Work
  • Product Design
  • Gamification
  • Visual System

The Alcheringa app, rebuilt as an 8‑bit game you play by showing up

The official app of IIT Guwahati’s cultural festival. The ’24 revamp made events findable; ’25 keeps all of it and wraps it in a pixel-art world where showing up earns XP.

Three phones showing the Alcheringa ’25 app: the activity log, the pixel-art home screen and the festival map.

ACT 01

GATES OPEN

The festival, the app, and why it needed a fifth rebuild.

Role
Product designer, the only designer on the Alcheringa ’25 team
Timeline
Android and iOS · live 20 days before Day 1
Overview
Every year a new student team rebuilds the Alcheringa app. ’24 fixed finding things. In ’25 I kept all of it and gave the app a game’s logic and an 8-bit skin, so showing up became playing.

SCOPE

  • Attendee app: schedule, venues, artists, passes and merch
  • Every screen redesigned in an 8-bit system, plus gamification on top: a progression system (XP and levels), achievements and a fest-wide leaderboard
  • Out of scope: organiser tools, the ticketing backend and the website.

CONSTRAINTS

  • Hard deadline: live on the stores before Day 1
  • One designer and a student dev team, shipping to Android and iOS
  • ’24’s structure, backend and data carried over; the new UI had to fit them

PROCESS

  1. 01Audit the ’22–’24 apps
  2. 02Re-read the ’24 team’s research and the store reviews
  3. 03Concept: the fest as a game, checked with the dev team
  4. 048-bit system, iterations with mentors, handoff
!

WHY REDESIGN

’24 reached 2.5K+ downloads, about 50% more than ’23. The number it had no way to move was how often people came back: nothing in the app changed after you went to an event. That became the ’25 brief.

▼

Here’s the festival it had to run.

Context

A four-day festival, rebuilt as an app every year by a new team.

The festival

  • Day 0 to Day 3: an inauguration and a classical night, then three days of 80+ events and competitions across the IIT Guwahati campus
  • 10,000+ footfall: campus residents, the city, and teams from 500+ colleges
  • A pronite every night — Blitzkrieg, Juggernaut, Crescendo — and competitions all day

Why an app

  • Schedules shift by the hour; posters and Instagram can’t keep up
  • Venues are spread across a large campus most visitors don’t know
  • Passes, merch and entry all run through the same four days

The brief for ’25

  • 01 Keep: everything ’24 shipped — search, schedule, map, passes, merch
  • 02 Fix: late alerts, and a campus nobody can picture
  • 03 Add: a reason to open it between events
  • 04 Ship before Day 1, in the ’25 theme

FOUR EDITIONS, FOUR TEAMS

Each one kept the template and fixed the thing the last one couldn’t.

  1. ’22

    Shipped

    Set the template

    Schedule, pronites and passes in one app. The shape every edition since has kept.

  2. ’23

    Shipped

    The information existed

    Uncategorised and hard to find: no search, nothing on stalls or transport. The baseline ’24 audited.

  3. ’24

    Shipped

    Made events findable

    Search and filters, categorised explore, liked events with reminders, directions in every sheet, merch checkout. 2.5K+ downloads.

  4. ’25

    Gave people a reason to come back

    Every ’24 feature, in an 8-bit system with XP, levels, achievements and a leaderboard on top.

KEPT FROM ’24

  • Search and filters
  • Liked events with reminders
  • Directions in every event sheet
  • Merch checkout
  • Passes
  • —

ADDED IN ’25

  • 8-bit system
  • XP for showing up
  • Levels
  • 12 achievements
  • Fest-wide leaderboard
  • Lineup reveal
  • Front-row passes
  • —

Source: my audit of the ’22–’24 apps, and the ’24 Play Store listing.

Here’s what the ’24 app got wrong.

ACT 02

THE CROWD

Who comes, what they said, and what the ’24 team already knew.

The problem

’24 fixed finding things: search, filters, liked events, directions. People still opened the app only when they needed something, then closed it.

ATTENDEES DESCRIBE THE SAME PROBLEM IN THEIR OWN WORDS

I was so confused about what event to attend.

First-time visitor · ’24 team interviews

Finding wasn’t the problem.

Choosing was.

  1. 1

    ‘Mini Auditorium’ means nothing to an outsider.

    Directions existed in every event sheet. A route to a name you can’t picture isn’t orientation, so volunteers still did the wayfinding.

    ’24 team interviews

  2. 2

    People screenshot the schedule, then close the app.

    Liked events and reminders were the right mechanic with no visible payoff, so the app lost to a screenshot.

    ’24 team interviews

  3. 3

    Nothing changes after you attend something.

    The only ‘mine’ things were liked events and merch orders. The ’24 brainstorm had engagement ideas and parked them for feasibility.

    ’24 app reviews and the ’24 brainstorm

Findings reused from the ’24 team’s research, credited where used.

Two attendees showed this most clearly.

The attendees

Two attendees, one need: get through four days without missing the thing they came for.

Who I designed for

The ’24 team’s personas and interviews, re-read and extended rather than redone. Split by why they come: to compete, like Ananya, or to explore, like Riya.

PERSONA A: THE OUTSTATION PARTICIPANT

P1 · COMPETES

Ananya Sen

Persona A · The outstation participant

  • 21 years old
  • Delhi, India
  • Captain of her college dance team

“We came for Electric Heels. I don’t care about the lineup if I can’t find the stage.”

  • Outstation
  • Competing
  • First time on campus
  • Travels in a team

Design implication

Needs the venue and the clock before anything else.

Activity split by day with the venue on every card, and walking directions in the Map tab.

Goals

  • Reach her team’s competition venue on time, every round, on a campus she has never seen.
  • Catch at least one pronite without missing a call time.

Pain Points

  • The venue names mean nothing to her. ’24’s directions get her there; the campus still never makes sense.
  • A round gets delayed. ’24 sends the alert; nothing helps her re-plan the hour she just got back.
PERSONA B: THE CAMPUS EXPLORER

P2 · EXPLORES

Riya Das

Persona B · The campus explorer

  • 20 years old
  • Guwahati, Assam
  • Second-year B.Des, IIT Guwahati

“I’m excited about everything and I have no idea what to go to first.”

  • Lives on campus
  • Here for the nights
  • In a group
  • Phone-first
  • Buys merch
  • Explores everything

Design implication

Needs a reason to open the app between events.

A Home that gives her something to do before Day 1, and XP for showing up once it starts.

Goals

  • Explore everything, with friends, and come out with something to show for it.
  • Know where to start: eighty events is a list, not a plan.

Pain Points

  • Overwhelmed by the number of events; ’24’s categories and search helped her find, not choose.
  • The app never noticed she’d been anywhere, so she stopped opening it.

Their story was already in the ’24 team’s research.

Research

Attendees don’t want more information. They want the next hour, the way there, and a reason to come back.

Where it came from

Attendees don’t change much between editions, so I didn’t redo the interviews. I re-read the ’24 team’s interviews and SWOT, read the Play Store reviews of the ’24 app, and audited the ’22, ’23 and ’24 apps alongside other fest apps myself. Where a finding is the ’24 team’s, it says so.

Previous apps

What each edition did well, and what attendees still lacked.

HOW THE OTHER FESTS HANDLE IT

AppWhat it does wellWhat ’25 changes
Alcheringa ’24A full revamp: search and filters, categorised explore, liked events with reminders, guest mode, a schedule grid by venue, directions in every event sheet, merch checkout. 2.5K+ downloads.Keeps all of it. Changes how it looks, and why you’d open it a second time.
Alcheringa ’23The information existed but was uncategorised and hard to find; no search, nothing on stalls or transport.Two editions later, findability is solved. ’25 spends its effort on engagement instead.
Alcheringa ’22Set the template: schedule, pronites and passes in one app.’25 keeps the template, so the structure attendees already know stays.
Mood Indigo, Antaragni, Ziro’24’s SWOT: instinctive navigation and categorised information, but forced sign-in, no delay alerts, information scattered across platforms.Still utilities. None make the fest itself feel like play; that gap is the ’25 bet.
Four apps, one template, and the gap ’25 fills

  • None

    of the previous editions gave attendees a reason to open the app between events.

    Reviews and audit

  • Same template

    Home, Activity, Schedule, Map and a toolbox; an event sheet; passes and merch. ’24 set the shape, attendees know it, ’25 keeps it.

    Audit of ’22–’24

  • Parked in ’24

    ’24’s brainstorm had the engagement ideas (personal highlights, coupons, prop scanning, winners’ lists) and parked them for feasibility. ’25 picks up the thread.

    ’24 brainstorm

What the audit and the reviews added up to

Insights

Three insights, and one gamification system that answers all of them.

Clustered findings

I clustered the ’24 team’s findings and the ’24 reviews by what they would change. Three clusters held almost everything.

INTERVIEW FINDINGS

Too much, no path4 findings

  • First-timers are overwhelmed by the number of events
  • “I was so confused about what event to attend”
  • Search and categories help you find, not choose
  • Pronites are the one thing everyone plans around

Where, from here5 findings

  • “Mini Auditorium” means nothing to an outsider
  • Directions exist; a sense of the campus doesn’t
  • Volunteers still do the wayfinding
  • Delays move people between venues at short notice
  • Groups split up and can’t regroup

A reason to come back4 findings

  • Nothing changes after you attend something
  • Liked events and merch are the only ‘mine’ things
  • People screenshot the schedule, then close the app
  • ’24 parked its engagement ideas for feasibility
Findings clustered by what they would change · ’24 team’s interviews and ’24 app reviews

Each cluster became a change. Gamification tied them together.

ACT 03

SOUNDCHECK

One rule, one idea cut, and the structure underneath.

What changed and why

The fest as a game: showing up is the score.

The idea

A festival already has levels (days), checkpoints (events), a map and loot (merch). The app only had to admit it. 8-bit was the honest skin for that: cheap to build, instantly readable as play.

The design challenge

How might the app make four days of a festival feel like a game worth playing, without ever getting in the way of the schedule?

CONCEPT BOARD: WHAT SURVIVED

The team’s MoSCoW board set one rule. The first idea broke it.

The board

  • Must have

    A gamified app, with gameplay an immersive part of the experience.

  • Should have

    Fun gameplay and gamified UI interaction, but up to the user’s choice.

  • Could have

    A progression system: points for playing, tied in with the physical event.

  • Won’t have

    Gameplay elements interfering with the UI or normal functionality.

The rule it produced

Play sits on top of the utility, never in its way.

XP, levels and the leaderboard are optional. Ignore all of them and you still get to your event.

Idea 1

Every UI element is a game object: press one and a character shoots it. A ‘game mode’ toggle turns the whole interface into a top-down RPG or platformer map.

Wireframe sketch of app mode: ALCHER header, a banner, a row of tiles and two cards, with a character dot over the UI.

App mode

Wireframe sketch of game mode: the same screen as a top-down map, with a character walking a path between blocks.

Game mode

Cut.

A second mode that takes over the interface is exactly the Won’t-have. What survived is the Could-have: XP for showing up, on top of the utility.

Source: the ’25 team’s concept board. MoSCoW and Idea 1 are quoted from it, lightly condensed.

What changed in ’25

Three changes, one rule. The 8-bit system carries all of them.

The rule

Play never costs a tap. XP, levels and the leaderboard sit on top of the utility: ignore all of them and you still get to your event.

  • 01 Activity by day, not a list

    Events, competitions and stalls split by day, today selected, the night’s pronite on top. Saving one puts it in Your day with a reminder 30 minutes before. The job is choosing now, not finding.

    DrivesToo much, no path

  • 02 A map you can read, directions you can follow

    Stages, food and help as filters on one campus map, a card for the nearest landmark (‘next to SAC · 6 min from Main Gate’), and walking directions in three lines. Every venue name comes with a place.

    DrivesWhere, from here

  • 03 XP for showing up

    Check in at an event, rate a stall, be first to a lineup reveal: each earns XP. XP levels you up, unlocks achievements, and ranks you, your team and your hostel. Top players win front-row passes.

    DrivesA reason to come back

With the changes set, I had to make them fit the structure attendees already knew.

Shaping the app

Same structure as ’24 underneath, so nobody had to relearn the app.

Information architecture

Five tabs with Home in the middle: Map, Schedule, Home, Activity and Utility. A sidebar holds passes, orders, the leaderboard, sponsors and settings. Gamification lives inside these sections (XP on Home and Profile, the leaderboard under Utility and Competitions), never as a tab of its own.

  • 0.0Onboarding
    • 0.1Loading
    • 0.2Welcome
    • 0.3Meet Pixel
    • 0.4Earn XP
    • 0.5Notifications
    • 0.6Skip → Log in
  • 1.0Sign up / Log in
    • 7.0Profile
    • 8.0Merch & cart
    • 9.0Passes
    • 10.0Settings
  • 1.1Profile setup
  • 2.0Home
    • 2.1Lineup reveal
    • 2.2Merch drop
    • 2.3Alcher pass
    • 2.4Picked for you
    • 2.5Search
      • 2.5.1Filters
    • 2.6Notifications
  • 3.0Activity
    • 3.1Events
      • 3.1.1Artist detail
      • 3.1.2Event detail
      • 3.1.3Add to day
    • 3.2Competitions
      • 3.2.1Register team
      • 3.2.2Success
      • 3.2.3Leaderboard
    • 3.3Stalls
    • 3.4Rate stall
  • 4.0Schedule
    • 4.1Your day
    • 4.2Reminders
  • 5.0Map
    • 5.1Campus map
    • 5.2Directions
      • 5.2.1Location access
      • 5.2.2Walking route
  • 6.0Utility
    • 6.1Passes
    • 6.2Orders
    • 6.3Leaderboard
    • 6.4Sponsors
    • 6.5Help

Low-fidelity wireframes

I wireframed the core screens before any pixel art, to make sure the utility worked at grey-box level. Gamification went only where a screen had already earned its place.

LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES: THE HOME DECISION

Two Homes at grey-box: map-first and card-first. Card-first won; the map became a tab.

  • AA: Map-first Home

    Grey-box wireframe A: the campus map fills the Home screen under a map search bar, with two event cards along the bottom and a tab bar.

    The campus map is the Home and events are pins. Good on fest day, empty the week before: nothing to come back to.

  • BB: Card-first Home

    Grey-box wireframe B: a carousel of cards at the top of Home, a segmented control, and a row of content tiles below.

    A stack of cards: lineup reveal, your pass, merch. Something new each day, and the map still one tap away.

  • CC: Card-first, main card open

    Grey-box wireframe C: the same card-first Home with the main card expanded in place, showing more detail beneath it.

    The main card expands in place, so the day’s headline act and your next event are the first things you read.

Three of the grey-box screens. B shipped; A became the Map tab.

Then the pixels went on.

ACT 04

PRONITE

Five moments of the fest, inside the app.

The experience

Five moments, not five features: before the fest, the day, the way there, the night, and what you keep.

How to read this

Each step is one moment in an attendee’s fest, the screens that serve it, and the decision behind them.

THE WHOLE MAP

13 screens, one attendee, one path from install to the front row. Click a world to jump to its step.

START

  1. WORLD 1BEFORE THE FESTHomeLineup reveal
  2. WORLD 2THE DAYActivityEvent detail
  3. WORLD 3THE WAY THEREDirectionsMap
  4. WORLD 4THE NIGHTLevel upGate entryMy passes
  5. WORLD 5WHAT YOU KEEPProfileAchievementsLeaderboard
Onboarding

GOAL

Pronite passNight 19 Mar · Gates 7 PMRiya DasScan at gate

Top players win front-row passes.

Step 1 of 5

Have a reason to open it before Day 1

InteractiveHome: lineup reveal, pass and merch
Scroll the screens

Start the game before the fest.

Home before the fest: a mystery lineup card with “Who’s headlining?” and a 12-day countdown, a merch drop (Crazy Eyes hoodie, ₹850), the Alcher pass card to claim, and picks based on your interests.
13
Lineup reveal: “Day 2 headliner revealed!” The Local Train card, a “+50 XP for being here first!” reward and Share and Add to day buttons.
2
  1. 1Lineup reveal on a countdownOne mystery card per headliner, unlocked when the timer hits zero. Home has a reason to be opened a month before Day 1.
  2. 2Being there first earns XPThe reveal screen pays 50 XP to whoever opens it first. The pass, claimed from the same Home, puts that XP on the leaderboard.
  3. 3Merch drops land on HomeReal product photos inside pixel chrome. A drop is one more reason to come back before the fest starts.

“I'm excited about everything and I have no idea what to go to first.” — Riya

Design decision

Start the game before the fest

Insight
'24's Home led with the headline act and explore chips: complete, and the same every day. Nobody opened it until the schedule was out, and the '24 research found first-timers overwhelmed when they finally did.
Decision
Home opens a month out. The lineup is revealed one mystery card at a time on a countdown, being there for a reveal earns XP, and claiming your pass puts you on the leaderboard. Merch drops land here too. By Day 1 the app is already a habit.
Tradeoff
A pre-fest Home depends on the organisers feeding it reveals on schedule. If a reveal slips, the countdown lies, so the card falls back to 'revealing soon' with no date rather than a wrong one.

Step 2 of 5

Choose the day, then the event

InteractiveActivity → Event detail → Your day
Scroll the screens

Split by day, pronites first.

Activity, “What’s on”: Events, Competitions and Stalls tabs, day tabs with Day 1 selected, Pronites led by a LIVE Armaan Malik card, then Proshows and today’s competitions.
12
Event detail for Battle of the Bands: live now, ₹15,000 prize pool; when, where, team size and entry fee; three rules; and Share and Register buttons pinned at the bottom.
3
  1. 1Day tabs, today selectedFour days, one tap each. The list is today's; tomorrow is a tab, not a scroll.
  2. 2Pronite on top, live firstTonight's headliner leads the day and a LIVE tag marks what is on right now, so choosing starts from the thing everyone plans around.
  3. 3Register from the sheetWhen, where, team size, fee and rules on one sheet. Register puts it in Your day with a reminder 30 minutes before.

“Eighty events is a list, not a plan.” — Riya

Design decision

Split by day, pronites first

Insight
'24's categorised explore and search let people find anything, and its research found first-timers overwhelmed anyway. Finding wasn't the problem; choosing was.
Decision
Activity is one tab with three rails (Events, Competitions, Stalls) split by day, today selected, the night's pronite on top. An event sheet shows when, where, team size and rules; saving it or registering puts it in Your day with a reminder 30 minutes before.
Tradeoff
Day tabs hide tomorrow. For someone planning a whole trip, Day 2 is a tap away rather than on screen, which is the price of a short list for today.

Step 3 of 5

Get to the venue

InteractiveMap and directions
Scroll the screens

A name needs a place.

Campus map with All, Stages, Food and Help filter chips and a venue card: “Athletic Field · Main stage, next to SAC · 6 min from Main Gate” with a Directions button.
12
Directions from Guest House to Athletic Field, 340 m · 4 min walk, in three lines: head south on the main road, turn left at the sports complex, Athletic Field is on your right. A Start walking button.
3
  1. 1Filters, not a legendStages, food and help as chips on one campus map. Thirty-two stalls collapse to a single tap.
  2. 2A card with a landmark“Athletic Field · next to SAC · 6 min from Main Gate.” The name comes with a place you can picture and a time you can plan around.
  3. 3Three lines to walkHead south, turn left at the sports complex, it is on your right. Directions you can remember with the phone in your pocket.

“I don't care about the line-up if I can't find the stage.” — Ananya

Design decision

A name needs a place

Insight
'24 put directions in every event sheet, and outsiders still asked volunteers. A route to a name you can't picture isn't orientation.
Decision
The Map tab filters the campus into stages, food and help, and every venue card carries a landmark and a walk time: 'next to SAC · 6 min from Main Gate'. Directions are three plain lines, not a turn-by-turn feed.
Tradeoff
The map is its own tab, so getting from an event sheet to its venue takes two taps. 'Find on map' exists on stalls; putting it on every event is the first thing I'd add.

Step 4 of 5

The night: pass, gate, level up

InteractiveArtist detail → My passes → Gate entry → Level up
Scroll the screens

Plain where it has to scan.

My passes: tonight’s Night 1 pronite pass first with a Show at gate button, Night 2 and Night 3 below, and a note that passes work offline and screenshots don’t scan.
13
Gate entry for Night 1, Gate 2: a large black-on-white QR code, “Turn your brightness up”, holder Riya Das and pass ID AL-N1-0042.
2
  1. 1Tonight's pass firstMy passes leads with tonight and keeps the other nights below. It works offline, because the gate is where the signal dies.
  2. 2The QR drops the skinGate entry is black on white at full brightness with the pass ID underneath. The one screen that must scan gets no pixel treatment.
  3. 3Getting in levels you upA scanned pass is a check-in: XP lands, the night's badge unlocks, and the leaderboard moves. Showing up is the score.

“One pronite, no missed call times.” — Ananya

Design decision

Plain where it has to scan

Insight
Pronites are why most people come. In '24 the pass lived in a screenshot, and the gate was the slowest minute of the night.
Decision
Each night gets its own artist screen with gates and timings. My passes shows tonight's first and works offline; gate entry drops the 8-bit treatment entirely: black QR on white, brightness up. Getting in levels you up and unlocks the night's badge.
Tradeoff
Passes are personal and screenshots don't scan, which stops sharing but means a dead phone is a dead pass. The fallback is the pass ID printed under the QR, which the gate can look up.

Step 5 of 5

What you keep

InteractiveProfile, achievements, leaderboard
Scroll the screens

Showing up is the score.

Profile as a player card: Riya Das, level 3, 300 of 1000 XP; 12 events joined, 3 passes, rank #4; 3 of 12 achievements; then account details and settings.
12
Leaderboard, fest-wide: a podium of Night Owls, Pixel Pushers and Team Momo; Teams, Players and Hostels tabs; ranks 4 to 7; and your own row, 42nd with 300 XP, pinned at the bottom.
3
  1. 1A player card, not a settings pageLevel, XP, events joined and rank sit above the account details. What you did at the fest comes before who you are.
  2. 2Locked badges are named3 of 12 unlocked, and the other nine say what earns them: visit five stalls, rate ten, all four days. Something to aim at, not a grid of question marks.
  3. 3Teams, players, hostelsThe leaderboard ranks all three fest-wide and keeps your own row pinned at the bottom, so rank 42 still has a next step.

“Come out with something to show for it.” — Riya

Design decision

Showing up is the score

Insight
In '24, your pass, your liked events and your merch orders sat in three places, and nothing in the app recorded that you had been anywhere.
Decision
Profile is a player card: level, XP, events joined, rank, and 3 of 12 achievements with the locked ones named so there's something to aim at. The leaderboard ranks teams, players and hostels fest-wide; the Utility toolbox holds passes, orders and everything else.
Tradeoff
Ratings earn XP, so they can be farmed. The terms say accounts that game check-ins or ratings get reset; a per-day cap is the next thing to design, because front-row passes as the prize make this worth policing.

Underneath the screens is a system built for pixels.

ACT 05

BACKSTAGE

The type, colour and kit that hold it together.

The system underneath

8-bit, but legible: two pixel typefaces, one job each.

Typography

’24 set Futura PT across the app. ’25 uses two pixel typefaces: Brick Pixel for titles, levels and numbers; Game Tape for everything you read, because it’s the one pixel face that survives a paragraph.

TYPOGRAPHY: BRICK PIXEL AND GAME TAPE

Brick Pixel for display, Game Tape for reading.

Brick Pixel · display

LEVEL UP

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
LVL 7 · 09 MAR · 2026

Titles, level numbers, XP counts, HUD labels. Caps only; it was never asked to carry a sentence.

Sizes in use: 37 · 29 · 22

Game Tape · body

Your day starts at 6 pm with the pronite.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789

Check in at an event, rate a stall, be first to a lineup reveal: each earns XP. XP levels you up, unlocks achievements and ranks you, your team and your hostel.

Body, buttons, cards, Pixel’s dialogue.

Sizes in use: 28 · 21 · 14

Where it stays plain

Money and entry are set in the body face at 21 or larger, never in Brick Pixel. Reading a price or a pass at a gate is not the moment for identity.

₹ 2,499

Pass · Row A · 6:00 pm

₹ 2,499

not this

Type scale read off the v3 screens. Both faces are loaded in the app; Hanken Grotesk is only this case study’s voice.

Colour

’24’s palette came from its theme, Chromatic Elysium. ’25’s is PICO-8: the 16-colour palette of a fantasy console, limited the way 8-bit hardware was limited. One colour marks what’s live, one marks what’s yours. Merch stays in photographs: nobody buys a hoodie from a sprite.

THE '25 PALETTE

PICO-8 underneath, extended where the fest needed it: 27 tokens in one Arcade collection.

Backgrounds, ink and text

  • bg/night#1D2B53
  • bg/raised#7E2553
  • bg/sunken#111D35 +
  • bg/grid#111D35 +
  • ink/outline#000000
  • text/primary#FFF1E8
  • text/secondary#C2C3C7
  • text/muted#C2C3C7
  • text/on-light#1D2B53

Accent ramps

  • magenta/300#FF77A8
  • magenta/500#BE1250 +
  • magenta/700#422136 +
  • cyan/300#29ADFF
  • cyan/500#29ADFF
  • cyan/700#065AB5 +
  • lime/300#A8E72E +
  • lime/500#00E436
  • lime/700#008751
  • yellow/300#FFEC27
  • yellow/500#FFEC27
  • yellow/700#FFA300
  • orange/500#FFA300
  • orange/700#AB5236
  • cream/500#FFF1E8
  • cream/700#FFCCAA
  • purple/500#754665 +
  • purple/700#49333B +

+ extended beyond the 16 PICO-8 colours: eight tokens, seven values. The rest are the console’s own.

Tokens read from the app file’s Arcade variable collection (Default mode). Four pairs share a value: bg/grid = bg/sunken, text/muted = text/secondary, cyan/300 = cyan/500, yellow/300 = yellow/500.

Components

RPG dialogue boxes for Pixel the mascot, a HUD for XP, level and countdowns, title plates, ticket passes and a mystery card for reveals. Each component is drawn as one vector per colour, so it scales without blur, and the ones that carry money or entry (payment, QR, prices) stay plain.

CORE COMPONENTS

One kit, one 8-bit grammar. Payment, QR and prices stay plain.

Cards

HUD and overlays

Controls and game

Cards from the v3 kit: an event card for 3-on-3 Basketball, a Night 1 ticket pass with a QR code, and a “Crazy Eyes Hoodie” title plate with a star rating.HUD and overlays: level 3 badge, 1,250 XP counter, ₹ 5,000 prize tag, Live now indicator, a 12:08:45:09 countdown, Pixel’s speech bubble “Wield: Powerful merch!” and an “Added to cart!” toast.Controls and game: green and blue “Play now” buttons, Home nav items, a locked mystery card, Day 1 tags in four tones, Music filter chips and two Night owl achievement tiles.

Event card · Ticket pass · Title plate

Level badge · Resource counter · Prize tag · Live · Countdown · Pixel’s speech bubble · Toast

Buttons · Nav items · Mystery card · Tags · Filter chips · Achievement tiles

Live instances of the v3 library. Each glyph is one vector per colour, so it scales without blur. 20 button variants, 3 mystery-card states, 4 tag tones.

FROM DEV-READY TO FINAL: THE DETAILING PASS

v1 went to the developers first. The detailing pass gave Activity its days and Map its filters and landmark card, without moving anything attendees had already learned.

v1 · Activity, dev-ready

v1 Activity screen as handed to the developers: Events, Competitions and Stalls tabs over large Pronite cards.

v3 · Activity

v3 Activity screen: “What’s on” with day selector chips, Pronites, Proshows and Competitions today.

v1 · Map, dev-ready

v1 Map screen: a plain street map with a search bar and a Library Shed location card.

v3 · Map

v3 Map screen: pixel-art campus map with category filters, pins and an Athletic Field landmark card with Directions.
→→

v1 is the build handed to the developers; v3 is the final. Both are '25 team work.

What’s left is what I’d do next.

ACT 06

AFTER THE FEST

What’s next, and what I’d keep.

What’s next

How it ended, and what I’d hand on.

After Day 3

The app went live 20 days before Day 1. The next step is the one every team faces: make it easy for the ’26 team to keep what worked, and find out whether gamification changed behaviour.

  • Biggest risk

    Novelty wears off

    If XP and the leaderboard don’t change what people do by Day 2, the gamification is decoration. Day-2 open rate against ’24’s is the test.

  • Success metrics

    Opens between events

    Opens per attendee between events, check-ins per attendee, and the share of saved events actually reached. XP from ratings against XP from check-ins shows whether people are farming.

  • Usability test

    The map, with outsiders

    Test the pixel map with people who’ve never seen the campus, at night, in the real pronite crowd. Orientation, not aesthetics, is the question.

One thing I’d tell the ’26 team.

Reflection

Skinning a utility as a game is the easy part. Making the game serve the utility is the work.

What I learned

The 8-bit look got the attention; the schedule had to keep it. Every time gamification made a job slower, the job won, so the rule became: play never costs a tap. I’d carry that into anything with a theme on top of a tool.

Credits

Thanks for playing through to the end. The full research, the appendix and the handover notes for the ’26 team are one link away.