<p>I’m sorry to announce the last entry of this development blog. The website freeze is advancing rapidly and only a few hours are left to share the last status update of Pathomon with all our dear readers:
And guys, we’ve done it! Well probably… When this post goes online, we will be right in the middle of the app store reviewing. If we pass it, Pathomon will published and open for all of you. If we fail… well let us not think about that!

<p>The first field test for our app happened at the “long night of science” in Erlangen. We presented our App alongside all other results of the complete iGEM Team with several posters, a virtual reality video and a slideshow.

We prepared 2 Ipads and several QR-codes for visitors and for the very first time someone from outside our team laid his hands on a working version of Pathomon:
The results were as expected: In the first 30 minutes or so, we already had one page filled with notes of bugs, errors and improvements. Although this may sound negative, we and everyone who played had a lot of fun and the following evaluation helped us immensely in reaching the next step: Publication.

 

<p>Fully recovered after the semester break we continued our work on the project. And now it really started to turn into a fulltime job. Everyday meetings became a common occurrence and the app progression skyrocketed. Obviously compelled to fulfil the stereotypes about programmers, our progress oftentimes peaked well after normal people should be at home, enjoying their free time: 


Thanks to the continuing support of the chair of games engineering Würzburg we had a professional UI kit, which resulted in drastic visual improvements. The game logic was finalized and soon we had a working app and shifted our focus on fixing bugs, adding the last features and improving the user experience.

 

<p>The semester break resulted in a lot of skype meetings and solo programming. But the work paid off! At the end of august, we had a small UI and the first working marker, displaying an ogre instead of a virus. But just one more month of hard work resulted in functioning user management, huge improvements in the UI and first interaction possibilities with the correct 3D models.

We experienced a setback in our project, when the iGEM organizers informed us about the strict no sticker policy at the Convention Center. This seemed problematic at first, since we planned to replace the GPS locations with QR-Codes. Scanning such a code would lead to an encounter with a virus or potential loot.

This challenge turned into an opportunity for collaboration, albeit not an easy on: We had to find the contact data from every attending team, write a personalized e-mail to them and ask for their permission to pin one of our QR-Codes next to their poster.

In the end, around twenty teams answered very enthusiastically (thank you guys!!!). And for the rest: Prepare for an assault at the Giant Jamboree. We will be coming for you, armed with lots of QR-Codes and candy bribes.

 

<p>Unfortunately, two out of our seven team members had to quit due to conflicting schedules. Their departure threatened our project severely, since both were recruited especially for programming purposes. But in July, our team was reinforced by not only two, but three new members! Daniel and Jonas, both studying human-interaction for their master degree and Tobias, who is an aerospace computer engineering student. Due to their programming experience they soon became a very important part of our team.

 

Soon our first game concept and the first prototype was finished. We decided on a grid of 5 screens. One for every key aspect of the app. The augmented reality feature obviously ended up in the middle. Inventory and the Pathodex (our “virus dictionary”) ended up on opposite screens. The laboratory on the right side allowed for easy antidote crafting and the profile with achievements and a ladder got placed on the left side.

 

We soon settled on a gaming application, but ideas came plentiful: A quiz app about biology, a card game with viruses and several other ideas. In the end we settled for “Pathomon”.  

 

An augmented reality app in which you encounter and fight viruses at randomly chosen GPS coordinates. To do this, you need to find active ingredients and craft them into antidotes.

 

<p>Our journey started when the Erlanger iGEM Team decided to bring in some computer scientists to expand their capabilities in new areas. The chair for games engineering in Wuerzburg seemed like the perfect fit and they presented their project, as well as the iGEM conference in general. After that it was without question, that we wanted to participate and joined their team. We immediately started thinking about the exact part we wanted to take in the iGEM Team. Designing and managing the website was an obvious task, which we inherited from the Erlanger department, but additional goals had to be set, which resulted in a lot of brainstorming sessions.