Bringing the 4 Pillars of Hip Hop together in real-time in to the Apple App Store
THE CHALLENGE
As a Hip Hop lifestyle enthusiast, I saw an opportunity to bring all enthusiast of the 4 pillars of Hip Hop together in a real-time competition application called BattleBoyz. This includes Rapping, DJing, Break dancing, and Graffiti Art. The challenge was to capture the enthusiasm, passion and excitement of the genre in a manner that allowed spectator participation and validation for the credit of the Battle competitors. It needed to allow battles to take place from neighbor to neighbor to country to country but take it to the next level and establish an archive and ranking system that can be sorted locally ranking competitors by neighborhood, city, state, country or world-wide. The intent was create the most comprehensive Hip Hop Battle ranking system in the world.
THE JOURNEY
The first step was to outline what the user was supposed to be able to achieve and how they were to achieve it. An outline was created of interface sequence from registering to creating a profile, uploading media and creating a battle. Other considerations were made as well including inviting friends to vote for you after a battle was created as well as how that battle would be initiated and end. Heavy deliberation was made regarding the introduction of each battle. We wanted to be sure that it depicted the excitement and enthusiasm as a live event. Video was introduced to depict different venues a participant was able to choose from. For example, a challenger can send a challenge to a contender to meet them at the TerrorDome. Once accepted the challengee and all who are invited to watch will be introduced to the battle through the TerrorDome video introduction.
The ranking systems was also a challenge as we didn’t want it possible for a challenger ranked 559, for example, to be able to challenge someone ranked number one. So we developed an
algorithm that doesn’t allow someone higher than half the distance to the challengee place to make a challenge unless you are ranked in the top 10. Rankings are determined by number of battles, wins, losses, draws as well as battles accepted and battles turned down.
THE ARRIVAL
Available on iTunes