QuestMix / Zymix

QuestMix is a mobile-first social quest app for London friend groups. It turns the messy "what should we do?" chat into AI-generated quests, live challenges, proof validation, community posts, and squad bragging rights.

The demo is branded Zymix in the UI and QuestMix in the repo. The product story is the same: make real-world plans feel like a multiplayer game.

Why It Fits Zymix Users

• Friend groups can plan activities without leaving chat.
• AI suggests quests and activities based on interests, city context, and group mood.
• Proof upload turns offline moments into verified achievements.
• Community feeds, leaderboards, and challenges create replay value.
• The app is built around London, but the model works for any city with social groups, venues, and weekend plans.

Core Demo Path

1. Open the app at http://127.0.0.1:3000.
2. Start on Chats and open a group chat.
3. Use the plus menu to find activities, vote, or launch a quest.
4. Go to Quests, generate a custom AI quest, and open the returned quest.
5. Upload proof, show the AI confidence result, and publish to The Mix.
6. Open a community detail page and show the leaderboard/feed.
7. End with the challenge/live quest flow for the high-energy close.

AI Usage

QuestMix uses AI in product-critical moments, not just as decorative copy.

• Quest generation: POST /api/quests/generate creates persisted quests from selected interests and London context.
• Proof validation: POST /api/quests/:id/validate checks uploaded proof, returns confidence, reason, suggested caption, and source.
• Activity discovery: group chat can trigger AI-powered event/activity suggestions for weekend planning.
• AI provenance: validation UI distinguishes live AI from deterministic demo fallback when the backend reports the source.
• Verified sharing: community posts receive AI confidence, points, and badge preferences from the proof flow.

Hackathon Checklist Coverage

Main Track

Relevance to Zymix Users (25%)

• Real-world social planning problem.
• Friend group and community mechanics.
• City-based quests and venues.
• Points, streaks, teams, and leaderboards.
• Chat-native actions: activity search, split bill, free times, quests, challenge.

Originality of Concept (20%)

• Blends group chat, local discovery, AI quests, and proof validation.
• Turns offline plans into multiplayer achievements.
• Uses challenge and live quest modes for social tension.
• Community feed makes completions reusable social proof.

Quality of User Experience (20%)

• Mobile-first iPhone shell.
• Bottom navigation for the five main surfaces.
• Inline chat widgets for planning.
• Quest reveal, points burst, and VS screens for memorable moments.
• Accessibility polish includes zoom support, nav current state, unread labels, and a main landmark.

Clarity and Polish of Demo (15%)

• A single reliable demo path is documented above.
• README explains setup, AI flow, and what to show.
• The community detail route loads API-backed communities instead of breaking on seeded IDs.
• Analytics script is guarded so unset env vars do not create broken production requests.

Effective Use of AI (20%)

• AI is now wired into the main quest generator modal.
• AI proof validation metadata is surfaced to users.
• AI validation metadata is carried into community posts.
• Fallback mode is disclosed instead of pretending every response is live.

Side Missions

Fotor Vibe Marketing Award

• Strong visual hooks: quest reveal, points burst, VS screen, community cards.
• Demo can produce shareable screenshots around "AI Verified" proof and generated quests.
• The social feed provides campaign-style proof of people doing things offline.

Manus Real-World Use Case Award

• Solves a practical group coordination problem.
• Has real backend routes, persistence, seed data, and production build path.
• Demonstrates concrete actions: plan, vote, generate, validate, publish.

Z.ai x Orbit Awards

• Z.ai/AI story is explicit in activity discovery, quest generation, proof validation, and provenance.
• Orbit-style community mechanics appear through squads, communities, posts, and leaderboards.
• The app can support city-based communities beyond the seeded London demo.

3-Minute Demo Script

0:00-0:20 — Problem Open Chats. "Friend groups waste time deciding what to do. QuestMix turns the chat into a game layer for real-world plans."

0:20-0:50 — Planning In Chat Open a group chat. Use the plus menu to show activity discovery, free times, and quest actions. "The app does not replace the group chat; it upgrades it with planning tools."

0:50-1:30 — AI Quest Generation Go to Quests, open Generate Custom Quest, select interests, and generate. "This calls the quest generation API and persists a fresh quest for the group."

1:30-2:10 — Proof Validation Open the generated quest, accept it, upload proof, and show confidence/reason/source. "The important AI moment is verification: the app checks if the real-world action happened."

2:10-2:35 — Community Loop Publish to The Mix and show the community feed/detail page. "Verified completions become social proof, points, and leaderboard movement."

2:35-3:00 — Big Finish Show Challenge or Live Quest. "The long-term loop is squads competing in the city, with AI generating and validating the missions."

Running Locally

pnpm install
cp .env.example .env
pnpm seed
pnpm dev

Use http://127.0.0.1:3000 for the demo. Spotify OAuth is configured around the 127.0.0.1 host flow.

Verification

pnpm test
pnpm check
pnpm build

Optional API smoke test:

pnpm test:api

Pre-Submission Checks

• Backend and client both start with pnpm dev.
• Seed data exists before the demo.
• Generated quest opens from the generator result.
• Proof validation shows confidence and source.
• Published post appears in The Mix with chosen AI/points metadata.
• Home community links open detail pages.
• Demo browser is opened at 127.0.0.1:3000.
• No unresolved analytics env placeholder is requested in production.

Known Demo Boundaries

• Authentication is demo-user based (u1) rather than a full login flow.
• Video feed and some secondary actions remain demo/mock surfaces.
• Google Calendar and Spotify depend on environment configuration.
• Some AI routes can fall back to deterministic demo mode when provider keys are not configured.