About

ECHO is a semester project at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center.

 

General Purpose

“Each project course challenges teams of interdisciplinary students to produce working artifacts and playable prototypes. In the tradition of CMU, the emphasis is on making real things that work.” – Entertainment Technology Center

What does this mean?

Our goal was focused on creating a game that transforms players. The semester was spent building the game itself, centered on a topic of our choice, along with other aspects of preparing for the Games For Change 2022 Festival. Along with the Festival during Summer 2022, there are several presentations throughout the semester: Quarters (1/4s), Halves (1/2s), Softs, and Final presentations. These touch points allow for us to share our current project status and get feedback from faculty and guests.

What is ECHO?

ECHO is the specific direction of our Games For Change project. ECHO represents our team and the topic we decided to research. We focused on transforming players through fashion and fabric sustainability. Our specific goals were to change how guests approach their fabric/garment consumption, teaching them about different methods for extending the lifespan of garments, and creating conversation about what we can do as individuals to be environmentally conscious in regards to our clothing.

What is Terra Thrift?

Terra Thrift is what we decided on as a name for our game and the shop within it. As a game, Terra Thrift is meant to introduce players to or further their knowledge of the choices people are able to make about fabric consumption. Terra Thrift aims to teach players that what sorts of information can be gathered from clothing and some ways to help players can be more conscious consumers.

The Terra Thrift game is built in Unity and uses AirConsole to allow 4 players to work together at the Terra Thrift eco shop for a day. Players use their phones as controllers and a computer as a shared screen running the game. The game consists of a tutorial, where players learn some factors relevant to fabric sustainability, and then the players run the shop for a day, assisting customers with requests for specific types of clothing.

What resources do we have?

Our project revolved around the creation of Terra Thrift and the accompanying Material Guidebook, both of which are able to be accessed under the Media section of this website.

We recognize that this topic is something people have devoted their lives to researching and encourage everyone who has played our game to seek out these additional resources and never stop learning.