HackYeah 2018 – Boldare Team at the biggest stationary hackathon in the world!

So, let us tell you a short story about how a team of wonderful tech and design savvies from Boldare have joined forces to take part in such a massive coding event in Warsaw, Nov 24-25th.

Let’s digitize the fun!

There was so many paths to choose from - healthcare, fintech, cybersecurity… you name it! But we literally decided to have some fun. We took up the task proposed by Totalizator Sportowy – Win with Lotto. The task’s description says:

We are looking for a game that combines geolocation with randomness. Maps, coordinates, luck, win. The product of your work should reward players for their activity and gaining new users. It should be based on a simple message and understandable rules. Do not worry about legal restrictions on games of chance and where to get money for winnings from; what counts is creativity and inspiration. Remember that in a game of chance there are winners and those less lucky and that luck plays a more important role than skills. We count on your creativity, knowledge and skills.

The Problem - How to engage Millennials in the game with the help of technology?

The current clients of Lotto are people aged more than 35. Despite its stable position on the Polish market, Totalizator Sportowy is losing clients in favor of foreign games with much higher prize pools.

To maintain their leadership of the lotteries market, Totalizator Sportowy needs to reach younger users, who have completely different needs and use modern technologies.

Brand’s strengths

• Virtually every Polish person knows this brand.
• A large group of loyal clients.
• Many partners – in terms of retailers, sports objects, and many others.
• A well-established position on the market, public confidence.

Brand’s weaknesses

• Due to its long tradition, brand is mainly associated with standard coupons.
• It is not linked with new technologies and digital solutions.
• No mobile apps in its portfolio.
• The present client group is not young enough.

The Team - Boldare Team!

Oh, so that’s what you call a six-pack. Six different people, various roles, many competencies (tech and design) - they joined forces to form one and only Boldare Team. Our team consisted of two Backend Developers (PHP), three Frontend Developers (JavaScript), and one Product Designer. It was the first time we worked in such a line-up, which was both an interesting experience and a challenge for us. To face that challenge, we quickly began to speak a common language and complete each other perfectly.

Technologies:

No poetry, 100% of technology. What have we based our app on?

Backend: Python, Django, Docker, PostGIS

Frontend: React Native, NativeBase

“Draw me the game.”

The first step we took after beginning the hackathon was talking to the Lotto mentors, who helped us get a better understanding of the stated problem and validate our concepts. The idea we picked was a good one!

Mentors appreciated our attitude of promoting tourist activity as a primary goal. And so we started drawing! And UXing. And coding. Then the magic happened…

The Solution - Travelotto app

During the 24-hours HackYeah event, we created Travelotto – a mobile game which encourages people to visit various places together, at the same time providing a chance to win attractive in-kind or cash prizes.

The goal of Travelotto is to inspire people to spend time together and discover interesting spots in Poland. It combines elements of tourism, education, and games of chance.

By buying a coupon, the user can visit famous historical buildings and points of interest in a given city or town, getting to know its history, and simultaneously win valuable vouchers.

Vouchers are an exciting way of adding some variety to sightseeing. In partner locations, the user can get a voucher for solving a quiz – this could be a museum ticket, a discount in a nearby restaurant, or a free coupon for the next game.

Thanks to the vouchers, you can feel adrenaline and satisfaction throughout the whole game.

How does it work?

The player buys a coupon to be able to participate in Travelotto; it is also a lot in a weekly lottery. The game consists in visiting various randomly selected places in a determined order, which becomes known to the user only at the end of the game. The user can choose the number of visited places and the radius of their location.

The more places there are and the longer the distance is, the bigger the point multiplier in the game. After the user buys a coupon, places are picked at random as well as the winning visiting order.

The points are displayed on a map to the user. When the player gets closer to the drawn place, the place is added to their score and the information about this place along with a quiz show up on the display.

The user can receive additional points and vouchers to partner locations. If you guess the order of visiting the places, you receive a voucher. What’s more, each coupon takes part in a cash lottery.

We consulted our idea with the Lotto mentors, who had a very positive response to it. They helped us find better business solutions and verified some of our suggestions.

HackYeah in numbers:

• 24 hours
• 3100 attendees
• 199 completed projects in 14 categories
• 49 projects competing for the top 4 in the Win with Lotto category
• 6-person Boldare Team
• 2 hours of sleep
• 30 cups of coffee
• 1 working prototype of a mobile game

It was a hackathon of many first times, when:

• most of the team members had taken part in a hackathon,
• most of the team members had worked with each other,
• we had designed a game,
• we had used Django!

Summing up - what a lesson for a dev & design team!

Even though we didn’t make it to the next level, the hackathon was a great lesson for us:

- we created a functional POC (proof of concept) in 24 hours, which was an exact rendering of our idea (it could be easily tested on the client or users),

- we set up a detailed plan along with our goals and business assumptions,

- what we lacked in the first place was a business model: it was provisionally drawn up but then we focused more on other elements, as the representative of the company liked the idea,

- we performed well in extreme conditions (some of us slept barely 2 hours during the whole 24-hour time),

- despite of working together for the first time ever (at least some of us), we proved that you can build an effective, target- and cooperation-oriented team in no time,

- we took part in a huge coding-related event of 3000 participants,

- we enjoyed ourselves and boldly represented Boldare!

So, HackYeah was a real fun and a valuable experience for the future – an exemplary model of brilliant teamwork and willingness. Another proof confirming that a team can achieve much more than a single person.

Hungry for more?

You should know that we love to share such stories, since we’re all-time-learners and knowledge-sharing runs in our veins! Hungry for more insights? Interested in taking part in such initiatives and improving your development or designing skills with us?

The door is always open at Boldare – pop in to chat about what we are working on and how exactly we do it. If you thought of changing the way you work and meet such a lovely team - jump to our Career Page and find the role that fits you!