E.R.F. - Earth Rescue Force

E.R.F. - Erf Rescue Force was created by Asphalt Face for the ROM Game Jam 2015

Defend the Erf!

Take control of Planet Erf’s orbital defense system as you protect your home from a barrage of incoming asteroids. With or without the help of a friend, see if you can hold out long enough to build a transport to carry the citizens of Erf to safety!

The Facts Behind the Game

Our planet is struck by more than a hundred thousand meteoroids per year, but most are so small that they burn up long before reaching the planet’s surface. However, between 5 and 10 times a year, objects do make it to the surface to become meteorites, though these objects also tend to be small and cause little or no significant damage. The Near Earth Object Program, spearheaded by NASA, works to detect, track and characterize any potentially dangerous asteroids and comets that might approach the Earth. As of January 30, 2015, they have discovered 13,674 Near-Earth objects, only 1,664 of which are considered Potentially Hazardous Asteroids. The challenge is that outer space is a BIG place; while we can detect large asteroids (e.g. greater than 1 km across) at a relatively great distance, small objects (e.g. smaller than 50 meters across) are so small and dark, and moving so fast, that we often don’t know they’re coming until they’re already in the atmosphere.

The ROM Connection

Dr. Kim Tait, Curator of Mineralogy in the Centre for Earth and Space at the ROM, is a participating scientist in the OSIRIS-REx mission. Scheduled to launch in September, 2016, its goal is to study and return a sample of asteroid 101955 Bennu in 2023. Measuring approximately 500 m across, Bennu is a near-Earth asteroid which comes closest to Earth every 6 years and, based on current projections, has what is considered an elevated risk (approx. 0.037% probability) of colliding with the Earth between the years 2175 and 2196.

What's a Game Jam?

At a ROM Game Jam, teams of developers spend a weekend at the ROM learning from collections and curators and using those ideas to build fun games inspired by the museum.  With only two days to research and create their games, the results can be weird, wacky, and downright wonderful!