MetroVentures | Devpost

Link to mission statement

Inspiration

We wanted to address two struggles facing American cities today. First, loneliness has been increasing to epidemic levels, especially in large cities like San Francisco. People are struggling to connect with one another, and we wanted to provide a new avenue for finding real-world social interaction. Second, small businesses have been struggling recently, especially as foot traffic has fallen following the end of the pandemic. We wanted to draw people into relationships with local businesses so that consumers can dive into the treasure trove of culture and commerce all across the city.

Function

MetroVentures is a real-world game designed to foster connections between city dwellers and small businesses. Our aim is to invite people into spaces where they feel comfortable exploring into and reaching out towards their community.

MetroVentures begins on a landing screen, where users are prompted with tours passing through a neighborhood of their hometown. They choose one, and the hunt begins.

MetroVentures is played by locating small businesses, landmarks, and other points of interest along a path. Users are given direction, distance, and – most importantly – clues to help them navigate, as well as a map with a radius to look within.

Users can use as many or as few clues as they like. If they come within 25 meters of the location, they have solved the puzzle. They are then prompted with an activity, often involving an interaction with local staff or business owners. Thus, users are incentivized to connect with neighbors they might otherwise have walked right past.

Creation

To create a solid game experience, we utilized React as the foundation of our website's frontend. React's efficient and component-based approach allowed us to structure our code effectively, enabling bug fixes and ensuring future scalability.

For the backend, we relied on Nuerelo, a robust serverless platform and sponsor of the hackathon. Their architecture provided us with the flexibility we needed, helping speed up backend development.

Through Nuerelo, we crafted an API that acts as the backbone of our game. It works by connecting the game website and the MongoDB where we stored gameplay data. The API serves as the central hub, providing the necessary information for players to engage in a seamless tour game experience.

By utilizing React's interactive capabilities and Nuerelo's powerful API, we created a website that facilitates a dynamic and engaging game while not compromising on user-friendliness and a smooth experience.

Challenges

Our initial plans included a mobile app. However, we realized this was beyond our capabilities as a group with a pair of first-time hackers on this short of a timeline. We made the choice to pivot from a React-Native app to a React website as a result. This pivot allowed us to quickly reassemble our product, bringing it back to life.

We also had some problems integrating Nuerelo into our backend. Nuerelo was not well set up for adding inner objects to the schema for mongoDB. For one, the API playground would force inner objects to be initialized as null. This meant that we had to manually create inner objects in the database, which was a frustrating process. Nonetheless, we successfully built a backend that supports all the features MetroVentures currently has as well as hopes to include in the future.

Accomplishments

We are proud of the creative skill we were able to tap into in the creation of the gameplay. Our team was able to formulate some genuinely fun routes with quality clues that will be great for users, especially those who like to get a little bit lost in San Francisco. We are proud that these are not just dummy places but actually cool local businesses that would welcome our users into their communities.

Also, our team's adaptability and resolve are definitely sources of pride for us. When it became obvious that we would be switching to a website, we were faced with a significant setback. However, we maintained our composure, demonstrating our commitment to the project and to each other. This dedication and resilience proved instrumental in the creation of an outstanding product. We are proud to say it is ours.

Lessons Learned

Our team had not used Neurelo before. Integrating their platform into our backend taught us the importance of making the right build versus buy decisions. This platform has many strengths and for future builds it might be worth using their infrastructure to save time, especially when it comes to CRUD operations and similar tedious tasks. Broadly speaking, we should make decisions that move us forward faster to respect the finite resources of a team, even if it might be humbling to do so.

Our team also developed our front-end design skills substantially through this competition. Only one member of our group had experience there going into this hack, as these skills are seldom taught in UC Computer Science programs. Building a website in React involved a steep learning curve for us. Fortunately, Mehul's insights and our relentless experimentation helped us navigate the challenges to arrive at our product.

What's next for MetroVentures

The next steps for our app would be to expand features to make the game more engaging for users. We would like to implement a scoring system where users can log in and earn experience points for solving puzzles and completing routes. We would also like to create a mobile app for both Android and iOS, which would speed up adoption while decreasing friction in the user experience.

Long term, we would like to negotiate directly with small businesses to create curated experiences for MetroVenture players. We would love to work with owners to help them reach the right clientele, possibly allowing them to pay their way to the top of the suggested route list for users that are likely to enjoy their product. This would allow us to establish a revenue stream without needing to clog the user experience with outside advertisements.

As for expanding the game itself, we would like to create a much larger catalog of routes for users to choose from. The hope would be to expand out from San Francisco to include cities like New York, Chicago, London, and Paris in an attempt to build more connections in our increasingly isolated Western cities.