Pursuit of Opportunity: Pioneer Tournament | June 2019

Idea: Career Simulator Game

So this time, I gave the tournament a shot with an idea I came up with on one day before the deadline to apply. Let us see how it went.

Idea

So most of us begin our college days unsure of what opportunities to explore. Some might be open while some might be exclusive to the network you belong to. Sometimes, lack of preparation costs time to retry later.

In short, I agree life is full of random events but I wish there was a way if every student clearly understood the effects of the choices they make.

So the idea is to make University Simulator game where you try different variations — see which skills you develop and as a result by the end of your college time, what skills do you develop and the career prospects as a result.

Main challenges for this project:

1. Study data of alumni from my University and other institutions to see how individual X gained certain skills and how it helped them get to where they are today (data analysis).
2. Draw conclusions from the previous research and create hypothesis which will help us device choices in the game.
3. Verify for unintended biases that might be created in the players mind (eg: It is bad to not focus on managerial stuff). Our game does not tell which path is right but rather gives the tools for the players to experiment and see where they can reach if they open certain doors of opportunity.
4. Make clear that time is finite and choices are inevitable. Also teach other important values such as loyalty, dedication and persistence despite hardships. Also make sure that the user understands that probability plays a key role — be it good (cousins start up needs your coding help) or bad (family disregards modernization and prevents you from using computer). The key we hope players realize is that brick walls are kept in place to see how badly they want to cross it.
5. Deploy the game as a website/app and collect user feedback to develop the game through updates over time.

I formed a team of juniors to work on this. Worked well for a few weeks but then everyone got busy. Regardless, here are the updates.

Week #0

Response

Week #1

Response

Week #2

Response

Week #3

Response

Week #4

Response

Week #5

Response

(I can’t seem to find the response mail)

Week #6

Response

Conclusion:

There were 4 more weeks but I discontinued as I was unable to focus on it intensely. Overall, the infinite tournament idea is good and gives a fighting chance for everyone though I wonder how much money would be feasible to provide to the winners of each week. I hope next time I have time and attention span to intensely focus on this.