wiki/hackathon-context.md

---
title: Hackathon Context
tags: [context, hackathon, product]
last_updated: 2026-06-16
confidence: high
sources:
  - https://huggingface.co/build-small-hackathon
  - official hackathon page (tracks, bonus quests, prize structure), re-fetched 2026-06-05
  - https://build-small-hackathon-field-guide.hf.space/ (official Field Guide countdown, confirms the 23:59 UTC submission cutoff, verified 2026-06-15)
  - official Discord #help thread "About 'Sharing is Caring' bonus quest" (organizer Dean + HF/Gradio's pngwn, 2026-06-08)
  - HANDOFF.md
related_pages:
  - deployment-strategy.md
  - system-overview.md
  - model-selection-spike.md
---

# Hackathon Context

Hatchimera — Voxel Pet Fusion is a submission for the Hugging Face Build Small
Hackathon ("small models, big adventure"), track **`Thousand Token Wood`**. The
hack window is open and the project is in active development.

## Timeline

Official milestones are in UTC; the project is developed in Taiwan time
(`Asia/Taipei` / `UTC+8`).

| Milestone | UTC | Taiwan time (`UTC+8`) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hack window starts | 2026-06-05 Fri 00:01 UTC | 2026-06-05 Fri 08:01 |
| Submission deadline | 2026-06-15 Mon 23:59 UTC | 2026-06-16 Tue 07:59 |

Before the deadline, the Hugging Face Space, a short demo video, and a social
media post must all be locked. For an authoritative cutoff, defer to the
official page or dashboard. Winner announcement date: listed as TBD.

## Tracks

The official page lists two tracks:

- `Backyard AI`: solve a real problem for someone you actually know. Scored on
  problem specificity, real user adoption, fit within constraints, and polish.
- `Thousand Token Wood`: build something delightful that wouldn't exist without
  AI. Scored on delight, load-bearing AI, concept originality, and polish.

### Selected Track: `Thousand Token Wood`

This track calls for a fun, strange, shareable AI toy, tiny game, or art
experiment. The key requirement: **AI must be the thing doing the interesting
work** — not just assisting development, generating names, or writing a bio.

Scoring criteria:

- **Delight**: does the result make people want to show it to a friend?
- **AI is load-bearing**: is AI the core of the experience?
- **Originality of concept**: is the concept distinctive?
- **Polish of the Gradio app**: is it complete, responsive, and demo-ready?

## Bonus Quest Targets (merit badges; 6 total)

Official framing (Field Guide): "No prize — just extra credit and bragging
rights. Tag the ones your build earns." Descriptions are the official wording,
verbatim from the Field Guide:

- `Off the Grid` (Local-first): "No cloud APIs. The whole thing runs on the model
  in front of you."
- `Well-Tuned` (Fine-tuned): "Your app uses a fine-tuned model you've published
  on Hugging Face."
- `Off-Brand` (Custom UI): "A custom frontend that pushes past the default Gradio
  look (hint: see gr.Server)."
- `Llama Champion` (llama.cpp): "Your model runs through the llama.cpp runtime."
- `Sharing is Caring` (Open trace): "You shared your agent trace on the Hub for
  everyone to learn from." Official clarification (Discord, 2026-06-08, organizer
  *Dean* + HF/Gradio's *pngwn*): the ideal is the trace from the model that runs
  inside your project **at runtime**, but **any trace is accepted** — local dev,
  coding-agent, or runtime — and a runtime agent trace is **not required**
  ("it's not necessary"). Share it on the Hugging Face Hub.
- `Field Notes` (Write-up): "You wrote a blog post or report about what you built
  and what you learned."

## Submission Constraints

- Total model parameters `<= 32B`.
- App must use Gradio.
- App must be deployed as a Hugging Face Space.
- Submission must include a short demo video and a social media post.

## Prize Structure (fetched 2026-06-05)

Total pool `$48,000+`, two tracks, ~29 awards. Per-track main prizes: 1st
`$4,000`, 2nd `$2,500`, 3rd `$1,500`, 4th `$1,000`, Community Choice `$2,000`.
Sponsor prizes ($22,000+): OpenBMB `$10,000`, OpenAI `$10,000`, NVIDIA (two RTX
5080), Modal `$20,000` credits. Special awards include Bonus Quest Champion
`$2,000`, Off-Brand `$1,500`, Tiny Titan (`<=4B`) `$1,500`, Best Demo `$1,000`,
Best Agent `$1,000`, Judges' Wildcard `$1,000`.

### Sponsor prizes (Field Guide, verified 2026-06-15)

Named sponsor awards with their official one-line requirements, verbatim from the
Field Guide:

- `Best MiniCPM Build` — OpenBMB, `$2,500`: "Build with MiniCPM models."
- `Best Use of Codex` — OpenAI, `$5,000`: "Requires Codex-attributed commits in
  your connected GitHub repo or Space."
- `Nemotron Hardware Prize` — NVIDIA, RTX 5080: "Build with Nemotron models."
- `Best Use of Modal` — Modal, `10,000` credits: "Use Modal for the development
  or runtime of your app, and note it in your Space README."

These per-award amounts come from the current Field Guide; the sponsor-pool
totals in the paragraph above were fetched 2026-06-05.

## Project Fit

Hatchimera — Voxel Pet Fusion: draw a voxel pet from a text prompt → **Splice**
two of them and one Gemma 4 12B call recombines their box geometry into a chimeric
child (body from one parent, the signature feature from the other, plus a new
mutation) → the child reveals on a 3D voxel stage and enters the family tree.

This fits `Thousand Token Wood` because **AI is the genetics engine, not a
garnish**: both the drawn creature and the splice output cannot be reproduced from
a menu, and they *are* the main thing on screen. The model emits **raw box
geometry** (freeform), so it draws cross-form creatures a closed template
vocabulary never could; the deterministic **Tweak** path (catalog parts, no model)
keeps the cheap edits cheap. (See `HANDOFF.md` for the full rationale and the
anti-regression note about the earlier "voice → pose enum" design that would have
scored poorly on load-bearing AI.)