✨ Applications and Implications & Project Development

🐲 What will it do?

My final project is an interactive board game inspired by games I love — like Chess, Dungeons & Dragons, Dark Souls, and Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. It’s not just a regular board game though — it's filled with embedded tech: LED grids, OLED screens, sensors, and joysticks. Players can move, attack, and trigger animations using their own module — and everything lights up or responds in real time. It’s designed to be strategic, immersive, and fun to play — especially for fans of fantasy, tactics, and storytelling.

🐲 Who has done what beforehand?

I've seen some great smart chessboards and game tables with screens or lighting. But not many games bring everything together like this: multiplayer Wi-Fi communication, color/gesture sensors, LED feedback, and RPG elements in one system. So this project is really about pushing that integration to make something unique and truly interactive.

🐲 What will I design?

• Custom PCBs for both player sides and the LED control grid
• 3D printed casing and laser-cut layers for the board and modules
• 3D printed characters and tokens for gameplay
• Game mechanics controlled via joysticks, sensors, and OLEDs
• Wireless communication and visual feedback across the whole system

🐲 What materials and components will I use?

• Materials: PLA (red, blue, black), frosted & white acrylic sheets, and some wood backing
• Electronics: 3 XIAO ESP32C3s, DotStar 8x8 grids, Grove connectors, NeoPixels, OLED displays, APDS-9960 color/gesture sensors, joysticks, USB hubs

🐲 Where will everything come from?

• Electronics mainly from Adafruit, Seeed Studio, and Digikey
• PLA and acrylics from our Fab Lab Bahrain stock
• Power supply from a local electronics store

🐲 What’s the cost?

🧩 Component	🔢 Quantity	💵 Approx. Unit Cost	💰 Total
XIAO ESP32C3	3	$6	$18
DotStar 8x8 Matrix	2	$15	$30
NeoPixel Stick SK6812	4	$6	$24
OLED NFP1315-5A	2	$6	$12
Joystick Modules	2	$3	$6
Grove Cables & Connectors	20	$1	$20
PLA Filament	3 rolls	$10	$30
Acrylic Sheets	2	$10	$20
Power Supply (5V 5A)	1	$18	$18
Misc (PCBs, screws, wires)	-	-	~$20

🟢 Estimated Total: ~$198

Roughly around $198 USD in total. I’ve tried to use what’s available locally and in the lab as much as I can, while also balancing quality and functionality.

🐲 What will be made from scratch?

• The board’s whole structure and internal grid
• Both player-side systems and cases
• Custom characters and card layouts
• Web interface to control and display the game state

🐲 What processes will be used?

• 2D design using Illustrator for laser cutting
• 3D modeling in Fusion 360
• 3D printing for tokens, frames, and panels
• Laser cutting for enclosures and design details
• Embedded programming with Arduino IDE (C++)
• Web interface setup with HTML/ESP32 WebServer

🐲 What questions do I still need to answer?

• Will communication stay stable when all 3 ESP32 boards are online together?
• Will the central power supply handle all the LEDs and sensors?
• Can I sync sensor inputs and LED outputs smoothly between turns?

🐲 How will it be evaluated?

• Each module should light up and respond to input
• Game mechanics should flow: turns, damage, movement, etc.
• Communication between modules works seamlessly
• Final design should look and feel like a finished product

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📦 Project Development

🐲 What’s already done?

• All electronics sourced and tested (sensors, LEDs, boards)
• Player PCBs designed, milled, soldered — they work!
• OLED, joystick, and sensors on both sides are fully responsive
• Web interface runs smoothly and updates color values live

🐲 What’s still left to do?

• Finish final assembly and hide all internal wiring
• Write the full turn logic and animations
• Sync the players' actions wirelessly using the third ESP32
• Finish the design polish — paint and label tokens

🐲 What’s worked and what hasn’t?

• Worked: Color sensor accuracy, LED response, joystick input, web toggle
• Didn’t work: GPIO10 — caused Wi-Fi to fail (switched to GPIO9 instead)
• Also had power issues when everything ran at once — fixed by isolating supplies

🐲 Project Timeline

📅 Week	🎯 Milestone
Week 1	Finishing physical casing and mounting components
Week 2	Implementing multiplayer game logic (ESP32 to ESP32)
Week 3	Playtesting + documentation screenshots + videos
Week 4	Final polish, slide/video/presentation upload

🐲 What have I learned?

This whole process taught me how to think in systems — from design to code to final assembly. I’ve learned how to design PCBs, 3D print fit-for-function enclosures, program communication across devices, and troubleshoot real-world issues like voltage drops or bad GPIO mapping. I’ve also grown a lot in project pacing — balancing creativity with deadlines and understanding how small pieces come together into a polished, working final project.