Balliver's Travels

To be honest, as this being my first hackathon I was hoping to join a team that would carry me and do most of the work in putting a great project together. However the complete opposite turned out to be true as I was unable to do so, and the people I thought I was going to team up with decided last minute their talents might be better used elsewhere. Thankfully I ran into EA and they reminded me of my true passion, and what got me here in the first place. Video games. Playing, designing, and a love for video games.

My project uses the innovative new technology from EA's API and allows the user to use any smart phone (given they know the IP address) and their phone will transform into the controller before their eyes. Using your smart phone and waving it back and forth you can move the main character from left to right, and by pressing the jump or boost buttons that appear on your phone you will find the colourful ball on the computer screen doing exactly as you instruct it. Without downloading any apps, it is run only through local host WiFi, and as long as the smart phone is on the same network then the game runs quite smoothly.

I built it by first downloading Unity, Node.js, Visual Basic, and EA's API. Once I had all the tools necessary I began working immediately. I programmed the interface that the user see's on their phone using Java Script, I programmed the gaming mechanics using C#, and I created the logistics of the game and placed the objects using Unity's game engine.

I ran into many, many challenges this weekend and it's a miracle that I was able to finish my project before the deadline. Thank goodness for the caffeine. I had never used Unity, Node.js or C#, before this weekend and had barely worked with HTML. It was a learning curve trying to get to know everything there was that was needed for the product. Friday night I was googling what an API was. Past the learning aspect I ran into several problems with my programs. However God blessed me because there were 2 mentors in particular who gave me a helping hand at the right moments. I couldn't have done it without them.

I am proud that I had the oppurtunity to be a part of this magnificent event. It's not every weekend you get to have fun and learn with some of the world's brightest minds. I am very proud that I have created something that I can bring home with me and show my friends, family, and something strong that I can put on my resume. My proudest moment however was finally being able to get the smart phone's accelerator to work alongside the game.

I learned quite a bit about game development and what goes on behind a good game. How important the "juice" is in making any game great. Besides a lot of computing and technical knowledge I learned a lot about myself too. I didn't think I had the dillegence and will power to carry through a whole project on my own and I proved myself wrong. I learned to trust myself and that at the next hackathon I go to, to try and find a team before so that I can create something far better and superior with more people.

Balliver's Travels could be expanded into a full fledged game, it has beautiful tiled graphics and it's new features with the connectivity of the smart phones could be a strong selling point for it. However I believe I will retire it because once you finish a game the next one is not only easier to build, but bound to be better. Balliver's Travels will however have a prominent place on my resume.

Built With

• c#
• ea-path-finder
• hml
• javascript
• json
• node.js
• unity