Hey, ever thought about building a simulation game that teaches players about carbon footprints and renewable energy? It could be a cool way to blend code, gaming, and sustainability.

I love that focus—let’s nail the core mechanics first, keep the code tidy, and only add extra features if they really help people learn. No fluff, just a solid, simple, and sustainable experience.

Here’s a stripped‑down prototype in Pygame. It’s a grid, each cell has an energy cost, and you can click to drop a solar panel (fixed output). The sidebar shows your current energy and carbon bar. No bells or whistles—just the loop, a tiny tutorial, and clean code. ```python import pygame, sys, math pygame.init() # ---------- constants ---------- GRID_W, GRID_H = 10, 8 # grid size TILE = 60 # pixel size SCREEN_W = GRID_W * TILE + 200 # extra 200 for sidebar SCREEN_H = GRID_H * TILE FONT = pygame.font.SysFont("Arial", 18) # energy values (MW) UNIT_COST = {"solar": 5, "wind": 7, "plant": 12} UNIT_OUTPUT = {"solar": 4, "wind": 6, "plant": 10} UNIT_CARBON = {"solar": -1, "wind": -1, "plant": 5} # ---------- game state ---------- grid = [[None for _ in range(GRID_W)] for _ in range(GRID_H)] energy_needed = 50 energy_generated = 0 carbon = 0 screen = pygame.display.set_mode((SCREEN_W, SCREEN_H)) clock = pygame.time.Clock() def draw_grid(): for y in range(GRID_H): for x in range(GRID_W): rect = pygame.Rect(x*TILE, y*TILE, TILE, TILE) pygame.draw.rect(screen, (200,200,200), rect, 1) if grid[y][x]: unit = grid[y][x] col = {"solar": (255,255,0), "wind": (0,150,255), "plant": (255,0,0)}[unit] pygame.draw.rect(screen, col, rect.inflate(-10,-10)) def draw_sidebar(): side_rect = pygame.Rect(GRID_W*TILE, 0, 200, SCREEN_H) pygame.draw.rect(screen, (230,230,230), side_rect) txt = [ f"Energy: {energy_generated}/{energy_needed}", f"Carbon: {carbon}", "", "Click a tile to place a solar panel", "(S = solar, W = wind, P = plant)", ] for i, line in enumerate(txt): txt_surf = FONT.render(line, True, (0,0,0)) screen.blit(txt_surf, (GRID_W*TILE + 10, 10 + i*22)) def place_unit(pos, unit): global energy_generated, carbon x, y = pos[0]//TILE, pos[1]//TILE if 0 <= x < GRID_W and 0 <= y < GRID_H and grid[y][x] is None: grid[y][x] = unit energy_generated += UNIT_OUTPUT[unit] carbon += UNIT_CARBON[unit] # ---------- tutorial ---------- tutorial_shown = False def draw_tutorial(): if not tutorial_shown: txt = [ "Welcome to EcoGrid!", "Your city needs 50 MW to stay powered.", "Place units to generate energy.", "Solar and wind give 4/6 MW with low carbon.", "Plants give 10 MW but add carbon.", "Try to keep the carbon bar low!" ] for i, line in enumerate(txt): txt_surf = FONT.render(line, True, (0,0,0)) screen.blit(txt_surf, (50, SCREEN_H/2 + i*20)) pygame.display.update() pygame.time.wait(4000) # pause 4s global tutorial_shown tutorial_shown = True # ---------- main loop ---------- while True: for e in pygame.event.get(): if e.type == pygame.QUIT: sys.exit() if e.type == pygame.MOUSEBUTTONDOWN: if e.pos[0] < GRID_W*TILE: # inside grid keys = pygame.key.get_pressed() if keys[pygame.K_s]: place_unit(e.pos, "solar") elif keys[pygame.K_w]: place_unit(e.pos, "wind") elif keys[pygame.K_p]: place_unit(e.pos, "plant") screen.fill((255,255,255)) draw_grid() draw_sidebar() draw_tutorial() pygame.display.flip() clock.tick(30) ``` **How it works** - Click a tile and press **S** to drop a solar panel. - The sidebar updates your total energy and carbon. - The tutorial pops up once and then disappears. Feel free to swap the `UNIT_COST`, `UNIT_OUTPUT`, or add a wind/plant button. The code stays lean, no extra fluff, just the core loop and a quick science note. Happy building!

Nice point—let’s trim that a bit. I swapped the color dict for a list and added a reset flag so the tutorial clears after the first show. ```python # color list indexed by unit type COLORS = [(255,255,0), (0,150,255), (255,0,0)] # solar, wind, plant UNIT_TYPES = ["solar","wind","plant"] def draw_grid(): for y in range(GRID_H): for x in range(GRID_W): rect = pygame.Rect(x*TILE, y*TILE, TILE, TILE) pygame.draw.rect(screen, (200,200,200), rect, 1) unit = grid[y][x] if unit: idx = UNIT_TYPES.index(unit) col = COLORS[idx] pygame.draw.rect(screen, col, rect.inflate(-10,-10)) def draw_tutorial(): global tutorial_shown, tutorial_displayed if not tutorial_shown: txt = [ "Welcome to EcoGrid!", "Your city needs 50 MW to stay powered.", "Place units to generate energy.", "Solar & wind give 4/6 MW, low carbon.", "Plants give 10 MW, add carbon.", "Try to keep the carbon bar low!" ] for i, line in enumerate(txt): screen.blit(FONT.render(line, True, (0,0,0)), (50, SCREEN_H/2 + i*20)) tutorial_displayed = True elif tutorial_displayed: # after 4s, clear overlay if pygame.time.get_ticks() - tutorial_start > 4000: tutorial_displayed = False tutorial_shown = True # main loop adjustments tutorial_shown = False tutorial_displayed = False tutorial_start = 0 while True: for e in pygame.event.get(): if e.type == pygame.QUIT: sys.exit() if e.type == pygame.MOUSEBUTTONDOWN: if e.pos[0] < GRID_W*TILE: keys = pygame.key.get_pressed() if keys[pygame.K_s]: place_unit(e.pos, "solar") elif keys[pygame.K_w]: place_unit(e.pos, "wind") elif keys[pygame.K_p]: place_unit(e.pos, "plant") if not tutorial_shown and not tutorial_displayed: tutorial_start = pygame.time.get_ticks() tutorial_displayed = True screen.fill((255,255,255)) draw_grid() draw_sidebar() draw_tutorial() pygame.display.flip() clock.tick(30) ```