Noctulactic

A screenshot of the game during its early stages once we got the random mapping set up!

Inspiration

Inspired by the theme of the hackathon, the idea of creating an intergalactic ASCII-based graphics game came to fruition. After the concept was finalized, we were set to keep brainstorming and developing until we got to where we are now.

What it does

The game allows the user to oversee the growth of an extensive galactic empire. The user must manage what ships go where and which buildings to place as you take over planet after planet! Just in case there were worries, the conquest of all the planets was very peaceful.

How we built it

We were both most comfortable using Java but didn't want to work too much with GUIs, so after a bit of thinking, we decided that an ASCII graphics-based game would give us the most room to develop our ideas. We started with our most basic concepts: The ships and the planets. After we had the basics set up, we kept on adding more and more until we were finally happy with the product.

Challenges we ran into

Making calculations, especially for the planets, were difficult, and we had to graph a lot of their functions (using Desmos for the most part) to make sure things would be balanced.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

//: This was my first hackathon! I'm very happy with the work I got done, especially in such a short timeframe, and I really enjoyed the experience. Kieran: Creating this project was easily the best learning experience I've had with regards to coding and is the most complex project that I've been a part of. // and I are proud to have been able to produce a game that provides an interactive and enjoyable user experience.

What we learned

//: I learned a lot about organization during this project because it became so important when working with others. Communication was well was far more important than I had originally thought it would be since this was a project that we both needed to work together on in real-time. Kieran: Over the course of this project, I learned about data structures and the art of effective collaboration. This project required a great amount of work, and without being able to work together, // and I would not have been able to create this very extensive project.

What's next for Noctulactic

We hope to add more mechanics! We originally thought of possibly adding a tech tree, although we decided it would be too complex to add in such a short timeframe.