Hack-O-Lantern - Hidden Film Game

You like puzzles, films, and puns? Have we got the web application for you! Hack-O-Lantern has hidden film games with visual clues for Spooky or Hacking themed films. See if you can find them all!

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Inspiration

  1. We wanted to make something fun and utilise are shared skill set in HTML/CSS
  2. The National Book Tokens Hidden Books Game - link
  3. Majestic's Challenge to Make Aaron chuckle
  4. Capgemini's Challenge to incorporate their core value fun, aswell as their other values honesty, boldness, trust, freedom, modesty, and team spirit.

What it does

  1. It gives you visual puns, word play, puzzles and fun!
  2. A web application that enables a user to navigate through the site to the games on offer, click on the clues they find and guess what film they think it is. The user's correct answers are stored and their score is displayed to them so they can track their progress.
  3. If the user gets all of the clues correctly they are rewarded with a congratulations from none other than Dwayne Johnson.

How we built it

Oscar - We built this app in js, react and CSS, and I used firebad for the backend. We built it mobile first at as most people have one, and then also made it accessible for desktop.

Mary - I contributed in building and styling the front end of the project.

Genna - For the graphics I sourced free to use images on the internet, layered and manipulated them in Photopea to create the logo, clues and overall montages.

Arukhan - For the back-end, I attempted to request and send back http.requests through the Java code and JSON.

Challenges we ran into

Oscar - I ran into issues when I had to use two arrays to check/validate one another this was something I haven't had to deal with before and it was a callange but I manager to do this affter a long hard think about the way the app worked

Mary - Trying to manage my kids with one hand and writing codes with the other one hand. Also trying to follow and help my team mate working on the actual page in visual studio code.

Genna - Remembering which layers I am on when editing images at 1am while I am not wearing my glasses as I left them in the room my partner was sleeping in. The struggle was real, but I got there in the end.

Arukhan -Difficulties with adding the Java OOP language to the project as a Back-end part. But we had managed another way to solve the solution.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Oscar - I think that the biggest accomplishment was to actually work well in a team as I haven't done that before and was really fun to do.

Mary - It has been an amazing Journey. I joined HackTheMidlands with no idea what to do but I met amazing individuals with great minds although we didn't know each others from Adam but we have become a family and was able to work together to build something wonderful.

Genna - Other than all my puns, I am just really proud of our teamwork. We didn't know each other at all Thursday afternoon, but by 10pm that evening we had a plan and a shared goal. We have all worked really hard, and have been really supportive to each other. On a personal level I am really proud of the Oddities and Evens game, I think it looks pretty great.

Arukhan - Proud of being part of the project as my first Hackathon experience as we worked together. Also, want to highlight that I had observed how to project was build from 0.

What we learned

Oscar - I learnt how to work in a team and assigning peole roles that wouldent confilct with one another.

Mary - I have gain knowledge of React and Javascript as well as css from my teammates. I learned to use Trello and github which was a plus for me.

Genna - I learned how to use Photopea, I now I know how to do image editing, making illustrations, and how to work with vectors. Also, got some great insights from my teammates on using React, Visual Studio Code, GitHub, and Trello.

Arukhan - I learned and became acquainted with new technologies such as JSON and framework React.js.

What's next for Hack-O-Lantern - Hidden Film Game

Oscar - The next thing for hack-o-lantern is to link the front end to the backend. I wish we had more time so I could have done this.

Mary - To come back nexy year, and every year! It has been an eye opening experience. I have learnt a lot, and want to keep on learning.

Genna - I had planned, sourced assets, and designed a third game (It was a community board with various posters as clues such as a Happy Hour at the Winchester with a picture of some pool cues for Shaun of the Dead and Ed's Game night with a picture of some hands playing rock paper, scissors for Edward Scissorhands . I would love to come back next year so I could improve and expand on it.

Arukhan - I am planning to learn more in back-end and API technologies, so as to be confident in my next Hackathon games or challenges.

Team Reflection and Advice for Hackathons

All of us had reservations about doing hackathon: it was something we had never done before, we had concerns our skills sets weren't at the level teams might want, and we were scared about working on a project with strangers. But doing anything new can be daunting, and lucky Hack the Midlands is set up to help newcomers and people from all walks of life.

Some of the key takeaways for us have been:

There is enough time in the Hackathon to picks up skills, languages or software and implement them into your project

Oscar has never worked in a team before but learnt great teamwork and leadership, Mary had been learning HTML / CSS for a few months but was able to make and help with most of the front-end display. Genna had never done image editing before but learnt it and utilised it for all the images in the web application. Arukhan is a busy but incredibly bright student, he couldn't commit all the time he wanted but that didn't stop him from still taking part, helping to get us over the line and making friends even though English is not his first language...or second language (did I mention he was bright?).

Remember to be kind to yourself and your team. Working on a time sensitive project is stressful and hard. If you are working with people you don't know, make sure to make time to get to know each other and support each other.

We spent the first evening just getting to know each other, sharing ideas, and formulating a plan. Think this then helped us to coordinate and relate to each other as we worked. We understood our team members had commitments, family to take care of, and disabilities/mental health/physical health conditions which limited their time they could give. We had a mantra of: Our health and family came first; the project will be what it will be. (So, make sure you still get some sleep if you do a hackathon!)

If you are going to do a Hackathon: prepare, prepare, and prepare.

One of the main things we wished we had all done more was prepare for the hackathon better. Before the event:

  • Make sure you have some of the key application and tech you will need like: Visual Studio Code, GitHub account, an account for a file sharing platform (we used google drive), and anything else previous projects have listed or stated as useful on their projects. Something sufficient to host your project on if it is web based so it can handle various and repeated connections and server refreshes.
  • Look at previous year submissions so you have an idea of content that gets submitted and the variety of skills that can be used for your hack. Learn from their success and mistakes.
  • It can take more time than you think so prioritise time management. Try to either clear your diary for the hackathon or block out your time that you can give to the project. Be honest, and fair to yourself, about the time you can give. If we were to do the project again, I think we would have made individual calendars and a team calendar, so we could better coordinate ourselves as resources.

If you want to be involved in a Hackathon, absolutely do it, and consider doing your first at Hack the Midlands.

There will be something you can make or something you can contribute. All of us are so glad we did it and can’t wait to come back and do another, possibly together. The organisers and sponsors at Hack the Midlands are really helpful and friendly, you will feel welcomed and supported here.

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