Ara Ara Alliance: Wild West Educational Game

Our game seeks to solve a historic & modern educational issue: inspiring engagement and sparking a desire for learning in K-12 students through gameplay intertwined with the history of the Wild West.

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Ara Ara Alliance: Wild West Educational Game

Overview

AAA is a western-themed web app where users authenticate with Auth0, collect cards, spend and purchase coins, build a loadout, and enter battles, all while learning about western history. The gameplay loop is:

Login -> Buy/Earn Coins -> Summon Cards -> Battle

User data (coins, owned cards, identity fields) is persisted in AWS DynamoDB, and all economy updates are enforced server-side through Next.js route handlers.

Inspiration

Providing an interactive educational tool to engage the youth in Western history.

What We Learned

  • Auth0: Implemented secure login/logout, protected routes, and identity-based user records.
  • DynamoDB: Designed user schema and handled conditional updates.
  • Full-stack state flow: Ensured client UI stayed synchronized with backend mutations.
  • ChatGPT Codex: Accelerated API scaffolding, DynamoDB expressions, and debugging workflows.

We gained practical experience building a secure, cloud-backed game economy.

How We Built It

Stack

  • Next.js (App Router)
  • React + TypeScript
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Auth0
  • AWS DynamoDB (SDK v3)

Challenges

  • Integrating Auth0 cleanly with App Router
  • Gemini Integration into Chat feature
  • DynamoDB updates

Final Result

AAA is a full-stack, educational, western-based game with real authentication, persistent cloud storage, and a functioning coin-and-card economy. It demonstrates secure architecture, backend integrity, and scalable design.

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