A student of the Faculty of Business of NSTU NETI with a team of friends created a computer game "Academy Dreams", where real places of Novosibirsk Akademgorodok are recreated. The application for development was examined at the University Technology Transfer Center, and this year the business idea received a grant from the Student Startup competition.
"Akademgorodok is a place that inspires. It is recognizable not only in Novosibirsk but all over the world. A small town surrounded by forests was created for scientists. Academician Lavrentiev Avenue, for example, is recognized as the smartest street in the world, and almost two dozen research institutes and other scientific institutions are located here. There was an idea to turn Akademgorodok into a painted world, and my friends and I decided to implement it. The main character of the game is a boy named Dreams, who, due to certain circumstances, decides to bury his dreams. He drew them, put them in a jar and buried them under a tree. Then Dreams left and, having already grown up, returned to Akademgorodok for his dreams. The essence of the game is that we wander around the map, talk to the characters, determine information about the city, about the locals and try to find a dream for our hero," said one of the authors of the project, Sergey Sudyarov.
According to him, the content in terms of gameplay is not new — moving around the map of Akademgorodok, you get to know the locals who guide you in the right direction. Uniqueness lies in the plot, location, and visual design. While working on the project, we managed to create a map of the local attractions. The user of the game in the first chapter will be able to visit the Otdih Bulvar (Recreation Boulevard) (as Ilyich Street was once called), go through the local House of Culture, and visit the walls of the NSU and other locations. The plot itself implies immersion in Akademgorodok’s atmosphere, and the residents of the scientific center became the prototypes of the heroes.
"As for the audience, we don ' t think this project is too local. Of course, our most obvious audience is locals, and those who like to play games of this genre. However, we dream that "Academy Dreams" will be played by those who have never been here, and we hope that the game will contribute to the development of domestic tourism. In the future, we want to add several more levels and locations, and in January, we plan to release a beta version of the game and focus our efforts on attracting users and investments," Sergey Sudyarov said.
You can already see some fragments of the map, begin to get acquainted with the plot, and observe the development process in the social networks of the project, to which about 4,000 people have already subscribed.