PunchLines - AI Debate Tool

Landing page
Use PunchLines!
Rock Solid Testimonials
Sample Debate Set-Up
Built-In Judge and Coach
Streamlined Learning Platform
Dynamic Game Arena
Supports Speech to Text with Real Time Updates

Inspiration

In the past twenty years, one community college has won more than 50% of the national speech and debate competitions, with only three other schools making up the rest. Underprivileged students often don't have access to good coaches, high-quality practice materials, or personalized feedback. We wanted to create a fun, accessible, AI-powered tool that would help anyone, whether a competitive debater or an ordinary student, to practice argumentation, improve English comprehension, sharpen critical thinking skills, and even reduce social anxiety through regular conversational practice.

What it does

PunchLines is a gamified debate practice tool built inside Roblox, combined with a companion web app. Players enter into a dynamic "debate duel" against an AI-powered opponent (using Gemini API), where each side exchanges arguments. Every time a player makes a point, it triggers in-game animations like a "punch" effect; mistakes cause the AI to strike back. Players can choose difficulty levels, respond using typed or spoken input (via voice-to-text), and experience real-time AI feedback, making every match lively, educational, and endlessly re-playable.

How we built it

We used Roblox Studio to design the 3D characters, animations, and battle environment that formed the core of the gameplay experience. The Gemini API powered the generation of real-time AI arguments, making every debate dynamic and unpredictable. For the web companion app, we used HTML, Bootstrap CSS, and JavaScript to create a lightweight, responsive platform where users could check stats, customize their experience, and manage their profiles. We also experimented with React and MongoDB to prototype a scalable backend for tracking matches, scores, and future learning plans. Throughout the project, GitHub was essential for version control and team collaboration, helping us manage assets, scripts, and updates smoothly across multiple contributors.

Challenges we ran into

Roblox doesn’t natively support voice-to-text processing, so we had to build an independent web app that could capture user speech, convert it into text files, and then pass that data into the Roblox game. We also learned that Roblox doesn't have built-in APIs capable of reading file contents directly, so we pivoted to working with JSON files as an intermediary format to move data between the web app and Roblox. Additionally, since the server returned all responses in a raw string format, we had to manually scrape through the string data to extract the AI-generated scores assigned to each user message. This score parsing was critical because it directly affected the in-game health bar adjustments during debates.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating a fully playable, dynamic, and engaging AI-driven debate experience inside Roblox. We successfully merged a real-time AI backend with 3D animation triggers, making each debate feel interactive and alive. Alongside the game, we built a smooth web companion app that extends gameplay beyond the Roblox world, allowing for better customization and accessibility. We offered players real personalization through features like voice input, adjustable difficulty levels, and replayable sessions, which moves far beyond static scripted interactions. Finally, we learned to utilize tech stacks like Gemini, HTML, and CSS rapidly over the weekend and were able to apply them effectively to bring our full vision to life.

What we learned

Over the course of the project, we learned how to integrate generative AI into a real-time gaming environment, connecting live AI outputs to direct gameplay mechanics. We deepened our understanding of Roblox Studio, especially around working with humanoid animations, asset loading, and custom event handling for dynamic NPC behaviors. We also gained experience working with asynchronous web APIs inside a gaming context, learning how to design smoother user experience flows between web apps and in-game actions. In addition, we built and tested scalable full-stack setups, some using React and MongoDB, even under tight time constraints, preparing the groundwork for future expansion beyond a hackathon prototype.

What's next for PunchLines - AI Debate Tool

Looking ahead, we plan to add user progress tracking with full stats and history so players can monitor their improvement over time. We also want to develop better AI personalization, allowing players to choose different AI debate styles, such as "aggressive debater" or "supportive teacher," to match their learning goals. On the visual side, we aim to add richer attack animations, power-up sequences, and special effects to make debates even more engaging. We plan to launch a leaderboard and achievement badge system to encourage competition and re-playability. Expanding accessibility is another goal — including translating PunchLines into multiple languages and adding assistive features for players with disabilities. Finally, with further polish and scalability improvements, we hope to launch a public beta and bring PunchLines to a wider audience as a free-to-play, gamified debate practice tool. This tool could expand far beyond the debate space into the language learning sphere as a whole, and we are excited to see where it takes off.