Overview
An interactive scavenger hunt experience built with VAPI voice AI, blending voice interaction with physical exploration.
Concept
I wanted to give a friend her birthday presents, but not in a conventional way. The idea was a treasure hunt where each gift unlocked the next clue. The twist: I didn't want to be the clue giver. I wanted to use the tech of 2025 to orchestrate the entire experience without being physically present for any of the reveals.
How It Works
The hunt started with an NFC sticker hidden inside a small diary. Tapping it opened a Vercel-hosted webapp I built on v0, designed to look like a macOS desktop. Inside the app was a second clue that led to the first gift: a set of picture pieces, jumbled up. After assembling the picture, the backside revealed another clue pointing back to the diary, specifically its spine. A rolled-up note was tucked inside, containing a phone number.
That phone number was the centerpiece. It connected to a VAPI voice agent I had configured as an "adventure guide." I customized the voice, personality, and even added background adventure music to set the mood. The agent required a passphrase to enter quest mode. Once activated, the first clue led her to a friend's car. In the frunk was the next gift, which contained keywords to speak back to the agent. The agent then delivered a riddle pointing to a nearby cafe, where she picked up the final gift, again triggered by a passphrase the agent provided.
Reflections
The most surprising part was how well VAPI worked as an experience layer. With the right configuration, the voice agent felt like a real character in the story, not a chatbot reading a script. The passphrase mechanic added a sense of ceremony to each interaction.
Building this also showed me how powerful it is to chain consumer AI tools together. NFC for physical triggers, v0 for rapid web prototyping, VAPI for voice interaction. None of these tools were designed to work together, but composing them created an experience that felt seamless and genuinely magical for the person on the receiving end.