Greenbelt Explorer

Inspiration

Every story deserves to be told — even when the storyteller can't speak. Our inspiration was simple: animals in endangered ecosystems have no voice of their own. Greenbelt Explorer was built to bridge that gap, connecting people to the species and landscapes that need us most.

What It Does

Greenbelt Explorer lets you move through the greenbelt ecosystem in first person, discovering endangered species and learning about the world they inhabit. As you explore and rescue animals, the environment responds — growing and flourishing around you, making the impact of conservation feel real and personal.

How We Built It

We built it using Claude AI and deployed it on Vercel.

Challenges We Ran Into

Our ESP32-S3 board gave us consistent trouble — at one point it stopped turning on entirely, requiring a full reflash to recover. We also hit friction with our GitHub workflow, struggling to push and commit changes reliably throughout the event.

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

We shipped a working MVP. We're a two-person, women-led team of UX designers with limited coding experience, and this was our very first hackathon. Getting a functional, interactive prototype across the finish line means a lot to us.

What We Learned

We came in as designers and left as builders. We learned how to use Claude AI and GitHub to make real-time changes, collaborate on a shared codebase, troubleshoot errors, and — honestly — pick up a whole new vocabulary. (Programmers really do speak their own language.)

What's Next for Greenbelt Explorer

The dream is to take Greenbelt Explorer into VR — a fully immersive world where you can walk through the greenbelt, come face to face with endangered animals, and hear the sounds unique to each species. We want the experience to feel less like a game and more like a visit, so that the connection people form with these ecosystems is something they carry with them long after they take the headset off.