Boots - A fish counting game

You plant your boots in the rocks and slide down the bank to the river. At the edge you notice some large boulders in the water. You see the color of the fish running near the edge of the third boulder. Hmm… if you make your way across the rocks, you may be able to count better. You pause, taking notice of the speed of the current. You step carefully on the first rock. The wind blows across your brow. Nervous, you carefully step to the second. You look down and the current in front of your boots seems faster. Oh no, what have you done? Should you return? The next boulder is larger. You reassure yourself, regaining confidence, you step to the next. Whew, you made it! You can see clearly into the water now. Are you ready to start counting?

Boots - a fish counting game, was developed as part of the Alaska EPSCoR’s Fire and Ice Project Game Jam session, Summer 2020.

Explore some of our process and notes with the thinglink below:

Game development team:

• Carie Green, Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Alaska Fairbanks, cjgreen2@alaska.edu (Storyline)
• Nathan Feemster, Instructional Designer, University of Alaska Fairbanks eCampus, nfeemster@alaska.edu (Creative Direction, Art)
• Sarah Stanley, Associate Professor of English, University of Alaska Fairbanks, sstanley2@alaska.edu (Narrative, external links)
• Nate Bauer, Director, University of Alaska Press, nate.bauer@alaska.edu (Sound Design)

• Eric Lonn, Media Studio Production Designer, University of Alaska Fairbanks eCampus, eglonn@alaska.edu (Unity Developer)
• Eric R. Collins, Assistant Professor, Canada Research Chair in Arctic Marine Microbial Ecosystem Services. University of Manitoba, eric.collins@umanitoba.ca (Fact checker)

Acknowledgements:

Story line inspired by C. Green’s, Children’s Environmental Identity Development Research 

Fish counting inspired by data from Anne Beaudreau, Coastal Fisheries Ecology Lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks