How "Trivia" Came to Life
Level up your trivia game with dynamic gameplay, mythology-inspired twists, and epic multiplayer battles. Fresh challenges, rewards, and fun await!
Published Jan 14, 2025
My friends and I are pop culture nerds who love challenging each other with trivia on shows, movies, songs, etc. One day, we got into a heated argument about who’s the biggest Sherlock fan. Naturally, we decided to settle it the only way we knew how: trivia.
We thought finding a good trivia game online would be easy, but nope. The questions were old, boring, and felt like they hadn’t been updated in years. On top of that, the gameplay was incredibly dull, and we had to manually keep track of our scores, which completely ruined the fun and excitement.
At first, we thought it was just Sherlock, but no—whether it was Marvel, Stranger Things, or any of our obsessions, it was the same story. Nothing felt fresh or exciting enough to keep us hooked. Frustrated, my friend jokingly said, “We should just make our own game.” And honestly? That idea stuck.
Why not create the perfect trivia game ourselves? One that’s not just fun but feels made for fans like us with up-to-date questions, relevant topics, and a game experience that’s anything but boring.
That’s where the AWS Game Builder Challenge came in. With AWS’s amazing tools and services, it was the perfect chance to bring our idea to life. What began as a silly Sherlock debate has grown into a mission to create the ultimate trivia game, one that’s as fresh, engaging, and dynamic as the fans who’ll play it.
Trivia takes quiz games to the next level with diverse categories, competitive leaderboards, exciting quests, and the unique Mythology-Inspired Card System —a game-changing feature that sets it apart from other trivia games. These cards aren’t just for show; they’re powerful tools that can completely change the outcome of a match.
Each card has a unique ability, like freezing your opponent’s timer with Hermes, draining their score with Hades, or getting a second chance with Demeter. Rare cards are especially powerful, giving players the ability to shift the game in their favour at critical moments. Owning one is a big deal—it can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
Beyond the card system, Trivia offers real-time multiplayer mode, where you can compete with friends or players around the world, and leaderboards where you can prove your trivia skills. Complete daily quests to earn XP, gems, and rewards that help you unlock new cards and perks.
This isn’t just a trivia game—it’s your gateway to fun, strategy, and competition. Whether you’re challenging friends, climbing the leaderboards, or unlocking powerful rewards, every moment is packed with excitement. With dynamic gameplay, mythology-inspired twists, and endless opportunities to prove your skills, this is trivia reimagined. It’s time to level up and make your mark!
- XP: Gain XP by playing, completing quests, and taking on challenges. Unlock new levels, perks, and features as you progress toward mastery.
- Gems: Earned through quests or redeemed with XP, gems are your premium currency for accessing special features.
- Titles: Flaunt titles like Trivia Fanatic or Quiz Master, earned by reaching XP milestones!
- Spin the Wheel: Spend your gems for a chance to win XP, gems, and game-changing cards. One spin can change the game!
- All-Time Leaderboard: Cement your legacy as the ultimate trivia champion by earning points and climbing to the top with your lifetime achievements.
- Weekly Leaderboard: Stay at #1 for the week and unlock exclusive prizes like free movie passes.
- Quests : Take on engaging daily and weekly challenges like logging in, playing games, or climbing the leaderboard. Earn rewards and enjoy the excitement of progression!
- Rewards: Complete quests to earn XP and gems, level up, unlock perks, and dominate the game!
- Hermes - "Time Freeze": As the god of speed, Hermes slows things down for your opponent, freezing their timer for 10 seconds. Perfect for putting the pressure on when it counts.
- Hades - "Score Drain": True to his underworld domain, Hades punishes mistakes. When your opponent answers incorrectly, you drain points from their score, strengthening your lead.
- Athena - "50/50": Known for her wisdom, Athena grants you clarity by eliminating two wrong answers, making tough questions a breeze.
- Dionysus - "Final Gambit": The god of wine and revelry knows how to gamble. Bet a portion of your score on the next question for a thrilling high-risk, high-reward play.
- Demeter - "Second Chance": As the goddess of the harvest, Demeter believes in renewal. Missed a question? This card lets you retry for redemption.
- Compete in real-time battles with friends or players worldwide.
- Use your card collection strategically to outsmart and dominate your rivals.
- Trivia for Everyone: Whether you love movies, music, anime, or books, test your skills in pop culture, logos, and iconic lines. With endless categories and challenges, there's always something new to explore!
- Dynamic Levels: Begin with easy questions and progress to tougher challenges. Score big, unlock new stages, and keep the excitement going!
Building Trivia was an exciting journey that combined our creativity with technical innovation, all made possible by the powerful tools AWS provides. We carefully chose AWS services to ensure that the game is scalable, efficient, and provides a seamless experience for players.
To power the game and handle player interactions, we used an EC2 instance as the server, providing the reliability and performance needed for smooth gameplay.
Amazon S3 became an essential part of our setup, storing all the visual assets for the game. From category icons to subcategories and the images used in our visually rich trivia questions, S3 offered a secure and efficient way to manage these files.
We used Amazon Q Developer to refine our game logic, structure the trivia system, implement user-friendly mechanics, and debug efficiently. This allowed us to focus on creating a fun, engaging, and technically robust game.
The combination of these AWS services enabled us to bring Trivia to life in a way that’s both scalable and innovative. AWS provided the technical foundation, letting us focus on standout features like the Mythology-Inspired Card system based on Gacha mechanics, where players collect rare cards to shift match outcomes. Combined with dynamic multiplayer gameplay and diverse trivia challenges, this makes Trivia a truly unique and exciting experience.
Our goal with Trivia was to create the ultimate experience for trivia fans. Recognizing the frustrations of existing games, we focused on solving common issues, especially the repetitive questions that make replaying feel tedious. To keep the game dynamic and engaging, we aimed to build a system that generates fresh, unique questions every time.
This proved challenging. While we integrated AI to generate questions, it struggled to avoid repetition, even with refined prompts. Despite our hopes for AI to revolutionize content creation, it couldn’t consistently deliver the variety and engagement we were striving for.
Another challenge was implementing a Gacha-style reward system. We had to figure out everything from the types of cards, their abilities, and rarities, to how players would earn them. Breaking it down into smaller pieces helped us make progress, but it was still a complex system to design and balance.
Creating a smooth, synchronized multiplayer mode was no easy task either, especially with our limited experience. We needed to ensure real-time gameplay for multiple players—no lag, no glitches, just seamless interaction. Coordinating matchmaking and meaningful player interactions added further complexity, with every solution revealing new problems.
Thanks to tools like Amazon Q and ChatGPT, combined with relentless trial and error, we eventually made it work. These challenges, from dynamic content generation to multiplayer stability, pushed us to innovate and refine, making the process of overcoming them incredibly rewarding.
We’re incredibly proud of adding multiplayer mode to our game, allowing players to enjoy Trivia with their friends and family. Trivia is so much more fun when shared, and since most trivia games lack this feature, making it a reality feels like a significant achievement for us.
We’re also proud of adding the Gacha system to our game, a feature that’s rarely found in trivia games. It was a tough challenge to implement, but we’re thrilled to have overcome it and bring a new level of excitement to the gameplay.
Finally, we’re proud of how far we’ve come overall. Creating this game, with all its challenges and improvements along the way, has been an amazing journey, and we’re excited to see our vision come to life.
Developing Trivia pushed us to step out of our comfort zone and explore new technologies like SwiftUI and NodeJS. Although we had no prior experience with these tools and found the learning curve intimidating at first, resources like Amazon Q made the process far more manageable and seamless.
We also took a deep dive into Amazon Q and learned to use its features effectively. This knowledge not only benefited us in this project but also provided us with a powerful tool to enhance our daily workflow, boosting both productivity and creativity.
Finally, this hackathon allowed us to explore a range of AWS services and discover their capabilities. We’re excited to keep using these tools to improveand make the game even more engaging for our players.
We're introducing exciting new features to elevate Trivia, including powerful cards that shift game dynamics, fresh mechanics, enhanced rewards, and expanded categories for diverse interests.
To reach a wider audience, we're expanding to Android and Web platforms. Additionally, by integrating AWS services explored during development, we aim to boost the game's performance, scalability, and player experience.
Stay tuned—Greatness Is Coming!