Independent game studio Tekton Industries today announced the release of their first game, #BlueMarble, an educational game that teaches players about the concept of habitable zones or “Goldilocks zones”. In order to support life, a planet can’t be too close to a star, nor can it be too far; it needs to be just right. The game will be released tomorrow, Wednesday, October 14, on the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon.
In #BlueMarble, players can adjust the factors like the distance from our planet to the sun and the brightness of the star we orbit, then observe the effects on average global temperature using a real climate model. For example, if you were to replace our sun with the nearby star Sirius, you might find the weather to be uncomfortable at 705°F (374°C). However, if you were to also change the position of the Earth such that it orbited at the same distance as Jupiter, this would bring the average global temperature down to a relatively comfortable 51°F (10.5°C).
As players experiment with different combinations, they can observe visual changes to the surface of the Earth as it shifts from a frozen ball of ice to a desert wasteland and everything in between. When players discover new potentially habitable combinations, they also unlock educational facts about stars featured in the game, including how to find some of them in the night sky.
“It’s like an exhibit you might see at a science museum, but in your pocket!”, said #BlueMarble developer Casey Donnellan.
Features Include:
•Teaches players about habitable zones
•Uses a real climate model to determine Earth’s average temperature
•Scorch or freeze Earth as you attempt to discover new habitable combinations
•Unlock cool facts about nearby stars
#BlueMarble began as an entry in the SXSW Austin Education Game Jam, organized by Skillpoint Alliance and Globaloria. The game’s title refers to a photograph of Earth taken by Apollo 17 astronauts en route to the moon approximately 28,000 miles away. From this distance, Earth was the size and had the appearance of a tiny, blue marble.
#BlueMarble will be available for $1.99 USD on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon. A free, ad-supported, but otherwise fully featured version of the game will also be available on Google Play and Amazon.