Project Daedalus

Digital tabletop application for TRPGS

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Inspiration

We play Dungeons and Dragons together, and we found that using wet erase markers on a white board was inconvenient to play the game. We decided to tear down a monitor and dedicate a Raspberry Pi to manage a grid system to use for various tabletops.

What it does

The application manages map data and tokens placed throughout the board while keeping each square 1 in x 1 in so that standard minis can also be used in tandem with the monitor.

How we built it

We took apart a monitor and re soldered the USB pass through to both power the Pi and pass the original hub into the USB port on the Pi itself. Once all of the components were put into the original monitor housing, we coded the grid to contain map data and image and the various locations of tokens placed throughout it.

The tokens can be moved anywhere on the dynamic array, which is displayed such that each square is 1 in x 1 in. Additional tokens can be added to cover more players/monsters.

Challenges we ran into

Using JFrame was challenging to properly display the grid and buttons as desired, since keeping the aspect ratio was important to the feasibility of the project. By utilizing JPanels, we could draw every portion of the map without distorting the map itself.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the amount of progress were able to make despite having issues with setting up the Git repo. We were able to exceed our initial goal of simply drawing the map within the 24 hour time limit. We expanded and completed many features that were planned for later development, and our overall productiveness was high.

What we learned

Working under both time constraints and for long periods have adverse effects on the body, and we quickly realized that managing diet and consistent breaks was essential to maximize the efficiency and productivity of our work.

What's next for Project Daedalus

Future iterations of this is expected to support saving, editing, and displaying details regarding specific data regarding the player/monster. This will further streamline gameplay by simplifying the lookup required.

Also, greater map manipulation is expected in the future when we have a greater variety of terrain palettes to build the map, allowing more scenarios.

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