GrassQuest — Less Scrolling More Exploring!

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 1: Touch Grass

What I Built

GrassQuest is a nature-exploration companion designed to help people take a break from their screens and reconnect with the world around them. 🌱

We spend so much time scrolling, studying, coding, and staring at screens that we sometimes forget to notice the little things around us—a tiny flower growing beside a path, birds singing in the morning, clouds changing shapes, or the peaceful feeling of walking outdoors.

I wanted to build something that makes going outside feel fun rather than like another task on a to-do list.

With GrassQuest, users can choose their mood, interests, preferred duration, and environment to get a personalized nature-based quest. Whether it's observing flowers, listening to birds, exploring nearby greenery, or simply taking a mindful break, each quest encourages users to step away from their screens and experience the real world.

🌼 The goal: Less endless scrolling, more real-world exploring!

GrassQuest also features a cute sticker-reward concept to make completing quests feel more playful and rewarding.

Demo

🎥 YouTube Demo: Watch GrassQuestin action

The demo walks through the GrassQuest experience, from selecting preferences to generating a nature quest and exploring its reward system.

Code

GitHub Repository: Explore the GrassQUest source code .

GrassQuest is an open-source project built to experiment with making AI useful beyond the screen.

Feel free to explore the code, share feedback, and contribute ideas!

How I Built It

I built GrassQuest using a web-based frontend and a backend that connects the user experience to AI-powered quest generation.

Tech stack:

React + Vite — Frontend and interactive user interface

Tailwind CSS — Styling and responsive design

Node.js + Express — Backend API

Ollama + Gemma — Local inference with an open-weight AI model

Git and GitHub — Version control and open-source collaboration

The idea is to use AI to turn a few simple preferences—such as mood, interests, time available, and surroundings—into an actionable nature quest.

Instead of asking users to spend more time chatting with an AI, GrassQuest uses AI as a starting point for an offline experience. The generated quest should encourage users to put their devices away and engage with their environment.

And I have also added Stickers as award upon completion of quests

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

For GrassQuest, open innovation matters because AI should help people engage with the world, not just spend more time online.

Using open-weight AI models and local inference gives developers more control over how AI-powered experiences are built and lets them experiment without depending entirely on a closed, paid API.

It also makes the project a learning opportunity: I can explore how AI models can be integrated into a real application, understand the backend integration, and experiment with prompts and outputs.

Open-source tools make this kind of experimentation more accessible to students and independent developers. They also make it easier for others to inspect the implementation, suggest improvements, and build on the idea.

I built GrassQuest as a small step toward using AI more intentionally—not just to generate more digital content, but to inspire meaningful experiences offline. 🌿

Prize Categories

• Best Use of Gemma — GrassQuest uses Google's open-weight Gemma model through Ollama for AI-powered nature quest generation.

Thanks for checking out GrassQuest! 🌱

Sometimes the best quest isn't on a screen. It's waiting just outside your door. 🍀