A Game Where You Really Have to Run to Avoid Zombies Claims the Throne at Korea's Largest Hackathon

UNIST Students and Alumni Team Dino Wins Final at 'Junction X Seoul 2021'

Over 400 Participants from 25 Countries Solve Creative Problems Presented by 4 IT Companies

Dino Team, selected as the final winner at JunctionX Seoul 2021. From the top left clockwise: Jo Gwangmin, Lee Jiyoung, Jang Hansol, Lee Doyoung, Kang Sangkwon, Kim Jiwan.
[Image source=UNIST]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] A game featuring zombies took the throne at the largest hackathon competition in Korea. The players and zombies were not confined to the game but were themselves running around holding their mobile phones. This ingenious creativity shone brightest at this hackathon competition.

# Zombies are swarming in. To avoid being caught and bitten by zombies, you must run. When you run holding your smartphone, the character on the screen runs according to your running speed. If you safely reach the safe zone within the set time while escaping the chasing zombies, you survive, but if bitten by a zombie, you become a zombie too. You are destined to infect other players.

This is the story of the game ‘My Running Mate, Zombie’ created by the ‘DINO’ team, composed of current students and alumni of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).

The time taken to complete this game with its fresh ideas and technical skills was only three days.

At the ‘Junction X Seoul 2021’ hackathon held from May 21 to 23, the ‘DINO’ team was selected as the Final Winner.

Junction X Seoul is the largest global hackathon competition in Korea. IT developers, designers, and planners of all ages participate to propose solutions based on advanced technology for themes presented by companies.

This year, about 400 participants from 25 countries worldwide took part. They participated individually or as teams and conducted the hackathon online.

The DINO team consisted of UNIST students and alumni. The six members were Kim Ji-wan (developer, team leader), a graduate student in the Department of Design; Lee Ji-young (designer), a student at the Graduate School of Design-Engineering Convergence; and alumni Kang Sang-kwon (developer), Lee Do-young (developer), Jang Han-sol (planner), and Jo Kwang-min (designer).

They challenged themselves to complete the task presented by Amazon Web Services GameTech (AWS Gametech). Using sensors inside smartphones and cloud services provided by Amazon Web Services, they developed a running game.

Team leader Kim Ji-wan said, “In the ongoing situation of social distancing due to COVID-19, we wanted to provide users with an experience of running together.”

He also explained, “Using the zombie theme gave a more realistic and fun motivation to run.”

The DINO team was selected as the final winner by participant votes, recognizing their creativity and the excellence of their work. The final winner received a prize of 3 million won.

The DINO team was also ranked third in the Amazon Web Services GameTech track. They were praised for simultaneously addressing health, communication, and interaction amid the COVID-19 situation.

Junction is the largest hackathon in Europe held in Finland. Junction X Seoul is a licensed version of Junction and has been held since 2019.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.