Background

Since the early 1990’s, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided the world with a nonstop stream of data that has helped resolve some of the biggest questions in astronomy – while providing fodder for brand-new questions, as well. As the first major optical telescope to be placed in space, Hubble views the universe from an unobstructed vantage point above the distortion of the atmosphere, far above Earth’s clouds and light pollution. Scientists have used Hubble to observe the most distant stars and galaxies as well as the planets in our solar system.

The Hubble Space Telescope has made more than 1.3 million observations since its launch, as it whirls around Earth at 17,000 miles per hour. It has peered back into the distant past, to locations more than 13.4 billion light-years from Earth – and yet it can view objects as nearby and small as the collision of asteroids in our own solar system. The scientific discoveries that have resulted are legendary – and as it has done all these things, it has also given us images of stars, galaxies, and nebulae that are awe-inspiring and stunningly beautiful. Hubble images are not CGI; they are not simulations. They are REAL, and they have shown us our universe as we had never seen it before.

Your job is to create a game using Hubble images as integral components of the game-play. You can design and prototype a board game, a card game, a computer game, an app or virtual reality game. You can make it competitive or collaborative, from single-player to massively multiplayer; you can focus on the science, the aesthetics, the inspiration, or all three – the choice, and the story of your game, are up to you.