The Pack - NYSCI 4+

Help restore the world to an ecologically balanced state in this open-world puzzle and survival game – while learning some computational thinking along the way! The Pack is set in Algos, a future world where healthy ecosystems have faltered, water and food are scarce, and it’s up to you and your Pack to help fix the environment.

You find yourself waking up in a barren land where the only way to bring balanced life back is to replenish water sources and find varied seeds that are scattered all over the world! You can’t do it alone, and can’t stray too far from water, so you and a “Pack” of helpful creatures set out on an adventure across Algos.

Throughout the game, you must find food sources to attract your own Pack made of local Algos creatures with special skills that will help you in your new environment. These creatures have functions like digging, moving, holding, grabbing and bumping, skills that will help you collect seeds and bring water to dry areas. When your Pack has more than one type of creature, you can combine them in a sequence (also known as an algorithm) to perform complex tasks and overcome challenges. Learning and mastering how to use these algorithms is the key to finding all of the seeds and restoring harmony to Algos!

This project was supported by the JPB Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1543144. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

The Pack is a science and math-based game created by the New York Hall of Science. The game encourages problem-solving and computational thinking as well as enforces basic coding principles. Educational guidelines are available to download free from our website.