Faiz Marzuki

I recently participated in the Isek.ai Hackathon at Taylor's University alongside my teammate Nik Zulfaqar. The hackathon theme was anime + AI + game + card, which sparked our creativity and led us to build something fun and innovative.

The Idea: KamiSketch

We created KamiSketch — a real-time drawing battle game similar to skribbl.io but with a tournament format. What makes it unique? The judge is OpenAI. Players compete in drawing challenges, and AI evaluates their artwork in real-time, creating an engaging and competitive experience.

The Hackathon Experience

This was my second hackathon, and I learned a valuable lesson the hard way: don't sleep too comfortably on day 1. We overslept, and day 2 became pure struggle mode as we tried to catch up. 😅

Despite the setback, we pushed through. Thanks to Brendan Beh and Edward Low for their encouragement and for pushing us to not give up and keep going. With the power of vibe coding (and Claude Sonnet 4.5 backing us), we still managed to finish our prototype in time.

The Most Satisfying Moment

The most rewarding part of the entire experience was seeing the judges and participants enjoying testing our app live. That already felt like a mini win for me. Even though we didn't hit top 3, it was a good lesson and honestly a very enjoyable experience.

Going Open Source

We've decided to make KamiSketch open source so anyone can try it, clone it, play with it, and continue building ideas on top of it.

Repository: [KamiSketch on GitHub](https://github.com/faizzmarzuki/kamisketch)

Key Takeaways

1. Time Management Matters: Don't underestimate the importance of staying on schedule, especially in hackathons where every hour counts.

2. Support is Crucial: Having mentors and teammates who push you forward makes all the difference when things get tough.

3. AI as a Judge: Using OpenAI to judge drawings added a unique twist that made the game more engaging and innovative.

4. Open Source Impact: Making the project open source allows others to learn, contribute, and build upon our work.

What's Next?

We're not stopping here. More to come from this direction. 🚀

The hackathon experience taught us valuable lessons about rapid prototyping, teamwork, and pushing through challenges. KamiSketch is just the beginning of what we can build when we combine creativity, AI, and gaming.