Onus

Preparing leaders of tomorrow by arming them with knowledge today

Onus is a game which teaches kids about internal and international laws and rights they have. The game is aimed at young students of 12-15 years of age to inculcate understanding of their rights, and what is allowed and disallowed to ensure that the adults of tomorrow will be able to make informed decisions about their lives. 

The player creates their profile using the ID that the moderator/teacher has given them and selects an avatar which suits their tastes depending upon the profession. The avatars live their lives as a lawyer/politician/writer or anything the player has selected and must perform mundane tasks to boost XP as well as tackle questions related to laws/rights that they should know about pertaining to their profession or just their lives as regular citizens. With every illegal act, a warning will be issued explaining about the infraction and if the player chooses to ignore that, they will be presented before the moderator to deliver justice. For example if a writer chooses the option to plagiarise someone's work for a quick XP boost, they will be presented before the moderator. 

In community communication can be done on the basis of randomly stumbling across each other while performing the same task e.g. Buying groceries at the same time or have an automatically generated list of players who have opted for the same profession. If a player feels wronged by another player they can lodge a complain and the AI will guide them on how to properly protest against injustice.

The things we feel helpless against in the present could have easily been avoided with a better understanding of laws and structure of our government and with this game we will be arming our children with knowledge to deal with our problems in a logical and peaceful manner.

At the age of 12-15 years, children start to form their own unbiased opinion about the world. Straightforward learning tools such as books and schools don’t form as much of a lasting impression on their minds as something that they themselves pick would. Through the help of games, educating them can become a fun endeavour for both the teacher and the student. Equipping them with the knowledge of the structure and the workings of a country will, in future, lead to easier handling of our society that is spiralling down to ruin.

The game works with the help of Artificial intelligence to filter out actions which may be illegal according to the laws of the country. The moderator/teacher acts as the judge and jury and decides upon the punishment of the kids for every law broken depending upon the severity of it. The AI will also run feedback collection for what the younger generation thinks of the laws. 

Starting with local laws and system, the initial goal is to establish a strong base through participation. Expanding upon that international communities can be formed inside the game for a broader experience. Our goal over the next 12 months is to create a cohesive storyline with enough autonomy provided to the players for an enjoyable experience.

Over time we can expect the community to grow and expand to include other countries and as a result, international systems and bodies can also become a part of the game. Awareness can also be generated about what is happening around the world with regards to what is allowed and disallowed so that they can form an unbiased opinion by themselves in life.

As the Solution is a digital game, it can be made available through the App store. The Game can be made a part of school curriculum as an aid for the educators. Based on the type of area where the user resides, they can adjust the game settings accordingly.

School which have integrated smart learning in their syllabus will benefit greatly from this and in the next 12 months, it is expected that over 200 schools will participate in the test run of the app. In three years all the school with integrated smart learning in India as well as worldwide are expected to connect as international laws can be taught at that stage as well.

An industrial design background with deep roots in user experience and user research has helped in framing of the solution as well as designing of the game itself.

Connecting all the schools across the globe would be an incredible learning opportunities for the children in terms of international laws. Working with the government will provide better access to resources for expanding the game. With growth in the game setup, the results would proved an incentive for the schools to buy the subscription for their children.

Solve will provide visibility to the solution I have proposed and provide me with resources that I can utilise to expand my solution and make it available to the public. Solve will also provide gravity to the solution when future expansions will inevitably come in question and the support that the community will provide in terms of expertise and knowledge will be immensely helpful in executing the idea for Onus.

As a designer with bare minimum knowledge of coding and management, the biggest obstacle is having a vague idea of how to move forward. Solve can help me with guidance on what are the steps I should take to realise my idea and how to work upon it to make it successful.