Inspiration
The inspiration for this project stemmed from a desire to subtly illustrate how technology, while undoubtedly beneficial, can become detrimental when overused. Our initial plan was to develop a productivity software; however, we recognized that this approach was too conventional and would merely contribute to the proliferation of technology rather than encouraging a reduction in its usage.
What it does
Currently, CodeName features one of ten planned levels. Our aim is for players to progress through increasingly challenging levels, receiving upgrades at the end of each round to make subsequent levels more manageable. However, as players choose more upgrades, they risk becoming corrupted, potentially harming their allies or even switching sides entirely.
Throughout the game, between rounds, there will be dialogue between the player, allies, and robots to illustrate the extent of the corruption and the connections the player loses by taking more upgrades. We also plan to incorporate a login page for data storage, allowing players to resume their progress at a later time. Our database will record a timeline of all events that have occurred, enabling players to review their decisions and identify areas for improvement.
It is possible to win without any upgrades, but it is extremely challenging. This emphasizes that while technology can be addictive and overwhelming, using it sparingly to enhance relationships can have a profound impact.
How we built it
The SQL database was built using MySQL Workbench for the initialization of tables. For the interaction between Java and the SQL database, we utilized JDBM. Whilst this is still in progress there exists and entire backend system that utilizes generative AI generates context based npc interactions and conversations relvant to the gameworld. Such as the leader and fellow soldiers refering to scouting for enemies, only for one ot get ambused and verbal frustration is shown as the player rushes to there aid through actuall conversations. In terms of core game logic, the map world is generated from input text files and converted to grids, of which navigation meshes can be generated and a custom navigation algorithem is utilized to handle npc movement and combat.
Challenges we ran into
One of the first challenges we faced was the improper installation and initialization of JDBM. This issue arose because we had never used JDBM before and had never installed an external library into Java either. To resolve this, we needed to reinstall the jar file, initialize a new database, run two lines of code to link JDBM to the project path and library path, and then switch VS Code's run method to "Run with Java" instead of "Run Java".
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our team chose to challenge ourselves by straying away from the normal path, in a way we choose to limit our use of technology from variouse popular game engines and frameworks that would have otherwise made life easier. And in hindsight we could have gotten quite a bit more sleep had we, but never the less we decided to create our own framework and in a sense game engine to create our project. Built almost completly in java with additional services such as a flask server with logic for generating and fetching our dynamic dialogue options and external sql databases for data saving and handling. I'm honestly impressed that we were able to accomplish what we did, and we as a team are proud of what we've accomplished.
What we learned
If i had to choose one big takeaway from this event to carry with me into the foreseeable future, it would be that "limits are self-made", going into this project one of our main concerns as a team was wether or not we could pull this project off. This i have no doubt is a common trend but for us it wasn't because of our lack of knoledge we had programmed in java before and even took the time to refresh ourselves as we waited for theme, it was simply because we assumed our limit(s) existed somewhere before the completion of our project. And we are glad to know that we were completly wrong, we learned that the limits we place on ourselves are often times the very ones we need to strive towards breaking and we also learned that it feels pretty amazing when you do.
What's next for Code Name : Human Kind
Building a login page Adding sprites, animations, and proper images for the maps Developing 8 additional levels Utilizing SQL functions to upload data to the server for future retrieval Updating the timeline variable Expanding upgrade options Integrating the upgrade menu into the main window instead of having it as a separate entity
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