The Hull Hackathon Retrospective

Well it has been too long since my last blog. Last time I promised a little talk about the Hull Hackathon and the projects that were going on. As is usual tradition I rarely managed to take any pictures. Too busy doing work :D

It's hard to believe it has been a whole month since my last post. Time is going way too fast.
Let's first go over what a hackathon is, what people do and why they so awesome/important.

A hackathon is a meeting of creative people to complete projects as individuals and/or in teams. The hacking is about exploring new ways to do things. It's usually not the most efficient way to do it but it's about learning first and not to create code you'd usually sell.

People participate in software and hardware projects which could solve any kind of problem or just do something really cool and get people interested in a project. Ideas generated in these things usually don't just die after the hackathon over. The projects might continue or the function/idea of the project might pass on to something else people are making.

These things are pretty important because they can kickstart a team into making a real project or just pushing someone to make what they kept on saying they wanted to make. The environment is very productive because everyone is friendly and very helpful. The projects started also generate a lot of interest for people to mess around with software and hardware to create things. It doesn't matter if people are new to something, if they set themselves a realistic target they have the chance to make something brilliant. I think it's important for people to learn and create. Doing so makes gaining important skills fun rather than a chore which is just wonderful.

So yeah, I think they're a big deal. What exactly was done in this Hull Hackathon you ask? A fellow blogger did a roundup of everything I couldn't do any better. I have a lot of bias with this but my favourite project by far was Conor and Daniel's NINT (NINT Is Not Terraria) which simply blew me away. It was such a shame the build they had to show at the end of the hackathon had a frequently recurring game crashing bug. Even with the bugs the game earned it's place as the winner of the event and while it would have been nice to have the awesome Windows Phone (growing rather fond to WP) I am glad my fellow first years, friends and future housemates won.

I loved pretty much every project there though. I really like ones where people seem to have wanted to make it just for the hell of it. The attempt to create a Gameboy emulator by a second year student or a text adventure game by someone who didn't have prior programming experience really show some outstanding ambition. While neither came to what the creators were hoping I can safely say they learned a lot in those 24 hours. That sounds like time well spent.

The hackathon itself was a nice little success. It was smaller to game jams I have been to but it created such a close and friendly atmosphere. It felt like friends making code in the same room. Wherever you are you should try find gamejams and hackathons near you and if you're in Hull area I look forward to seeing you at the next event!