Today was a heartening day.
I was one of the 5 people judging the works of 160 odd under-graduates competing on a 24-hour hackathon to build a game from scratch. Sceptical how much I was of the number of games that would get done, it was time to put the thinking cap on and start looking at the games. 25 odd teams were presenting in the stuffy, hot and sweaty room that was for the hackathon.
And boy were we pleasantly surprised. It was a mix of games – 3d avatars walking in the maze, simple side scrollers, text based games, 2d shooters, car racing, 2d tile based … games of almost every type were to be found. And in different levels of finesse and finish too. And varied platforms too – Unity, Flash, HTML5, Python 3D, C++.
But what was most heartening was to see while some teams were very clear on what they wanted to accomplish some were more forward looking – games which would need more than 24 hours to develop but then probably which would beat everyone else out of water.
Some did understand that limitations, some aimed higher and fell short. Some aimed higher and longer. Overall, it was a humbling experience to go back to my alma mater IIIT-H, be a judge and be able to speak a few words. And then of course, it was a great way to re-energize me self. The kids performed extremely well and I came out pleasantly awed by the convicton and the finish.
No thing to worry, the future is in good hands. They kids are motivated, have their targets within their sights and ready to fly!
Thank you IIIT-H for giving the opportunity to be a judge.
T3,The Think Tank Chronicles. 