MLH Who Done It? Hacks F2020 : : [ Mystery Mashup ]

Homepage Avatar
Function: Homepage
Function: Plot Generator
Function: Repl.it Code
Function: Snake (Classic)

Event

MLH Who Done It? Hacks, Fall 2020

Domain.com

mysterymashup.space

GoDaddy

crime-time-murder-mystery.co

Inspiration

The team was inspired to create a mystery-themed project to go along with the hackathon's own image. Of course, our original plan for an ML-generated story or a death-statistic hub was a bit too ambitious to handle. Thus, we settled for a website that plays host to the theme while working within the bounds of what we know and what we could accomplish.

What It Does

The hack plays host to various aspects of a mystery hub, including links to crime-related articles and unsolved mysteries, a mystery novel prompt generator, and even a snake game (originally to help users collect keys and unlock a secret message, now just for fun!). We have also included a mini text mystery to try out!

How We Built It

This hack was built using Repl.it's platform and the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python languages. Additionally, we bootstrapped everything to work as a package, and threw in the Pygames library to make the game side accessible for use.

Challenges We Ran Into

The main challenges we initially ran into involved having too big a project idea for what was feasible. A bit of confusion in relegating roles and working with the backend in a team of front-end developers also caused a few minor roadblocks - and, of course, time zones split halfway across the world did cause some setbacks - but, we managed to overcome our issues and accomplish a good portion of the hack, itself.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

We are proud to have a functioning website and prompt generator, as well as a (mostly) functioning game to go along with it. Of note is the design of our website, which feels very much mysterious and spooky, indeed!

What We Learned

During this hack, we learned to pick up some more skills in backend development. Additionally, members learned more Python, as well as how to use Pygame-converted C++ code to make a functioning game event.

What's Next for Mystery Mashup

In the future, we plan to expand Mystery Mashup to include several more crime and mystery-based games, as well as to have some more real-world statistical influence. Throwing in some ML-generated story ideas or text adventures can also be a huge boost to site traffic, as well.