IBSOAD

Inspiration

The inspiration for IBSOAD came from a need to understand certain diseases like Alzheimer's, realizing the question "If someone you loved was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, would you be able to explain it?" The game aspect makes the topic less intimidating, and is geared toward people who may not have a medical background, medical students, and younger players.

What it does

You are dropped into a 3D world where you may walk, jump, and solve puzzles to progress through the different brain regions affected by Alzheimer's. The hippocampus, the entorhinal cortex, the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, and the parietal cortex are the main regions that are included. Each level contains information of what the primary purpose of the region is, how it is affected by the disease, and a puzzle corresponding (i.e. a memory game for the hippocampus, a maze for the entorhinal cortex).

How we built it

We utilized the Godot game engine to develop the 3D landscape, relying on ElevenLabs AI narration to guide players throughout the levels.

We choose Godot because of it's scripting language being similar to Python, but we still had close to zero experience actually using it. The greatest challenge became having to learn the software on the go while competing with the deadline.

Game Assets from: https://kaylousberg.itch.io/kay-kit-mini-game-variety-pack https://quaternius.itch.io/stylized-nature-megakit

Challenges we ran into

A lot of issues came from debugging, trying to get our characters to move without throwing themselves off of the map, picking up and storing items in an inventory, spending a lot of time calibrating the camera angles, and plenty more.

Another notable challenge game from managing version control, as a lot of our commits caused lost files, introduced bugs, or straight-up crashed our machines.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Most of our accomplishments came later on in the hackathon after we got a better understanding of the software. Such as achieving smooth 3D animation.

What we learned

We discovered how to create a working inventory system, implementing event triggers, and having how to create a basic game which can serve as a great template for future games.

What's next for IBSOAD

Our intentions for this hackathon was overly complex as we wanted to implement all five brain regions, an AI powered enemy, or AI assistant powered by Gemini which would ask questions, give quizzes, or even interact with the world itself.