Paper Quest

Draw it. Snap it. Play it

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Inspiration

Everyone has doodled a tiny world on paper — a maze, a creature, a secret door. We wanted to bring that childhood magic to life: what if your crayon drawing could become a game you can actually play? 🎨✨

What it does

Paper Quest transforms your hand-drawn sketches into instant playable game levels. Upload a photo of your doodle, and the app detects shapes — rooms, doors, coins, enemies — and builds a fun little world you can explore right away.

How we built it

We designed a system that reads basic shapes from a drawing and maps them to game elements:

  • Closed shapes → rooms or platforms
  • Triangles → enemies
  • Circles → coins
  • Rectangles → doors Once analyzed, these elements are rendered in a cheerful 2D side-scrolling world, complete with jump physics, sound effects, and confetti when you win. 🎮

Challenges we ran into

  • Getting the image analysis to recognize rough crayon shapes consistently was tricky.
  • Balancing simplicity and accuracy — too many rules made it clunky, too few made it chaotic.
  • Making the transition from paper to playable feel magical without overcomplicating the flow.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Built a fully functional upload → play pipeline in under 48 hours.
  • Nailed the “wow” moment: seeing your doodle come alive instantly.
  • Created a UI that feels friendly, nostalgic, and ready for anyone to try.

What we learned

  • Sometimes the most creative ideas come from childlike imagination.
  • Simplicity beats complexity — people love when technology feels like magic, not work.
  • A small, joyful experience can tell a much bigger story about creativity and play.

What's next for Paper Quest

  • Add support for color-based terrain rules (blue = water, green = grass).
  • Let users draw directly on-screen and play live.
  • Introduce level sharing so people can explore each other’s doodle worlds.
  • Explore educational modes — teaching geometry or coding logic through play.

💡 What were you trying to build?

We were trying to build a bridge between analog creativity and digital interactivity — a playground where imagination on paper instantly becomes a game world.

🎨 Why is it playful?

Because it feels like you’re the game designer, but in the simplest, most natural way: draw → snap → play. It turns messy doodles into moments of joy.

🧠 What’s surprisingly smart about it?

It uses basic shape recognition and procedural generation to infer game logic — effectively transforming art into code without writing a single line. That’s both technically clever and emotionally magical.

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