Turing House

Inspiration

We were inspired by classic puzzle games and the legacy of Alan Turing and wanted to introduce and develop a new element to these kinds of games that would make them more immersive and fun. Also, by utilizing this interactive element in a game that covers some of the details of Alan Turing's life, we hope to make education

We also wanted to make use of the Twilio API for something other than just communications solutions, showcasing its potential in a unique field.

What it does

The game is a top down dungeon crawler that follows a small character as he moves through Alan Turing's abandoned house. While you are solving puzzles and trying to escape, Alan Turing himself hacks into your phone and begins sending you texts, containing hints on how to solve his puzzles.

How we built it

We used the Processing IDE for java to built the frontend of the game and used the Twilio API to build our backend using Python, allowing us to use the player phone to communicate. We also used the OpenAI API to create a chatbot and train it to speak like Alan Turing. We also used part of our Flask app to generate a website where you can chat with the brain of Alan Turing.

Challenges we ran into

Initially, we had some challenges with the logistics of our idea. We wanted to use Twilio, but each member had different levels of experiences and areas of expertise. We were able to come up with this idea that incorporated our different strengths and as a result we created the Turing House. The first challenge was getting a hang of the Twilio API, which we assigned to one of our team members, while the rest of us each got to work on one of the puzzle rooms themed around Turing's Life. In implementing the logic of these puzzles, we ran into issues frequently with translating our ideas to Processing code, such as the moves required to solve the chess puzzle, or the ordering of letters in the cryptography puzzle. In the end, we were able to fix the majority of these issues to create a cohesive game.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of making a working game that adds a new element to an existing field such as gaming.

What we learned

We learned a lot about project management and the specifics of Processing and the Twilio API. It is also our first hackathon, so we learned a lot about working under constraints, through fatigue, and translating an idea into a working program.

What's next for Turing House

We hope to add more rooms and make the Twilio backend more in-depth, such as making phone calls or even accepting text messages as part of the gameplay loop. This idea could easily be stretched into a full-length game given the time and resources.