PubHack #5 took place on the 16th September 2016 at the awesome venue Coastguard Studio here in Portsmouth. We had a total of 10 teams take part, with everyone presenting an extremely diverse range of projects and technologies based around the theme Heroes & Villains, making the judges decision very difficult!
However, at 9:30pm the judges; Rich Boakes, Charlotte Simonsen and Dave Mackintosh had made their decisions and the awards were given out…
Overall PubHack Winners
Nominees:
- Rareloop
- Tom, Neil & Charlie
- Team Etch
Winners: Team Etch!
With their project ‘Become A Hero’ which was a website which allows you to become a hero in your local community. Using a points system, you can go up the leaderboard depending on how many good deeds you’ve done. You can find out more about their project here.
The judges comments were: “We chose this for the socially beneficial use of the theme.”
Best Use of Technology
The nominees:
- Lys Fibe
- Tom, Neil & Charlie
- Rareloop
Winners: Lys Fibe
Lys Fibe were a team made up of graduates from the University of Portsmouth, who used IBM Watson to do text and sentiment analysis on news articles to categorise the people in the article as hero or villain.
The judges comments were: “The team chose an appropriate use of technology for the task and their code was simply beautiful.”
Most Likely to Receive a Lawsuit
Nominees:
- Where’s Gaskin?
- #DevsDoDesign
- The Prejudice League
Winners: Where’s Gaskin?
The team put together a game called Speedy Brexit, in which you could pit four political characters against each other in a top down racing game.
The judges comments were: “…Because Cameron gets upset being called spamface.”
Most Entertaining
Nominees:
- Where’s Gaskin?
- Full Tilt
- Tom, Neil & Charlie
Winners: Tom, Neil & Charlie
Our first canine attendee Charlie joined Tom & Neil who built a great video game called Cops ‘N Robbers. The idea was you can tune in on your phone, where you either get assigned as a cop or robber. Robbers have to collect coins, Cops have to chase the robbers. It was very reminiscent of Pacman and Bomberman.
Judges comments: “It was well scoped, very well done and impressive for a 2 man team. It worked flawlessly as a multiplayer and it took us back to our childhood.”
Best Design
Nominees:
- Rareloop
- Where’s Gaskin?
- Full Tilt
Winners: Full Tilt
The team from Brighton put together a top trump style game where you could pit the likes of the Starks or Lannisters against Lemongrab from Adventure Time. It was beautifully designed and very entertaining.
The judges comments: “Great imagery, the underlying information was well though out and there was great sound design. A proper game!”
Audience Choice Award
We brought this award in at PubHack #4 to give everyone there a chance to vote for their favourite, so it’s a very coveted award and one I really enjoy getting to give out. This year there was one team that won by a landslide, and that team was:
Winners: #DevsDoDesign
These guys have had the same team members and taken part in every single PubHack since day 1. The project they came up with was a game called T.R.U.M.P which they describe as a ‘visual experience.’. In the game you get to tackle various obstacles all based around Donald Trump. It was the teams first time making a game and the audience really enjoyed it, as evident from the final vote!
Huge congratulations to everyone who took part, the quality of work was outstanding as as always I’m hugely impressed as to what can be achieved in 10 hours. Roll on next year!