A legacy school project reborn — exploring gamification, education, and long-term growth as a developer.
Back in Belgium, during my high school years, a trivia game show called “De Slimste Mens …” gained massive popularity. While the full title is irrelevant here, the show’s cultural impact stuck with me. One contestant in particular gained legendary status during the 2008/2009 season, and his unmatched performance became folklore among students.
Fast forward to 2017/2018: that legacy inspired me and my teammate (at the time) to recreate something similar — but as an Android app.
🌀 Plot twist: That same contestant? His fame from the show kickstarted his political career — and as I write this in 2025, he’s now the Prime Minister of our country.
We set out to build a trivia game for Android smartphones, designed entirely around school curriculum topics, with gamification principles to encourage learning and replayability.
- Leaderboards per subject/topic
- 1 vs. 1 mode
- Progression incentives via scoring
- Competitive school culture: improve at school by playing
My personal ambition was for the app to be used in school even after we graduated — a sort of digital legacy. I imagined students mastering course content without even realizing they were studying, just by playing a well-designed game.
But the road wasn’t smooth…
💡 Turning Point:
My teammate dropped out early. I faced the choice: abandon the project, or finish it solo — even if just as an exercise to improve my graduation chances. I chose the latter. The mindset to “just see it through” ended up shaping my developer resilience more than I realized at the time.
In Belgian higher education, “final work” varies by institution. At Erasmus University College Brussels, it was more than just a project — it was your professional debut as a software developer. No excuses, no hand-holding.
It turned out to be an exam in disguise. Over three months, we had to:
- Work in isolation (no direct lecturer support)
- Think and act like real developers
- Prioritize the needs of users/stakeholders
- Push through to completion
“In the real world, when working for a client, you won’t get to bail out.
The show must go on. You make it to the finish line. Period.”
— Ruben, our C++ practical teacher (OOP)
Even though I scaled back the scope, here’s what I managed to deliver:
- Android app prototype (Java)
- Local quiz engine (first with hardcoded questions, then with MariaDB)
- Basic scoring system
- Leaderboards
- Start menu + game over screen
- Backend
- Multiplayer; challenge > (accept / Deny) > (start game/no game)
- Achievements; Badge and token system for players to collect
- More than 3 full topics for options
Screenshots and possibly code walkthroughs will be added soon.
Writing this years later, I realize these old school projects weren’t “complete” just because I turned them in. They were stepping stones.
Now, as a professional focused on cloud-native engineering and solution architecture, I’ve started reviewing and reworking all my public school repos — this one included.
What started as a graduation requirement has quietly become part of my developer DNA.
I'm considering two approaches to modernize this project:
- Keep Android frontend (Java/Kotlin)
- Add Azure Functions or Firebase backend
- Sync leaderboard and question sets through cloud storage
- Possibly add Google/Firebase Auth
- Recreate UI in React or Blazor
- Use Azure Static Web Apps for hosting
- Serverless backend (Azure Functions)
- Cosmos DB for leaderboard
- Blob Storage for question packs
Either path will let me revisit my original ideas with modern tools and turn a school project into a production-worthy application. I’m planning to refactor this into a modern cloud-native project:
| Goal | Plan |
|---|---|
| 🎨 Frontend | Android (Java) or WebApplication (.NET) |
| 🧠 Backend | Azure Functions for quiz logic |
| 🧱 Storage | Azure Blob Storage for question packs |
| 📡 Hosting | Azure Static Web Apps (if applicable) |
| ✅ Architecture | Decoupled services (front-end, logic, data) |
| 🏆 Leaderboard | Cosmos DB |
| 📈 Monitoring | Application Insights |
| 🔐 Auth (stretch goal) | Azure AD B2C or custom identity |
- Android Studio
- Java (Android SDK)
- XML for UI design
- Git (version control)
Coming soon.
Coming soon.
Thanks for reading — and if you’re also turning your old projects into future-proof platforms, I see you. Let’s build.