Cosmic Innovation
- Nicole Tafe
- Mar 11
- 3 min read
USC senior Darcy Vilkner wins Congressional App Challenge with an innovative game—Cosmic Armada.
Upper St. Clair High School senior Darcy Vilkner has been named the 2024 Congressional App Challenge winner for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. Congresswoman Summer Lee announced the honor on Jan. 14, recognizing Darcy’s exceptional work in designing Cosmic Armada—a groundbreaking multiplayer mobile game.
Cosmic Armada is a neon, retro-style video game designed for web, iOS and Android platforms. “My app is a mobile party game played on a single touchscreen device where players control agile spaceships,” says Darcy. “The game has a retro ‘80s theme, with neon colors, shimmery jet streams and a synthwave soundtrack that I composed.”
What sets the game apart is its innovative local multiplayer feature, allowing up to six players to engage in a shared touchscreen experience. Players navigate glowing spaceships across a futuristic hexagonal grid, maneuvering to avoid collisions and outlast their opponents.
Darcy, who has a deep passion for programming and game design, spent months developing Cosmic Armada. The inspiration came from wanting to make mobile gaming a collaborative experience rather than an isolated one.
Darcy’s journey in coding began early with skills that extend beyond personal projects. As a member of Upper St. Clair’s robotics teams—competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge and VEX Robotics Competition—Darcy specializes in coding and mechanical design. Additionally, Darcy spent the past summer teaching programming to middle school students at TheCoderSchool McMurray, encouraging young learners to explore the creative possibilities of coding.
Creating Cosmic Armada posed unique technical challenges. “I found out very early on why so few mobile games with local multiplayer (all players on the same touchscreen) had been made—there isn’t really much room to fit buttons!” Darcy says.
“It’s hard to orient the game play so everyone can see, and the device is always being jostled around. I did a couple things to solve these problems. I designed the game to work from any perspective, meaning it could be played horizontal to the ground, with each player equally spaced in a circle around the device (similar to a board game) rather than holding it out like a television. Secondly, I designed the game to use just two massive buttons for each player, so that jostling of the device wouldn’t cause problems, and relied on combining mechanics to make the game interesting.”
Another key aspect of the game’s development was Darcy’s work with shaders, low-level graphics tools that allow for precise control over visual effects. Through an independent study with USC’s computer science teacher, Steven Miller, Darcy developed a lighting system that became a defining feature of the game’s aesthetic. Additionally, Darcy’s physics knowledge—honed through three years of high school physics with USC teacher Clayton Yonker—helped shape the game’s movement mechanics.
Darcy’s passion and ingenuity have earned numerous accolades. In addition to winning the Congressional App Challenge, Darcy is a Commended Student in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program and an AP Scholar with Distinction. Darcy is also an accomplished musician, playing cello in the school orchestra and participating in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 1 Honors Orchestra.
“I do a lot of my programming on my own, so I really appreciated the chance to have experts review my project,” says Darcy. “And, of course, I was honored and thrilled to win.”
As for the future, Darcy plans to major in computer science in college, though a decision on where to attend has not been made. With impressive achievements and a passion for innovation, there’s no doubt a bright future lies ahead.
The Congressional App Challenge continues to inspire students nationwide, highlighting the next generation of tech leaders. The 2025 competition is now open to students in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, with submissions accepted until Nov. 1, 2025. To learn more, visit congressionalappchallenge.us.
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