Campus Quest

CampusQuest turns your campus into a game: explore events, complete challenges, earn XP, badges, and Solana rewards, connect with clubs, and innovate your campus life while having fun.

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🌟 Campus Quest

Turning UTM into a Living Innovation Game World

DeerHacks 2026, 36-Hour Hackathon
Web3 + Gamification + AR + Community Impact

Team Members Rizul Sharma, Eva Rosati, Daniel Felipe Mena Andrade, Anhad Chawla

🏫 Inspiration

Campus life at UTM has an engagement problem: clubs put on events, but students often attend once, grab the free pizza, and leave. There’s no ongoing reason to explore, no identity built from participation, and no connection between different campus communities.

We asked: what if attending a club event felt like leveling up?
What if a student’s participation across campus built a real profile, reputation, and character?

The solution: an innovation layer on top of campus itself. Clubs become quest-givers, buildings become nodes on a game map, and students earn identity through creative problem solving instead of mere attendance.

Insight: Static events create one-time attendance; gamified micro-challenges create ongoing curiosity, cross-club exploration, and verifiable recognition of effort.

🎮 What It Does

Campus Quest transforms UTM into a persistent, gamified innovation world.

For Students

  • Open the app and see a campus milestone map! Characters walk through milestones — each themed with UTM figures like the MN Warrior or Prof. Bailey Glazer.
  • Discover Innovation Micro-Quests posted by clubs at real campus locations.
  • Walk to a QR code, scan it, and unlock a creative challenge:
    • Decode a cipher
    • Design a faster walking route
    • Capture symmetry in one photo
    • Identify campus sustainability inefficiencies
  • Submit your solution. Correct answers earn XP, Campus Coins (powered by Solana), and cosmetic rewards for avatars.
  • Equip rewards in the Wardrobe screen; your pixel character evolves visually.
  • Build an on-chain innovation identity that reflects real creative effort.

For Clubs

  • Post custom challenges aligned with your club’s identity — no budget required.
  • Chain challenges across clubs to create cross-disciplinary innovation chains.
  • See engagement data: who completed challenges, which clubs they explore, and how creative submissions were.

🔗 The Innovation Chain System

Challenge chaining is the unique power of Campus Quest:

$$ \text{Coding Club Puzzle} \rightarrow \text{Sustainability Club Challenge} \rightarrow \text{Photography Club Quest} $$

  • Students navigate a cross-disciplinary web rather than isolated tasks.
  • Core Loop:

$$ \text{Discover POI} \rightarrow \text{Walk to QR} \rightarrow \text{Solve Challenge} \rightarrow \text{Earn XP + Coins + Cosmetic} \rightarrow \text{Character Growth} \rightarrow \text{Unlock Next Milestone} $$

🏗 How We Built It

Frontend — React Native + Expo

  • Map: react-native-maps with custom dark style, pulsing animated quest markers, and dashed trails.
  • Path/Progression: Vertical milestone journey with glow animations and bouncing player avatar.
  • Avatar Renderer: 8x18 grid of React Native Views, programmatic pixel overlay for cosmetics; no image assets.
  • Wardrobe: Real-time avatar preview before saving items.

Backend — Node.js + Express + MongoDB

  • Express REST API handles challenge lookup, QR verification, completion recording, and reward distribution.
  • MongoDB stores user profiles, completed challenges, XP, Campus Coins, wardrobe items, and reward history.
  • Challenges include type, club, XP value, coin reward, and chain links.

Blockchain — Solana

  • Campus Coins distributed as Lamports via Solana devnet per challenge.
  • Treasury wallet signs transactions to student wallets.
  • Reward logging includes transaction signature + Solana Explorer URL.
  • RewardProfile model tracks total Lamports, completed challenges, and all on-chain transactions.

⚠ Challenges We Ran Into

Solana Wallet Initialization

  • New wallets require minimum rent-exempt balance.
  • Solved by checking account existence and dynamically adjusting payout amounts.

Pixel Avatar System

  • Built fully in code, using 2D arrays for base character + sparse overlays for cosmetics.
  • Layer ordering, transparency, and instant re-rendering were major hurdles.

QR Scan Debouncing

  • Scanner initially flooded backend with requests on every frame.
  • Solved with scanned state flags and multi-format extraction of challenge IDs.

Bridging Two Data Models

  • RewardProfile (blockchain) vs UserProfile (app-centric) required careful merging to maintain cohesive profile responses.

Had to get rid of our Auth0 integration due to incompatibility

  • Auth0 handles university authentication with JWT validation.
  • Some planned features with Auth0 and Gemini could not be integrated completely within our 36-hour timeframe.

🏆 Accomplishments

  • Fully functional blockchain reward system in 36 hours.
  • Pixel avatar engine: fully code-driven, no external assets.
  • Innovation Chain system: connects clubs and turns isolated tasks into a cross-disciplinary web.
  • Milestone path UI creates a satisfying game loop.
  • Complete mobile app: map, profile, wardrobe, QR scan, blockchain rewards.

📚 Lessons Learned

  1. Solana is approachable: devnet tooling and transaction confirmation are easier than expected.
  2. Behavioral design > technical design: gamification requires tuning XP, milestones, and rewards for real engagement.
  3. Constraints drive creativity: lack of image assets led to an innovative pixel grid system.
  4. Cross-disciplinary systems are key: Innovation Chain system adds meaningful value beyond gamification.

🚀 What’s Next

  • Soulbound Achievement NFTs: on-chain proof of challenge completion.
  • Club-Created Challenges: full dashboard for clubs to design, reward, and chain quests.
  • Collaborative Challenges: multi-student problem-solving across disciplines.
  • Stake-to-Create: clubs stake tokens for challenge posting; engagement determines return.
  • Season Structure: themed, time-limited seasonal challenge cycles with new cosmetics and milestones.

🌐 The Bigger Vision

Campus Quest becomes a persistent innovation transcript:

$$ \text{QR scans + creative submissions} \Rightarrow \text{verifiable signal of curiosity and cross-disciplinary effort} $$

  • Data visible to employers, graduate schools, and campus community.
  • Gamification + blockchain + cross-disciplinary engagement = long-term cultural impact on campus.

Built at DeerHacks 2026 — University of Toronto Mississauga

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