Catch and Dodge 'em

Main Menu snapshot.
Snapshot of the catch 'em game mode on level 4.
Snapshot of the dodge 'em game mode on level 1.
Snapshot of the High score tab in the Main Menu.
A game over screen in dodge' em.

Inspiration

Catch and dodge 'em was also inspired by the childhood game we played with friends called octopus tag. In octopus tag, one person would be chosen as the octopus while all the other players try to get from one side of the room to the other side. Being inspired by players moving from one side to the other side in octopus tag, we created catch and dodge ‘em where they both involve balls moving from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen while the user controls the ball paddle to either catch or dodge the balls depending on the game mode.

What it does

Catch and dodge 'em offers two minigames that users can choose to play. In the game, “Catch ‘em”, the rules are simple, catch the rightward moving red balls before they touch the right wall and advance to the next level. In the game, “Dodge ‘em”, you do quite the opposite, avoid the rightward moving balls before they touch you and advance once all balls have passed the right wall. Of course there is a catch, the game is not always so simple. With each level, the speed of the balls will begin to increase!

How I built it

We built the entire application from scratch using Java and also the IntelliJ IDE.

Challenges I ran into

Throughout the project, we encountered a lot of bugs such as the balls not bouncing off the walls properly. However, by asking each other for help and working cooperatively, we were able to debug our game and solve these bugs together to have a bug free application.

Since this is our first time participating in the Hackathon, we were not used to such a strict deadline. However, with consistent effort, we managed to finish the application and had a lot of fun building the application.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We were able to make a solid looking game in under 24 hours and we also completed our first ever hackathon!

What I learned

We learned how to collaborate on the same project together using GitHub and also learned how to work together yet working on different parts on the project by periodically asking each other for help and asking if they need help. We also learned new ways to code in different formats than before!

What's next for Catch and Dodge 'em

We're planning to add a third gamemode called Catch AND dodge 'em where its a combination of catch'em and dodge 'em. We're also planning to add new functionalities such as switching between moving the ball paddle with arrow keys and with a mouse.