Player Needed: Capstone Project
Team Members:
- Dominic – Full stack developer, handled integration between frontend and backend, and led feature implementation
- Ben – Project lead and UI/UX designer, coined the team name and shaped the visual identity
- Leo - Lead UI Designer, CSS wizard
Introduction
Player Needed started out as a simple idea during our senior year at Ohio University — we wanted to make it easier for people to organize and join casual sports games and small events. Whether it was a pickup soccer match, a study group, or a weekend hangout, we felt like there wasn’t an app that made that easy. So our team, 2g2q, decided to build one.
This capstone project became our deep dive into mobile app development. We weren’t just trying to make something functional — we wanted it to be clean, modern, and actually useful.—
What We Built
- Sign up, create a profile, and manage their presence
- Browse and filter events by location, sport, and vibe (casual or serious)
- Swipe through events, timelines, and group activity
- Communicate in real time with fellow members through integrated chat
We kept the interface simple and clean with a dark theme, a bottom nav bar for easy access to main sections, and responsive components throughout. We also added features like event filtering, swipe-to-save, and group-specific timelines.
Who It’s For
From the outset, we imagined a wide spectrum of users:
- Athletes and sports teams organizing pick-up games
- Private individuals planning weekend outings
- Schools and teachers coordinating field trips and club activities
- Students finding study groups or club meetings
- Charities hosting one-off events to rally community support
The goal was flexibility — the app needed to work well for small, local groups who just wanted to get something going.
Building the Engine
We focused on keeping the experience consistent and intuitive:
- Responsive UI elements that felt modern and snappy
- A navigational bottom bar guiding users through the app
- Secure communication through HTTPS with SSL
- Modular code that was easy to scale and maintain
Features That Matter
Timeline
This was the heartbeat of the app. A personalized feed of upcoming events — filtered by the user’s preferences. Need a basketball game in your area at 6PM? It’s just a tap away.
Groups
User-created communities brought a deeper layer of engagement. Groups were where plans took shape, where coordination happened. And with group-specific timelines and events, relevance was always front and center.
Chat
Each group had its own chatroom. Users could glance at someone’s profile.
Safety & Security
Only usernames and bios were visible. Passwords were hashed securely via Firebase Auth, and user information was protected at every layer.
Glossary
- 2g2q: Our team name, “too git to quit”
- React: Frontend framework
- TL: Timeline
- Firebase Auth: Authentication system
- Firestore: Cloud-hosted NoSQL database
Reflections
Player Needed was my introduction into full stack development. Using React seemlessly integrated the front end tech stack. HTML CSS and JS are integrated into a single language. Working with my team, 2g2q, was made easy by leveraging git. We learned a ton — not just about code, but about how to ship a product from idea to working app.