Hack the Lab

Hack the Lab is a multi-platform placemaking game created by myself and two classmates for the American University Game Lab.

Designed to be played by participants standing outside the lab using equipment located (mostly) inside the lab as they look through transparent glass, the game combines a digital screen with a Raspberry Pi, an RFID reader, RFID cards, and QR codes.

One or two players work together to solve a code-based puzzle, translating color sequences into letters coinciding with buttons on a game controller. While one player translates the code, another scans input using cards and a hidden RFID reader attached to the inside of a large glass panel. (Imagine “Simon Says” meets Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, played with RFID input.)

Hack the Lab also served as a proof of concept proposal for a platform to be used by future students to show off their work.

Format: Multi-platform
Role: Contributed to the core concept/design; all puzzle design; contributed to UI/UX design
Software: Scratch, Adobe Photoshop
Created: December 2019

Creative Team:
Molly Eisenback
Hazel Arroyo
Mitchell Loewen