A Unity built iOS app that utilizes Google's API to disincentivize users from entering large crowds. This is also a spin on the hit franchise, Tamagotchi, where players can train their 'Tamazotchi' through footstep tracking.
https://devpost.com/software/tamazotchi
A HackUCI 2021 Submission
During quarantine the members of our team often preferred days spent indoors for fear of COVID and for lack of better word, laziness. We decided to make this app in order to guarantee that its users are both motivated in their daily exercise, and safe during these difficult times. What better motivation than playing a spin-off of the beloved Tamagotchi with UCIs mascot as the figurehead?
Tamazotchi aims to encourage its users to stay both safe and active during the pandemic! With a built-in pedometer and cool store cosmetics to buy through your hard earned steps, Tamazotchi is perfect for those who need a little extra git push to exercise during these trying times. The Tamazotchi will also warn the player if they were to enter a crowded area.
Tamazotchi is an IOS app that was created through Unity. We also utilized the Google Places API in an attempt to inform users of the popularity of nearby areas at certain times.
Throughout the development of Tamazotchi the primary issue we had was with creating the area detection system based on the user's location. This proved to be quite technically difficult, and since it was our team's first time working with IOS, doing things like getting the location of the user and comparing it to the information provided by the Google Places API proved to be fairly challenging. Calling our python script in C# was also an obstacle that we did not have the time to overcome, as it involved work with non-native libraries, which are difficult to use in Unity.
For our team's first time working with IOS in Unity, we feel as if we've developed a greater understanding of how IOS devices interact with the Unity engine. Our pacing throughout the competition was also consistent and allowed us to allot more time towards refining little details in our app. The pedometer was also something that we are quite proud of developing, as tuning the devices to recognize steps did take some time.
We learned that working with geographical APIs and libraries is very challenging. Downscaling our project was what allowed us to meet the deadline at the end of the day, and that was something that we grew to learn was not necessarily bad. We also learned about linking C# scripts with Python scripts, and the fact that Unity Python Scripting does not support Python 3.7+ yet T_T