Perk Quest

Play the game to earn points and get perks

Inspiration

Employee benefits are often confusing and under-used. Most employees skip reading HR documents or misunderstand what plans offer. We wanted to turn that frustration into curiosity by transforming HR education into a game. Inspired by wellness apps, simulation games, and Zen-style experiences, we built Perk Quest, where learning about your benefits feels like exploring a virtual world.

What it does

Perk Quest gamifies the employee benefit experience. Players (employees) can:

Explore themed “districts” , Health Hub, Finance Fortress, Wellness Garden, and Travel & Vacation Portal.

Learn and calculate real-world benefits through interactive estimators.

Unlock badges, XP, and calm-energy rewards as they explore each door.

Use a built-in AI Plan Recommender (future version) that suggests the best benefits based on age, family, and income. In short: it makes complex HR info playful, interactive, and personalized.

How we built it

Frontend: Pure HTML + CSS + JavaScript (no framework) for fast prototyping.

Game Logic: Modular “rooms” for each benefit area; localStorage used to track XP, progress, and unlocked badges.

Audio/Visuals: 8-bit entry chimes, door animations, and dynamic UI updates.

Challenges we ran into

We encountered several challenges during development. One of the main difficulties was finding the right balance between gamification and clarity, ensuring that users could engage with the experience in a fun, interactive way while still learning accurate HR-related information.

Additionally, we faced time constraints while building multiple modules (Health, Finance, Travel, and Wellness) within the limited duration of the hackathon. Managing animations and smooth transitions without relying on heavy frameworks also proved challenging. Our concept was inspired by a Temple Run–style experience, where employees would navigate through doors representing different benefit areas to visually explore available options. However, we were unable to fully implement this feature within the timeframe and plan to complete it in future iterations.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Completed a fully functional prototype with 4 interactive benefit districts.

Integrated cost estimators and policy loaders via JSON.

Designed Zen Trail, a mindfulness-themed game for wellness awareness.

Created a smooth, “door-to-city” UI and persistent progress system.

Turned boring HR information into an engaging learning journey

What we learned

How to simplify complex financial and medical data into interactive visuals.

How gamification principles (feedback loops, badges, rewards) improve engagement.

The importance of UX clarity when blending education and play.

Quick prototyping using pure JS and browser storage can go surprisingly far!

What's next for Perk Quest

Integrate AI-Driven Benefit Recommendations: Leverage AWS Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker to provide personalized, AI-based plan recommendations tailored to each employee’s preferences and usage patterns.

Enhance Security with Biometric Authentication: Implement advanced security protocols and biometric verification to ensure safe and seamless employee access to their benefit profiles.

Develop a Mobile-Responsive and Immersive Experience: Transform the platform into a mobile-friendly, game-inspired interface, and later evolve it into a VR-enabled version where employees can explore and interact as if they are inside the game themselves.

Expand Wellness through Mini-Games: Evolve Zen Trail into a series of daily wellness challenges that encourage consistent engagement and mindfulness among employees.

Collaborate with Real HR Teams for Pilot Testing: Partner with corporate HR departments to conduct pilot programs that validate usability, engagement, and learning outcomes in real employee-benefit onboarding scenarios.