our game include: a save and load function, quests, an
expanding map pertaining to levels, nitrogen ratios with real world data, audio inventory/items
and sprite animations. Although these are our subsystems we will all try to help each other if
needed too.

Responsibilities of the team members:

- Mikayla: save/load, quests, player ui
- Beth: map, gameplay, player ui
- Amelia: menu, player sprite animation, colliders map
- Travis: audio/sfx, inventory, items
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Project Monitoring and Risks

We plan monitoring our project’s progress by comparing how far along we are to
completing the goals set for the game. To ensure that we are working efficiently, we will be
communicating with each other on our responsibilities and the progress we have made. If we
have found a certain task to be taking longer than expected or if personal issues arise, then other
team members can help finish the task.
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Accessibility
Accessibility concerns for potential users include players with mobility issues, players
with a language barrier, visually impaired players, as well as hearing impaired players and
cognitively challenged players. Standards that address these concerns would be making the
game’s text easier to read and see, as well as concise. There is also adding text to speech or voice
acting for the text within the game, and a volume adjuster for the volume as well. For language
issues, we can always add an option in the settings to allow players to change languages. Besides
these standards, other functional requirements such as making the text easier to read would also
be a good idea. The nonfunctional side of it would be how we would implement such solutions.
When we implement text that the player sees and hears, we make sure that for the player it’s
helpful and easy to process. We would implement the language barrier solution by implementing
an option in settings that allows players to choose between a set of languages and be able to go
between them. Besides all of this, there’s not much else we can do for the visually impaired or
motor impaired besides what was already mentioned, due to how this game is being made.
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Contributions of Team Members

Amelia: Significance, Project Monitoring and Risks, Colliders Map, Sprites. Worked for about 1
hour for this assignment and about 3 hours for the colliders map and sprite animations.

Travis: Changes and progress since initial project concept, Project responsibilities. I worked for
about 1 hour. For the project I did the audio and inventory/items. I worked for about 3 hours on
that part.

Beth: Abstract, Project description, map design, dig tile animation. I worked for about 1 hour on
this project part and 3 hours on progress since the last demo.

Mikayla: I did the Save/load portion and the quests system, and the Accessibility, Legal and
Ethical Aspects, and Project Responsibilities. I worked for about 1.5 hour(s) on this assignment
and about 3.5 hour(s) for some save/load testing and the start of the quests system from the last
demo.
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References

Eng, D. (2020, March 16). Accessibility in games. Medium.

https://medium.com/@davengdesign/accessibility-in-games-241ee0171c21#:~:text=in%20game
%20design.-,Those%20changes%20include%20accessibility%20addressing%20motor%20move
ment%3B%20cognition%3B%20vision%3B,was%20about%20accessibility%20in%20games.

Games | Caring for Our Watersheds. caringforourwatersheds.com/games/. Accessed 2 Feb.

2024.

“The Watershed Game - CSERC.” Www.cserc.org, 20 Jan. 2015,

www.cserc.org/sierra-fun/games/watershed-game/watershed-game-dirty/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2024.

“Nitrogen Cycle Game - Field Day.” Fielddaylab.wisc.edu,

fielddaylab.wisc.edu/play/nitrogen-game/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2024.