How Geese Love Merch Was Created
Beware, this story might tug at your heartstrings. When our team first applied to Hack The North, we were most excited about one thing—the iconic goose merch handed out during the opening ceremony. As we arrived at Lazarus Hall, our goal was clear: to secure the best spot for a chance to catch one of those flying geese from the cannon. We sat in the front row on the second floor, confident in our chances.
But fate had other plans. The geese aimed at our level either plummeted to the floor below or missed us completely. Disappointment set in. Determined to fill the void, we created Geese Love Merch—a tribute to the missed opportunity, and a plea to future organizers: please aim higher and send some geese our way!
Geese Love Merch is set in the legendary Lazarus Hall, starring our main character—the iconic goose on wheels (yes, it's as awesome as it sounds). The game’s objective? Fire merch at sponsors that pop up in the seats every 6 seconds. The more sponsors you hit, the closer you get to securing your dream internship—the ultimate prize!
- Setting: Lazarus Hall
- Main Character: Iconic goose on wheels
- Objective: Hit sponsors with merchandise
- Timing: Sponsors appear every 6 seconds
- Goal: Secure an internship by hitting the most sponsors
We dove into this project with barely any experience in game development. Built entirely in Unity, using C# as our primary language, we tapped into resources like the Unity Asset Store, AI modeling, and Blender for design work. From animations to soundtracks, we enhanced our game to give it a lively and engaging feel.
Our biggest challenge? Committing to a single idea. Throughout the 36-hour hackathon, we entertained 4-5 different project ideas and even started work on some. The steepest hurdle was learning Unity and C# in just one day while pulling all-nighters. Another frustration was dealing with Unity’s limitation of one-person-at-a-time development—multiple people running the project simultaneously could cause crashes, risking all our progress.
Key Challenges:
- Struggling to settle on a single project
- Learning Unity and C# in one day
- Preventing project crashes
We finished! Despite the ups and downs of this hackathon, we created something we loved and would play ourselves. We chose a project that let us learn, have fun, and build something we were proud of. The realization that fun should drive creativity was a breakthrough for us. After initially focusing on "winning ideas," we risked everything to build Geese Love Merch—a game that brought us joy.
The biggest lesson? Have fun and don't take everything too seriously. At first, we aimed for the next big Silicon Valley idea, but soon realized we weren’t enjoying the process. Once we shifted to Geese Love Merch, our team’s energy completely transformed—we were laughing, excited, and proud of what we were building.
We’re not done! Post-hackathon, we plan to continue refining and expanding Geese Love Merch, turning it into an even better game. We hope you have as much fun playing it as we did creating it!
Made with love at Hack The North 2024.