Pub? Pub.
Most weeks at Etch HQ, we take a trip to our local Pub over Friday lunchtime.
Some have a casual pint, most have some food - Usually we all have a good time, too.
This week however, a crack team of Etch commandos (Tom, Phil, Mike and myself) headed to Portsmouth bright and early to spend a whole day in the Pub - With a difference.
This was PubHack - The idea being that in teams of four, everyone works on a themed project as an experiment.
And this was serious business - A far cry from the care free attitude of some other hackdays (including our own #hacksoton), because there were trophies and everything. We had heard tales of the mighty designers and app makers who walked these halls, we had heard the challenges of our fellow attendees.
Binge drinking makes the headlines, but PubHack is about binge working - An all day rush to get something to show off in the all important presentations at the end of the day.
No pressure then.
The theme was revealed first thing in the morning - “Awkward Situations”.
We set about coming up with ideas and then moved on to a discussion. Before long, we noticed other people already working, already building and making. The pressure rose and we decided to start on our idea.
Having agreed on a series of short sprints during the day, we hit the end of the first one. Before me, a fake dating website was taking shape. Michael had a concerned look, which was the first sign that we weren’t on the right track… And also a hint of the Facebook API annoyances that were to come.
Perservering a little longer, the conversation finally happened after around 2 and a half hours of work - Were we on the right track? Our idea: An attempt to get socially awkward people to sign up for a dating website which would proceed to mock them on Twitter, seemed like a one note joke. Throwaway.
Back to the drawing board then.
With lunch looming on the horizon (Mmmm. BLT…) we threw away what we had so far and started on our new idea - The game called Awkward Roulette.
The core premise was that you would give it some kind of access to your life - Phone numbers, social networks - And the game would dole out random awkward punishments in a Spin-the-bottle style party game.
Myself and Tom tested the idea by playing what you might call a ‘Paper Prototype’ - We span a wheel and enacted the punishments manually on each others behalf. Tom took ownership of my phone and called a girl I hadn’t spoken to since University to tell her that I had been arrested. He escaped my vengeful wrath by landing on the 'Escape’ part of the wheel, and we could both confirm that it was really awkward.
What the game was supposed to be at first, and what it eventually became, are different. Liberated from the stringent demands of a client, we were able to tweak our idea throughout the day on the fly. The focus was always on the MVP - Get it to an acceptable level of functionality, then build on it.
That process made the game simpler and it also made it better, in the long run. By sundown, the game was starting to be quite something. My flashing square boxes had become a circular wheel, and the game was given a visual facelift to match (Hello Lobster font!). Mike had squeezed the Facebook API into doing our bidding, and Phil was putting the finishing touches on the Twilio prank call system.
We created a monster.
The presentations began in earnest at 8pm. There was a lot to see, all of it interesting. There was an Oculus Rift games with funny dialog, an offensive joke generator, an awkward conversation helper, awkward situation rankings, apps to help you escape bad dates, and more. They were pretty much all hilarious and well presented.
As with all live demos, ours didn’t go entirely to plan as I fumbled with a microphone in an attempt to get audio out of my phone and into the ears of the audience. Besides that it wasn’t too bad, with Mike demoing a variety of Facebook statuses and photographs that the game could post on his wall.
We settled down, packed up, ate a burger and waited. Mingled with some friends and talked about our favourites.
I certainly didn’t expect to win anything, not in the face of so much strong design work and technical prowess.
Award time came soon enough - Bouncy balls were thrown (Don’t ask, I can’t explain), books were gifted, and trophies claimed. To our total surprise, we walked away with 2 trophies and a third special prize. Among them: Overall winner!
I think I speak for the whole team when I say: Thank you, PubHack! We advocate all hackdays, and we can certainly recommend this one. A great time was had by all, and we’ll definitely be back!
- Adam
