About the Project — Side Quests

Why this is personal

I enjoy Gabby Beckford's content, especially her travel perspective and practical solo trip guidance for women.

This project is personal for me. I met my wife when she was on a solo trip, and I deeply admired her courage, independence, and clarity. That experience stayed with me.

Side Quests is dedicated to my wife, and to young women who are trying to pursue goals that feel exciting but also overwhelming.

The purpose is simple but powerful: transform overwhelming goals into gamified micro-actions, then guide users with adaptive, step-by-step execution.

What I built

Side Quests is an AI-native, gamified iPhone app built around structured goal journeys:

Act -> Quest -> Steps

The first quest I built for the MVP is Solo Trip, with four Acts:

• Act 1: The Call to Travel (destination, dates, budget, confidence setup)
• Act 2: Planning & Preparation (booking and logistics)
• Act 3: The Journey Begins (real-world trip experiences)
• Act 4: Return & Reflect (capture, process, and share what was learned)

Each Quest is intentionally small and executable. Users can complete one step quickly, capture progress in real time, and maintain momentum without needing a perfect plan from day one.

Each Act starts with a conversational AI briefing. That chat context powers LLM-driven quest generation and adaptive step prompts for the current Act. This matters because every user has a unique context window: different blockers, confidence levels, budgets, timelines, and emotional friction points. The personalization engine is designed so two users in the same campaign can receive materially different quest paths optimized for their specific situation.

Act completion is celebrated with a personalized stamp reveal and collection system to make progress feel meaningful, visible, and emotionally sticky.

Product vision

The long-term goal is to deliver a genuinely mentored experience, not a static checklist app.

I want every campaign to be co-designed with experts and creators who teach these journeys from lived experience, similar to how Gabby shares practical solo travel guidance.

The core principle is hyper-personalization over one-size-fits-all advice. Conversations should continuously shape the plan so users get context-aware guidance that feels handcrafted for them, not copied from a generic template.

How I built it

I built Side Quests as a React Native iOS app, optimized for rapid AI-assisted iteration:

• Data-driven campaign architecture for fast content evolution and scalable journey design.
• State-machine navigation layer for deterministic, reliable progression across screens.
• LLM-powered conversational onboarding that maps user responses into personalized quest paths.
• Adaptive quest generation pipeline that produces per-act, user-specific micro-actions.
• Persistent progress memory to preserve continuity and reduce user drop-off.
• Revenue + premium infrastructure integrated for future creator-led campaign packs.

What I learned

The biggest lesson was that velocity beats overplanning, especially in AI product development.

Using Claude Code + vibe coding workflows changed how fast I could ship and validate:

• I could prototype UI, logic, and AI prompt flows in minutes, not days.
• I moved from "feature idea" to testable user experience loops extremely fast.
• I could deploy changes, test on iPhone, and iterate the same day.

Feedback from early testers was critical. They quickly surfaced UX friction: repeated copy, unclear lock states, onboarding confusion, and progression messaging gaps. Fixing clarity and flow conversion mattered more than shipping net-new features.

I also learned that emotional clarity is a core product metric, not just design polish. Users need to know:

• where they are,
• what they just completed,
• what unlocks next,
• and why it matters.

If those signals are clear, users keep going.

What’s next

• Ship more creator-informed, AI-personalized campaigns focused on confidence-building goals.
• Expand expert-designed quest systems for additional life domains.
• Improve first-session onboarding with stronger adaptive guidance.
• Continue fast iteration loops with real users, weekly releases, and measurable UX refinements.

Built With

• asyncstorage
• claude
• codex
• elevenlabs
• elevenlabs-api-(ai-voiceover-generation)
• expo-sdk-54
• ffmpeg-(video/audio-processing)
• ios-(expo-go-+-eas-build)
• javascript
• maestro
• maestro-(for-simulator-demo-automation)
• node.js-tooling
• openai
• react-context-+-reducer/state-machine-architecture
• react-native
• react-native-purchases-(revenuecat)
• remotion
• remotion-(video-editing/rendering)
• revenuecat