Alexa -- 26 Tango

Inspiration

Veterans with blindness or impaired vision

What it does

Plays a game based on military call-letters, teaches the same to those unfamiliar with them

How I built it

Node.js with Lambda function endpoint

Challenges I ran into

Having Alexa correctly understand and pronounce military call-letters as they are intended

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Creating a unique interactive game that both veterans and regular folk can enjoy

What I learned

Managing/differentiating between what's spoken for the user to hear and what's written out to a card for the user to read

Skill Description

Ten’hut! You’ll need a firm command of the military alphabet (“call-letters”) to battle Alexa in this war of words. Call-letters are predefined words that represent each letter of the standard alphabet, for example Alpha for A, Bravo for B, and Charlie for C. If you’re not familiar with the 26 military call-letters, you can use this game to learn them; they’re actually fun to bark out and can also be handy in everyday life like when spelling out a word for clarity (“Hello my name is Elvis- Echo, Lima, Victor, India, Sierra”).

The object of 26 Tango is to drive the running tally to exactly 26 points. To play the game you just alternate naming call-letters with Alexa back and forth to move the tally up or down. The only catch is that the call-letter you name has to begin with one of the individual letters of the current call-letter, excluding the first letter (so if Alexa says “Lima” you can only use “India”, “Mike”, or “Alpha”). On each turn the total tally is increased according to the point value of the named call-letter, which is simply equal to its length, for example Alpha=5 points and Whiskey=7 points. To decrease the tally versus adding to it, just include the extra call-letter “delta” in your response, for example “Golf delta” would subtract 4 points from the tally and “Delta delta” would subtract 5 points (as a mnemonic think “d” as in “difference”). Whoever drives the tally to 26 first wins the game. If you give an invalid call-letter for your response, the game will end.

Now get your war face on soldier and go kick some Alexa butt- OORAH!

The 26 military call-letters and their point values: Alpha/5, Bravo/5, Charlie/7, Delta/5, Echo/4, Foxtrot/7, Golf/4, Hotel/5, India/5, Juliet/6, Kilo/4, Lima/4, Mike/4, November/8, Oscar/5, Papa/4, Quebec/6, Romeo/5, Sierra/6, Tango/5, Uniform/7, Victor/6, Whiskey/7, Xray/4, Yankee/6, Zulu/4

Example interaction: Alexa: Say any call-letter [Welcome prompt, Tally=0] You: Whiskey [7 pts up, Tally=7] Alexa: Kilo [4 pts up, Tally=11] “ “ “ “ “ You: Yankee [6 pts up, Tally=27] Alexa: Alpha delta [5 pts down, Tally=22] You: Papa [4 pts up, Tally=26 -- You Win!}

Built With

• lambda
• node.js