Hackathon Postmortem Part 1

Team Colladine, Maco & Karlo, wasn't able to win Globe Labs' Google Cardboard Hackathon. Now we are trying to close this chapter of our lives and move on, not by forgetting about it but by learning from it. What better way to learn from something than documenting a postmortem?

Content from this blog will come in slowly as I try to remember every important events. I also wanted to add pretty comics so you won't get bored with my banters. But be warned; I may have had some artistic liberties while writing, and there will be a lot of swearing (and probably a lot of grammatical errors)

I heard about Hackathon

I first heard about Globe Labs’ Google Cardboard Hackathon event after the Global Game Jam ended. The big nerds in the office were raving about Globe Labs' Hackathon event being moved. The hackathon was all about Google's Cardboard Virtual Reality (VR) gimmick, but I didn't mind it. One day, Karlo, the biggest nerd of them all, approached me asking if I can help him out on Hackathon because his first choice partner was already taken by another developer. I was hesitant because first of all, Cardboard App was new tech I don't understand. Secondly, I don't know shit about Unity. And Lastly, Karlo don't know shit about Unity. I threw him bullshit ideas, thinking he might leave me alone.

By lunch time, I tried hearing out his idea. It was something about the internet, going through lines like the ones on Wreck It Ralph VR experience, then calling it an educational application. Though it was not a bad idea, I thought, by the end of the day it's all just a gimmick. It can be replicated in a really big screen like iMax, or on a laptop in a dark room. Also, who's the target audience? Really old people? Will it be something you'll use again once you've experienced it?

I threw him more bullshit ideas so I can escape the conversation. I never really answered his invitation to the hackathon.

I came up with a concept

The day after, I think I convinced Karlo that I am a gold mine of ideas. He brought a Cardboard VR setup with awesome sample applications. Like the roller coaster simulator and that action space chick where you ogle at the main character's butt for 10 mins or so. I was in awe about the experience. So he linked me to the Goggle Cardboard Hackathon website. I wasn't able to sleep that night.

Even with all my conversations with Karlo and all the information from the Hackathon website; I still believed that Google Cardboard is a gimmick. When is it acceptable to pull a gimmick of sorts? What's the advantage of a mere cardboard that nobody will wear in public? Can I replicate that 3D chick's butt and use it interactively too? The next day, I asked Karlo to help me win the hackathon.

I told him that we should go for the tourism category. My thoughts were; tourists readily accept gimmicks like what we're planning to build. Heck, they would even look for it so they can get more from what they paid for. Another thing was, Google Cardboard and mobile phones are easy to carry around. It all fits in a bag! You can bring it to places where no monitor or sound systems can plug to any socket. The VR experience can be educational too because you separate users from reality leaving them vulnerable to whatever bullshit you'll throw at them. The last thing we need was a tour guide making sure they are absorbing that bullshit we're feeding them.

Karlo first thought of a scuba tour. I kinda agreed just because Google Cardboard looks like diving goggles (Google Goggles!) except it was made out of cardboard, all it needed was a snorkel. So I forced Karlo to engineer a snorkel into the program.

We registered and then started planning that night.

That's it for part 1! Hackathon Postmortem Part 2 will tackle pre-production and the actual hackathon event. See you next update!