MiniMap

Developers:
Corey Pitzo
Joe Coy
Matthew Tracy
Michael Crabill
Nikolas Ogg
Zachary Deganutti

Our project intends to explore how access to a small map of teammates' locations can enhance the experience of many outdoor games. Our app sets itself apart by offering built in game modes in addition to basic functions of a friend-finding map. This project aims to assist its users with navigation by enhancing common social games and tasks. To summarize, our objectives are as follows: Implement an application that will allow friends to locate each other using GPS-based locations, give users the ability to use a suite of game modes for common social activities that include, but are not limited to: Sardines, Capture the Flag, Assassins, and Marco Polo. Our graphical user interface is designed give users the impression that they have a minimap similar to what is found in video games.


Stretch Goals!

Depending on how many people we get using this app, we are prepared to continue improving this application: making it more convenient to use, and adding a lot of cool features. Right now, our current set of stretch goals are as follows:

100 = Facebook invites
Invite your friends to get the application on Facebook directly from the app!
- Have a button within the friend status indicator that will allow you to invite friends to get the app
- This invitation will link them to the Play store listing if they don't have the app yet or just launch if they do

200 = UI Improvements
Yes, we know, UI is never done. That is why we set this goal so early so we can quickly get to work on some major UI changes. This includes:
- Better looking main menu
- Add useful functionality to our Settings menu.
- Improve the look of the lobbies and in-game satellite menus
- Make current features more robust

500 = Groups support
Groups were something we wanted to have out in the beginning. However, we have found it to be very buggy, and almost impossible to use conveniently. This update will address that
- No more groups crashing
- Invite groups to join a game
- Allow users to assign themselves to teams and invite groups to one team of a game
- Create groups of people that may include people other than mutual friends

1000 people = Scoreboards
What's the fun of gaming without seeing who's winning? This update will be a huge update to how our games work.
- Adding scoreboards and analytics at the end of a game session
- Including post-game states so a user can act as an observer to the current match.
- Adding Google Play Games services so you can earn GPS experience for your perseverance. Prove yourself as the ultimate assassin or the best player of Sardines!

5000 = Background support
The app is great - but none of my friends are online! :*(
We get it. It's hard to start a game and tell all of your friends to launch the app before they appear online. In this update, we're going to crack down on our server issues to revamp how we do our server client logic so that the app can keep you online, all the time.


These are only a few of the awesome improvements we plan on making to the app. We have a LOT more stretch goals hidden away that we're sure you'll love ;), but we ran out of space in this brief app description. We're really hoping this takes off, because we're really pumped to show you the cool things we've got cooking, so invite your friends and see what we've got up our sleeves! :D

Lastly, note that this app is always being (and always will be) improved. If you see any bugs, post a comment or send us an email and we'll get right on it. Your experience is what matters to us most!

Notice: App icons by Icons4Android - http://www.icons4android.com