The Urban Whale: A Serious Game About the North Atlantic Right Whale, and a Template for Future Endangered Species Games

Prueitt, Adam Kosaka; Petersen, Patrick Lawrence; Bujnevicie, Timothy Steven; Bryant, Kyle Cooper; Racine, Michael Raymond

Student Work

The Urban Whale: A Serious Game About the North Atlantic Right Whale, and a Template for Future Endangered Species Games

Public

WPI, in collaboration with the New England Aquarium, tasked the project team with creating a digital interactive experience about the North Atlantic right whale in order to evoke an empathetic response within players, provide knowledge about human actions hindering the species' recovery, and engage players through entertaining gameplay. Over a nine-week period, our team developed The Urban Whale, a prototype that aims to meet these requirements. In addition, the project team determined how The Urban Whale could be further developed into an aquarium exhibit or web-based game that would fulfill its original purpose, as well as how this project could serve as a template for a new genre of video game that evokes empathy for endangered species, provides educational content, and is fun to play.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

Contributors