Inspiration
Deadline Dash was inspired by the feeling of being a student during deadline season: assignments piling up, notifications everywhere, and the pressure to react quickly without making mistakes. We wanted to turn that stressful experience into something physical, funny, and measurable. Instead of just making a simple reflex game, we built a student-stress simulator where players have to respond to flashing lights while remembering which colour is forbidden each round.
The main question behind the project was: Do people actually perform better under pressure, or do they just react faster and make more mistakes?
What it does
Deadline Dash is a hardware-based reaction and focus game. The player watches three LEDs: red, green, and blue. Each round has a different forbidden colour. The player must press the button for allowed colours, but avoid pressing when the forbidden colour appears.
As the game continues, the rounds become harder. The lights flash faster, the reaction window gets shorter, and the time between signals decreases. This makes the game feel more intense as it goes on, like the pressure of deadlines building up.
At the end, Deadline Dash prints a full performance report with: Correct actions Missed tasks False starts Accuracy percentage Average reaction time Focus score Panic score Final score Student type
We also connected the game to a MongoDB leaderboard, so each player’s name and results can be saved and compared.
How we built it
We built Deadline Dash using an Arduino, three LEDs, a button, a buzzer, and serial communication. The Arduino controls the lights, reads the player’s button input, tracks each trial, and calculates the final performance data.
The game has three rounds. Each round changes the forbidden colour and increases the difficulty. The code randomly chooses which colour to flash, checks whether the player pressed the button in time, and decides whether the result was correct, missed, or a false start. The Arduino also uses the buzzer for round transitions, mistakes, and the game-over sound.
For the leaderboard, we used a Python script as a bridge between the Arduino and MongoDB. At the end of the game, the Arduino prints a machine-readable result line. The Python program reads that line, asks for the player’s name, saves the result to MongoDB, and prints an updated leaderboard.
Challenges we ran into
One of the biggest challenges was getting the hardware and software to work together. At first, the LEDs worked, but the button input was inconsistent because of wiring issues. We had to debug whether the problem was in the code, the Arduino pin, or the breadboard wiring. This taught us how important small hardware details are, especially when using buttons.
Another challenge was balancing the game difficulty. If the lights stayed on too long, the game was too easy. If the reaction window was too short, it became unfair. We adjusted the flash duration, random wait time, and response limit for each round so the game gradually becomes more stressful.
MongoDB was also a challenge because it added a second system outside Arduino. We had to figure out how to send results from Arduino to Python, then from Python to the cloud database. Once it worked, it made the project feel much more complete because we had a real leaderboard instead of just a one-time Serial Monitor result.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
One of the accomplishments we are most proud of is getting the MongoDB leaderboard working. At first, Deadline Dash was just a physical reaction game that printed results in the Serial Monitor. By connecting Arduino to Python and then saving results to MongoDB, we turned it into a more complete and competitive experience. Now each player can enter their name, play the game, save their results, and compare their score against others on a leaderboard.
We are also proud that the game became more than a simple button-press reflex test. We added changing forbidden colours, faster rounds, random flash timing, buzzer feedback, accuracy tracking, average reaction time, focus score, panic score, final score, and student-type labels. These features made the game feel more polished, fun, and connected to the theme of academic pressure.
What we learned
We learned how to combine hardware, software, and data storage into one project. We practiced Arduino programming, button input, LED control, buzzer feedback, timing with millis(), serial communication, Python scripting, and MongoDB storage.
We also learned that a strong hackathon project does not need to be complicated to be effective. The core idea is simple: press the button at the right time. But by adding changing rules, faster rounds, panic scoring, student-themed labels, and a leaderboard, the game became more creative and meaningful.
What's next for Deadline Dash
If we had more time, we would improve the leaderboard display with a web dashboard, add more detailed round-by-round analysis, and make the game support multiple buttons or more complex student-themed events. We could also add different game modes, such as “Exam Mode,” “Group Project Mode,” or “Deadline Week Mode.”
Deadline Dash started as a reflex game, but it became a fun way to measure how people react when pressure, distraction, and speed all collide.
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