Game Hub: Final Project

Game Hub: Final Project

Overview of Game Hub

Game Hub is an interactive web platform of student-created minigames and worlds that blends biotech education with fun, casual gameplay. Originally it was called GenomeGamers Pilot City Minigames but since we converted our website from the original pilot city to general minigames, we changed the name.

Backgrounds & Sprites: I created all the custom backgrounds of the worlds/main page, as well as character sprites, and world icons
Planning & Technical Docs: I majorly helped with the KanBan board and planning, making many designs and burndown lists of what to do. I also helped make a visually appealing readme and technical illustrations page
Menus & Navigation: I designed the user help pages, navigation menus, and the n@tm google form which we received feedback from
NPC Interactions: I wrote most of the NPC dialogue, skin unlock messages, and world themes/titles
Minigames: I helped develop most of the minigames and implemented custom world backgrounds, themes, and audio for each game and world
Barriers & Walls: I designed the collision logic of barriers on the main page and map boundaries to not escape the playable areas
User Experience: I focused on making the site intuitive and visually appealing

Other unique qualities I had were how overtime I got better at using Python and VScode and was able to help a lot more with our Game Hub project. I really helped make the UI engaging as you can see from our /world10 and /world9 links to our new index page with everything more appealing for the users

Homework Successes over the year

Throughout the year, I completed a wide range of AP CSP lessons and homework assignments, which helped me prepare for the AP exam and other concepts. Below are all the issues I made for the homeworks that really helped me prepare and grasp the concepts:

Beneficial and Harmful Effects: Lesson
Digital Divide: Lesson
Computing Bias: Lesson
Crowdsourcing: Our Lesson
Legal/Ethical Concerns: Lesson
Safe Computing: Lesson
Binary Search: Lesson
Lists and Filtering Algorithm: Lesson
Random Algorithms and Simulation/Games: Lesson
Big O and Algorithmic Efficiency: Lesson
Undecidable Problems, Graphs + Heuristics: Lesson
Binary Base 2 Math + Logic Gates: Lesson
Color Codes/Images/Base64: Lesson

I also helped create the crowdsourcing lesson, collaborating with my team to explain distributed computing and its real-world applications. These assignments not only prepared me for the AP exam but also gave me practical experience in research, coding, and teamwork.

Showcasing at Night @ the Museum (N@tM)

We showcased Game Hub at N@TM to other students and parents. To gather feedback, we created a Google Form where visitors could share their experiences and suggestions on our website

Feedback we received about Game Hub:

Matteo Busalacchi (Student):
It was very organized and the tower defense game was good. The AI in some games could be improved.
Raul & Veronica Manangan (Parent/Guardian):
Simplicity and intuitive. We like the simplicity overall. Great work!!
Aarush Goqda (Student):
The skins! Speed could be improved.
Joshua Thinh (Student):
The complexity and how it functioned. The UI could use some work but overall I like the theme.

What I Learned

Presenting at N@tM was a great opportunity to see real users interact with our site. Even though we are not working on the project anymore, the feedback we recevied like organizing our website and some areas of improvement were useful. It was rewarding to see people enjoying the minigames and the website we had been creating for weeks.

Unique Qualities

Creativity: I designed custom visuals, audio (took a very long time to get .mp3 files in vscode), and interactive elements to make Game Hub stand out
Leadership: I led the planning, documentation, and technical direction for the team
Technical Depth: I helped build complex features like NPC systems, navigation help, and minigame logic
User Focus: We prioritized accessibility, fun, and feedback-driven improvements

Game Hub was a fun, creative, and collaborative project that our group is proud of, especially what we accomplished in a relatively short amount of time. It was a 55/40/5 split of the work but we still got everything done.