Inspiration
The primary inspiration for Galactic Tactics was the amazing game of Tetris. We wanted to make a storyline behind the game that would be reminiscent of 80's popular culture. We were also inspired by the "best pizza-related game" award, so we included a nod to an unnamed pizza chain in the game's backstory.
What it does
The goal of the game is to build a shield as dense as possible to protect the galaxies from the astronomical ray gun. The shield is built by using the arrow keys on the keyboard to manoeuvre falling blocks of various shapes into place.
How I built it
We designed the UI with HTML and CSS, and designed the back end functionality with JavaScript. We used a canvas as the area to display the blocks, which were organized into three primary shapes by object arrays. We used random numbers to determine the color pattern of the blocks and the shape that next appears. We drew the shapes onto the canvas with the function requestAnimationFrame(draw) and counted the score by calculating the length of the array containing the stationary blocks within the playing area. We used JavaScript and HTML together to display the score throughout the game and create a reset option that allows the player to play the game again without losing High Score data.
Challenges I ran into
The main challenge for our group was that three of our members had little to no experience with the programming languages that we used for the project. We faced a steep learning curve, but with the help of the Web Development Talk, the mentors, w3schools.com, and our fourth member, we were able to accomplish a lot.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I am proud of this project's functionality. Going into my first ever hackathon, I didn't know what to expect, and I had no previous experience with these languages, so the amount of programming I was able to do in a weekend with my group was a great learning opportunity. And we made something that works! -Jess This was my first hackathon, and although I've been programming for a year now, this was a great experience to see the things I've learned be applied and work in a group setting. I learned a lot about teaching myself web development and working with other team members' code to create something functional. I'm quite proud of the outcome of the project despite most of us not being experienced in web development. -Jennifer Like Jess and Jennifer, this was my first ever hackathon. Going into it, I had no group and no idea what to expect. I'm very proud of the project that my group and I were able to make in 36 hours. When we began, I had absolutely no experience with Javascript or HTML, but after attending a few events, I gained a better understanding of these programming/markup languages, and was able to finish a fun game with my group members that I'm very proud of.
- Kacper
What I learned
We learned how to collaborate effectively from afar. Google Meet was a solid resource.
What's next for Galactic Tactics
One thing we would have liked to implement was rotation of the blocks. With more time, we would have also included a larger variety in block shapes. In the future, this game could be expanded to include these additions.
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