CMD Station is a small team project, idealized and developed inside a hackathon. As a team we decided to develop an online console that would host games and where any mobile phone could be the controller.
The idea was born as I was participating in a Hackathon with friends. We were 4 people:
Tiago Sequeira
, Alexandre Jesus ,
and Rui Rodrigues. We discussed as a team and found some key ideas we wanted to develop for the next 48 hours.
The idea was to develop a platform that would work as an online console. This way, the platform would nest and run a set of games, and anyone with a mobile phone, could enter the session game and play.
Since we were a group of developers, we also organized the platform so that anyone could upload its own game, and even offer some base code, with key controllers, to help its development.
For the 48 hours, we commit ourselves to develop a platform that would host the game, develop a basic game to simulate it, assemble a small video, and have a live presentation of the game.
As the only designer in the group, I was responsible for designing the platform mockups and game design. Since the time was very limited and the visuals had to be done before developing, I didn’t do much research. I quickly researched some game visuals and with the help of my colleagues, decided on the aesthetics.
While my teammates were working on the backend of the game, understanding how to work with controllers and how to build the architecture of the platform, I quickly started designing and opted for some basic visuals.
For what we proposed I ended up designing three pages of the platform, the game design, some variations, and the controllers that would appear in the mobile phone as someone enters the game session.
Finishing the design work and having more time on my hands than my teammates, I started doing the frontend of the platform and even developing the game itself, that we agreed would be developed in Phaser 3, a Javascript game framework.
For the presentation in the hackathon we wanted to live present the game and play it on stage, but in case the network failed, that often does in a hackathon, we build a video as a backup. So, while my teammates were gathering all the small developed pieces, I built a small demonstrating video.
I especially enjoyed this hackathon, because we were able to develop what we wanted at the end of the 48 hours and I was able to do some developing and learn a new framework, phaser 3.
