# Project export: Columbus

This document was generated by HackStack to give an AI agent context about a hackathon project. Sections are labeled with their provenance; content marked as truncated was cut to keep this document small.

## Project metadata

- Hackathon: OpenAI Build Week
- Tagline: Explore every country, connect with travelers, and complete your global journey.
- Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/columbus-xksvaz
- GitHub: not linked
- Demo: https://columbus-pi.vercel.app/
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/29erxR28mEI?enablejsapi=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&start=&version=3&wmode=transparent
- Team: contributor stats unavailable

## Devpost submission (written by the team)

### Inspiration

Columbus was inspired by the idea of making global discovery feel interactive, social, and rewarding. We wanted exploring countries to feel more meaningful than scrolling through facts on a page.

### What it does

Columbus is a world-exploration game where users travel between countries, spend and regenerate energy, collect passport stamps, track progress toward visiting all 195 countries, read country details, and chat with other explorers in country rooms.

### How we built it

We built Columbus with React, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Leaflet, and Supabase. Leaflet powers the interactive map and travel animation, while Supabase supports authentication, profiles, passport stamps, chat, and leaderboard data. The project is also configured as a Progressive Web App.

### Challenges we ran into

Balancing map navigation, distance-based energy costs, reliable progress tracking, guest versus authenticated data, and real-time Supabase state. We also had to handle asynchronous data safely so older requests could not overwrite newer user interactions.

### Accomplishments we're proud of

We created a polished map-first experience with travel mechanics, energy management, passport progress, country search with visited and unvisited filters, country chat, persistent theme and sound preferences, and installable PWA support within a week.

### What we learned

We learned how to manage complex state in an interactive map interface, coordinate client-side data with Supabase, handle repeated authentication events, calculate travel distance and energy costs, and design consistent progress tracking across multiple parts of an application.

### What's next

Next, we want to expand country content, improve leaderboard data, add richer social interactions, introduce achievements and route challenges, and continue improving offline support and mobile usability. Codex and GPT‑5.6 were used as development collaborators to inspect the codebase, reason through map and state behavior, implement focused improvements, and validate production builds. GPT‑5.6 is not used at runtime; country data is currently local.

## README (from the GitHub repository)

No README available.

## Detected evidence (automated analysis)

No repository was indexed for this project. Claimed technologies below could not be checked against code.
- React (technology) — claimed on Devpost, not found in the code
- Supabase (technology) — claimed on Devpost, not found in the code
- Tailwind CSS (technology) — claimed on Devpost, not found in the code
- TypeScript (language) — claimed on Devpost, not found in the code

## Codebase structure

No repository index available.

## Key source files

No repository index available; no source files included.