Mansion Escape (by Team 27/Massive Machine)

Use of a table to display data used later in game
Toggle switches used within a puzzle
Use of Taipy's side panel components
Locked door containing you within the mansion
BLAHAJ upon completing the game

Inspiration

We wanted to learn and work with new technology at this hackathon, so decided to look at some of the options being displayed in prize categories as a starting point. We chose to use Taipy as we were most comfortable working in Python, and thought it would be a good step up from our work at previous hackathons, where we have mainly worked on terminal-based projects.

Having chosen to utilise Taipy for our project, we also decided that we wanted to stray from the general purpose of the library. We decided to reimagine its tools to create something unique, that Taipy has not been used for before.

What it does

Our project is a text-based adventure game, on a locally run server. It features a variety of interactable objects, hints, clues and easily navigable rooms, with an end goal to escape the mansion you, as the player, are stuck in.

How we built it

We built our game entirely in Python, with extensive use of Taipy's development tools. Being completely new to the library, we had to frequently consult their development manuals to learn more about the tools on offer, as well as their syntax. We ended up using a wide variety of Taipy's available components, each suited to its own role within the game.

Challenges we ran into

Taipy, as a library based around documentation applications, did not have much support for what we were looking to include in a game. Because of this, we often struggled to include some features of games, for example art or a moving sprite. Despite this, we stuck true to our goal to utilise Taipy in a unique manner, and so focused the narrative of our game around the tools we had available to us.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have created a fully functional, user-friendly adventure game across the span of the hackathon, involving many dynamic and interlinked components. We are even more proud to have been able to create this using Taipy's library, as there were many moments where we believed creating a game would be infeasible, and it would be simpler to instead create a basic documentation app as Taipy's tools intended.

What we learned

From this project, we have gained more experience in working with libraries outside of the usual standard ones, and have subsequently become more familiar with understanding developer documentation. We are now more confident in using third-party libraries within our code to create a successful and working project. Along with this, we have learned that the functionality of a product is not limited to its intended use, but can be used and interpreted individually to create unique programs.

What's next for Mansion Escape

Given more time, we would develop Mansion Escape further to be a more fleshed out adventure game, perhaps introducing new game mechanics, difficulty levels or even personalisation of characters/settings. It would be exciting to have a fully developed adventure game with many working parts, all fitting together to deliver an even more fulfilling puzzle-solving experience.