This Project was created for ULHacks2021. The objective of the app is run a puzzle game that will empower learning! Team Github: @abdulwahab04 @sahilrashid
puzzled_App_demo.mp4
Our inspiration for this project is to help individuals/kids who struggle to stay motivated when learning or do not learn through traditional means.
We experimented with AndroidStudio and were able to create a prototype for our app. We split the project into two halves. Front-end development and back-end development. The Front-end Development consisted of app activities and imported various resources including Colors, Fonts, and Images. All our resources were aimed at our demographic; kids to teens. These resources included bright colours, bubbly fonts, and the ULhacks logo. We were able to obtain a "Puzzle image" of the ULHacks logo by splitting it into 4 separate parts later to be used in the backend. We used animations for the splash screen and gradient animated background. We made our buttons big and easy to read along with the rest of the UI.
For our back-end development, we used the on-click listener, Intents, Arrays, if-else Statements, and much more. We made a separate class full of arrays of hard-coded questions, answers, and images to be imported to the main class. Within the main class, we included an update method that updates all text, images and counters needed for the next question. Finally by using onClick listener and if statements, when the user clicks the correct answer, they will be prompted with the statement “correct”, a piece will be added to the puzzle, and then the next question will be displayed. Otherwise, they will be prompted to try again and will have to keep on trying before proceeding. There is also a quick home button to exit the activity. Obviously, this seems easier said than done but as developers, we ran into LOTS of bugs during this entire process that needed to be fixed.
Some challenges that we faced throughout creating PUZZLED were that we ran into bugs, importing and implementing animations. We also had issues opening different activities using buttons, and a big issue was the android emulator repeatedly crashing.
We are proud of the fact that we were able to create an android demonstration application that was able to showcase our idea. We are also proud that we were able to cater our app to a younger demographic by making it kid-friendly through the use of bright colours/images and a simple user interface. Finally, we are proud of making a functional app with little to no bugs.
Throughout the development stage, we learned many things. This includes but is not limited to debugging apps, importing resources into android studio, importing animations, advancing our current knowledge on data structures, how to code in XML, and how to use android studio.
Moving forward, we would want to add more puzzles, more subjects, multiple levels, randomized questions, and different themes. We would also continue to update the app regularly with UI/bug fixes.