Viking-Quest: The Green Crusade

Historical Context

During a weeking in a busy and ultimately final semester at DVC

Technologies

C++ SFML

Challenges

It’s a hackaton!

Achievements

Not too shabby an environmentally themed 2d platform shooter for something that was made in 48 hours using only C++, SFML, and no previous codebase. 3rd place overall too, and Shivum a laptop.

The Story

You should know by now that I love making games, so for Diablo Valley College’s third annual hackathon, Viking Hacks, I showed up with a friend and knew we had to make a game. In less than 48 hours, we made a reasonably promising 2D platformer shooter from scratch in C++ using SFML. It ended up winning third place overall and getting our team some prizes. More noteworthy than the project's success were the successes of the individual teammates. We worked in a team of four, none of whom had any experience with SFML beforehand. Two of the teammates were first years at Diablo Valley College and their first hackathon. One of the first-years I had already known and had mentored in computer science for a while already. The other I met there and was incredibly passionate about game development. He was overcome with joy when he saw that the C++ he was learning, making bland terminal applications for classes, had real applications and could be used to create games. It was a great joy for me and an honor to show him SFML and to help him make a game. Most noteworthy was our last teammate. To me he was DVC’s “local homeless guy”. I assumed he was only interested in the event's free catering, but I had never made a worse assumption. Our man Shivum was a wizard! He was the single most knowledgeable person on the team, having a rich understanding and passion for mathematics and functional programming (he loves his LISP). Being unhoused however, Shivum had few material positions, none of which were a laptop. It was a genuine joy talking and working with him in the hackathon. Our team of 3 laptops and 4 people ended up placing in the top 3. I used my share of the prize money to support our teammate and get our man a laptop. I hope you’re still doing well, Shivum.