Australian Rover Challenge – Mini Mammoth Games

Happy New Year to 2025 and continued excitement

2025 brings new tidings for us here at Mini Mammoth Games and also ever closer to the full release of Roving Rovers! Whilst 2024 was not the best that Mini Mammoth Games has experienced it has certainly led us to a position of being able to further develop Roving Rovers and a client’s project as well!

Keep an eye out for both at SAGE 2025!

Firstly a short recap!

2024 started off like previous years, working on updated Roving Rovers to fit with the upcoming ARCh and SAGE events; giving us a strong start to the year. Which was then promptly stomped on by a client pulling out from signing a contract 3 days before; this was a client we had spent approximately 6 months pitching and negotiating with to get to that point. A large disappointment would be an understatement, however it also affected those we had spent time interviewing for positions we were sure to have in the coming year.

Thankfully we were also starting another project for a different client, so despite that drawback we weren’t going to let it get to us too much and so we trekked on! With the support of the University of Adelaide and the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources we brought Roving Rovers to a myriad of events, including:

The Australian Rover Challenge – held by the University of Adelaide
The South Australian Games Expo – held by the South Australian Film Corporation
PAX Australia; Australia’s biggest game based convention

With many companies behind us and Roving Rovers our CEO, David McCann was given the opportunity to attend the International Astronautical Congress that was held in Italy. Giving us the ability to network with the (much) wider space industry and also showcase the potential that the games industry can provide the space industry. A partnership between these two industries is only inevitable as they continue to expand across the world. The biggest example of how they can benefit each other is Kerbal Space Program, which has been around for years at this point (since 2015) and it has been used by astronautical engineers and amateurs alike to learn and play around with what specifics makes a rocket go to space.

Obviously not for actual testing when it comes to the professionals, hopefully, but much like flight simulators and city builders, they often attract those that are involved in the professions mimicked by the game. Games like this are often what drives a child’s or person’s interest into things like becoming a Pilot, Engineer or Astronaut; something that is often credited for their interest in pursuing a career in those fields too.

A surprising fact for those not in the know is that many programmers got their start in Redstone – Yes the red dust to make pistons move in Minecraft sparked many children’s interest in programming and computer engineering.

But to get back on track, keep an eye out for Roving Rovers being credited for bringing the next generation to the space industry – maybe, don’t quote us yet.

What is the herd up to? I hear you all say!

Well, to start off with we are in the final development stages of an internal project. This will be the first fully developed project of Mini Mammoth Games that isn’t a mobile game. This is a large step forward in our story! This project is also perfect to use as an example of our capabilities and will be used to showcase ourselves to potential clients.

On top of that exciting news we are also hosting a few workshops over January and February, with the January workshops being a partnership with the Australian Space Agency. Though this particular workshop has since passed and was a great success, with 2 of the 3 sessions selling out it is clear that this is a great opportunity that we will continue to take advantage of this year.

The second workshop is set for the 15th of January and is a partnership with the West Lakes council, so keep an eye out for when that is properly announced on our socials!

To no surprise you will find us at both SAGE and ARCh 2025; despite previous iterations of Roving Rovers having minimal mechanical updates from previous years it’s time to get real excited about what we will be presenting to you this year!

With the continual support of ATCSR we are doing a large overhaul and update to Roving Rovers to truly reflect our intent for the game’s future development and full release. It will genuinely showcase, not just the basics of the Australian Rover Challenge, but the mechanics, story and gameplay that the final release will have. This is something we are ecstatic about as we haven’t had much time to truly showcase the potential of Roving Rovers in the past, so this is a great opportunity to take another peak at what Mini Mammoth Games is developing!

Australian Rover Challenge’s winning Rover from 2024
Improved physics
Improved Rover building
Job specific Rovers
Humans!

Whilst our current future is full of lunar rovers, we have many game ideas that we would love to bring to fruition, ranging from Idle mobile games to interactive horror novels.

We will also keep supporting and growing the games industry the best that we can, so if you or anyone you know needs work experience or a placement within the games industry please reach out. We had a continuous flow last year and had many great games made by the students!

For more information on our placement program: https://minimammothgames.com/our-placement-program/
And if you want to check out the placement games from 2024 follow the link: https://minimammothgames.com/2024_placement_games/

Although the start of 2024 had many hiccups we have ended up in a great position with the support of many companies and the Australian space industry on top of that!

Make sure to keep an eye out for Roving Rovers at any games or space events near you and a quick shout out to our friends over at My Colourful Mind for their Christmas demo release of Taming Yore Dragon; with the full-release not far behind!

References

What is Kerbal Space Program:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerbal_Space_Program#Scientific_community

Kerbal Space Program’s impact

https://www.christopherroosen.com/blog/2021/1/16/kerbal-space-program-ksp-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-interesting-spaceflight-simulator

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/mar/06/kerbal-space-program-helping-space-flight-experts-of-the-future

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/22/kerbal-space-program-why-nasa-minecraft

Minecraft’s Redstone impact

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45vp3O77CfQ

Minecraft’s Redstone similar to IRL circuitry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg-VeGSuf-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV_lf1kyV9M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUHdgWg_WZo

Australian Rover Challenge 2024: A Recollection

Ahh, another year, another Australian Rover Challenge (ARCh); every March many universities descend upon Adelaide from far and wide to attend and compete in ARCh. This year was no different and once again we were there to celebrate alongside the many teams in attendance. The talent we walked into while there was astronomical and it’s no wonder its such a popular event, bringing in hundreds of people each year with many schools making a trip yearly to see the teams and their rovers; and now us as well.

This is our 3rd year in attendance at ARCh and it is something we look forward to each year, with many from the public and the teams themselves checking out what we and Roving Rovers have been up to over the past year.

Join us in a short journey going through our involvement in ARCh 2024 and where you will find us now that it is all said and done!

This year we decided to shift the starting position of Roving Rovers, instead of being in the Shackleton Crater we were to the side and above a cliff leading down into the crater.

Furthermore we kept it so players were still able to enter the crater through the use of lava tubes. Enabling players to experience more interesting terrain while still staying true to the lunar experience.

In the interest of maintaining a spoiler free blog here I am simply going to list the next few updates below without giving away too much information.

Included the 2024 University of Adelaide rover
A new narrative with more environmental engagement
Updates to the control of the rover, making it a much easier and nicer experience for players

Overall we were able to update and improve Roving Rovers to be more entertaining and an easier experience for those who aren’t super familiar with games, especially driving based games.

As a bit of a late introduction, if you’re unsure what the Australian Rover Challenge is then I’ll give a quick explanation below.

Every year students at various Universities will create teams made up from various disciplines giving them all the knowledge of how to build and program a lunar rover. Teams can use and upgrade upon the design of the Rovers used in previous challenges or come up with a new design, though they have to follow some strict guidelines to follow. Teams are told about the different challenges and goals for the challenge so that they can practise and problem solve; making their rover the most efficient at various tasks.

A majority of the teams are from Australian Universities, however last year they had their first international team from Poland – Project Scorpio – and this year, the second from Bangladesh – Team Atlas – With both performing their national anthems for us at the ending ceremony!

For more in depth information go give their website (https://set.adelaide.edu.au/atcsr/australian-rover-challenge/) a quick visit, but the challenges they compete in are:

Post Landing Task
Excavation & Construction Task
Space Resources Task
Mapping & Autonomous Task

This year was even more grand than the last, especially at a new location. But the winners definitely deserved their places.

1st place goes to Projekt Scorpio

2nd place goes to Monash’s Nova Rover

3rd place goes to UQ Space

It was great to see all the differences between rovers and all the progress that’s been made and the effort everyone has put into the event and the team’s dedication to their rovers.

Keep a close eye out and you might find a familiar rover appearing in Roving Rovers 👀👀.

With that being all said and done, how did Roving Rovers go at Arch?

Firstly, thankyou for asking and secondly it went fantastic!

Although there were less people just wandering through this year, we still had quite a few people coming and checking it out, including a few school groups. Roving Rovers is a great introduction to the Australian Rover Challenge for the younger audiences, as they are able to try out the different challenges before watching the teams attempt the challenges in real time. We also had many of the teams come through and check out the game, as most had heard of Roving Rovers but never tested or watched any gameplay and so this was their first time playing or watching their teammates play.

As stated above we also had a digital version of the University of Adelaide’s rover and many; who had never controlled their own rover, were absolutely thrilled to be able to finally manoeuvre and attempt the challenge for themselves with their own rover.

Overall the experience was fantastic as always and it’s great to support all the hardwork and dedication that all the teams have put into their Rovers. We are looking forward to next year and are eager to see who takes the trophy in 2025!

You can find Roving Rovers HERE

And can keep up to date with its development through multiple channels!

Catch ya on the lunar side!