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One of our card assets, sadly unimplemented but we're very proud of them.
Inspiration
Saaketh, our strongest programmer, spent a lot of time in India playing Rummy with his grandparents. In this process, he found that you could learn whether or not to play a hand by using statistics. Upon hearing about the game dev category, he suggested we build this process into a bot in hopes of growing closer to a solved game of Indian Rummy.
What it does
Rummybot's name speaks for itself: It is an intelligent, medium-level rummy-playing automaton. The program will allow the user to face off in a game of Indian Rummy against three of these bots, complete with a scoring system, and vaguely Civilization VI themed soundtrack and visuals.
How I built it
Challenges I ran into
As the Hackathon began, and teams were rushing to begin writing their code, our team found that we were ill-prepared for the task at hand. Only one out of the four of us had a laptop, so we had to borrow some of the provided hardware. Alas, one of these three lent laptops was not like the others. The plague that is Norton 360 Antivirus decreed that every file was, in fact, a high-risk virus. "Microsoft Edge Updater? Unacceptable. Java? Get it out of there." It said as it rampaged, leaving no file behind. Exaggeration aside, the lack of preparedness made our task harder than it should have been.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
None of us have pursued Java any further than AP Computer Science A. Needless to say, we're all relatively new to programming and especially the art of doing so collaboratively. We may not have made anything too flashy or novel, but it was a huge step in our collective journey in the field. The art and music are also not to go unappreciated, as the graphic designer (although he may have gotten a tad carried away from the original aim of the project) delivered assets that elevate the experience from text in a console to a simulated tabletop.
What I learned
What's next for RummyBot
We aren't sure if we'll be pushing out any updates to RummyBot. Some of us are interested in refining it, but if we don't, we can only hope that it will at least be able to face off against a few challengers and fulfill its purpose in life. At the very least, it may teach a few inexperienced Rummy players the basics of the game and allow for practice in a simulated (Civilization VI themed) environment. Please give RummyBot a try so that it can look back and appreciate a fulfilling life when it's finally time to pull the plug.
