Inspiration
Traditional surveys feel like work and are often viewed as boring. They interrupt users, demand attention, and are frequently ignored or rushed through. We wanted to challenge the assumption that feedback has to be a form. Feedback Arcade was inspired by the idea that people are far more willing to express opinions when the process feels playful, intuitive, and rewarding, the same reason games keep us engaged for hours.
What it does
Feedback Arcade replaces static surveys with short, interactive games that collect meaningful user sentiment as a by-product of play. Users earn XP and level up by completing feedback games, while organizations receive structured, analyzable insights. The current version includes three games/tools, with endless possibilities to expand in the future. The first game is D-bugs, where users identify technical issues they experienced by "squashing" moving bugs labeled with the encountered issues. The second feedback tool allows users to freely express their experience with the service in a casual way, which will then be summarized into common themes and sentiments using AI. The third game, Snake Survey, is inspired by the "Snake" game, and provides users with a fun way to rank service aspects by moving the snake on the screen in order to eat associated fruits in order of satisfaction (from most to least). An Admin Dashboard aggregates results across all games, tracking sentiment, top issues, service rankings, and engagement over time. Feedback Arcade also uses XP and leveling to reward participation and unlock additional games.
How we built it
Feedback Arcade was built as a full-stack web application using Flask (Python) for the backend API and routing; HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for interactive game interfaces; Canvas for real-time game rendering; OpenAI API to transform open-ended text feedback into structured insights; and JSON-based persistence to store submissions, XP, and progression. Individually programmed games were adapted and incorporated into the web application.
Challenges we ran into
Having never built a full web application before, the learning curve itself was a major challenge. We had to quickly pick up new concepts, tools, and terminology. Designing games that were genuinely fun while still collecting reliable and meaningful feedback was another challenge. Finally, balancing progression so rewards felt motivating, without incentivizing dishonest or rushed feedback, required careful consideration.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are very proud of our ability to come up with a creative idea to replace surveys with fully playable feedback mechanics. More specifically, we were proud to be able to integrate AI to assist in the collection and summarization of feedback in real time, and to learn new technological tools used for web application development that we had never been exposed to, all under a very short timeframe.
What we learned
We learned the fundamentals of full-stack web development and how different components (frontend, backend, data storage, and AI) can work together. We also learned that gamification works best when it’s subtle and aligned with user intent, rather than feeling forced or exploitative.
What's next for Feedback Arcade
Next, we want to expand Feedback Arcade with more unlockable games tied to progression milestones to further encourage engagement. We’re also interested in adding new feedback modalities, such as a voice-based conversational tool, to make giving feedback feel even more natural and accessible.
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