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Broke college students built app that lets you save on food for playing League

RiotRiot Xhanghai··97 votes·8,080 views
Grubquest

Hey Summoners,

Over the past year, we’ve built a web and mobile app called Grubquest. Grubquest sends you daily and weekly challenges for you to complete in-game (Play X Champion, Deal Y Damage) and rewards you with coupons for local restaurants in your area ($2-$5 off delivery and takeout).

As a team, we always felt that League, friends, and food were all connected, so we decided to build something facilitate that. We see it as a way to deepen your connection with the game and the friends you play it with. Our food rewards are valid in over 15,000 restaurants in 42 states in the U.S. Enter you address at EatStreet to see what local restaurants are participating for you.

To be clear, we don’t make any money off of this. For better or worse, we’re staying broke college students for the foreseeable future. I know there are a lot of skeptics out there, but we built this out of love for the game. It’s our way of giving back to the community.

We really hope you enjoy it. Feel free to leave any questions or comments below. If you’d prefer to keep your feedback private, feel free to shoot us an email at [email protected]

Happy Questing,

Team Grubquest

EDIT: As per requested, for clarification - Grubquest is currently USA only. We offer our rewards through Eatstreet.com and they're in 42 of 50 states. We'd love to expand to all of NA and other regions soon! Thanks for your feedback and support in the meantime!

80 Comments

sneezing slug9 votes

Can a Rioter pin this? This is absolutely one of the coolest things I've seen.

Bravo to you guys.

the Anarchit3cht8 votes

I'd be interested in something like this, but I can almost guarantee that no businesses in my town would agree or partner with this. My main question is, how do you get these coupons/discounts? Are they already in existence and you're merely providing them to people when they do the "quest?" If that's true whats to prevent people from just getting the coupons without the use of this program? If its not, how do you get businesses to agree with this, how do you procure these coupons for your users?

Spoofghoul18 votes

i imagine its free marketing, you get a 5$ coupon and eat there for cheap then tell everyone how awesome the place is.

and it lets these restaurants/stores etc, get rid of their supplies faster so stuff doesnt stack up or occupy space for too long, shit like that costs money too. so the faster they can aquire and then sell the better.

Also it makes these restaurants look more busy with more customers so other people are more likely to think hey its busy there must be a good place to eat.

pretty much a win/win they safe money on storage and marketing and you safe money on your meals

alfavhunter2 votes

{quoted}

i imagine its free marketing, you get a 5$ coupon and eat there for cheap then tell everyone how awesome the place is.

and it lets these restaurants/stores etc, get rid of their supplies faster so stuff doesnt stack up or occupy space for too long, shit like that costs money too. so the faster they can aquire and then sell the better.

Also it makes these restaurants look more busy with more customers so other people are more likely to think hey its busy there must be a good place to eat.

pretty much a win/win they safe money on storage and marketing and you safe money on your meals

They can also put specials like

O hay we ordered to many roast beef sandwich meat and it will go bad if we don't get rid of it in the next week

Coupon offer

Roast beef sandwich : buy 2 get a free side and basic drink

Zacster6 votes

People come out with the weirdest things when they're hungry.

RiotRiot Xhanghai9 votes

Weird but good we hope!

Zacster5 votes

{quoted}

Weird but good we hope!

That is true, I wish you luck man!

Oleandervine4 votes

This is a clever idea. You should expand into other markets. However, how do you link this to an account? That's the part that people are skeptical about.

RiotRiot Xhanghai3 votes

You link your account by changing the name of one of your first three runepages. We never touch your login information! We understand that people are skeptical but we're more than happy to answer your questions.

To expand on this a little further - we provide you with a random-unique code for example "ASD50X". You change the name of one of your first three runepages to "ASD50X" and we search through the player database using the Riot API for a runepage with that code. Once that's completed, we tie your Summoner ID to your Grubquest account. It's sounds kinda hack-y because it is, but it's the only way we can connect your account to track your progress without asking you for anything compromising like login-information.

Speedphoenix4 votes

I live in europe :'(

RiotRiot Xhanghai9 votes

Sorry buddy. If we ever take off and have the option to expand to EU we definitely will. For now, we're going to milk the NA > EU meme for as long as we can.

71883083DEL14 votes

Support, team grubquest!

The 2nd Horseman4 votes

I swear if it asks me to play Nami and do damage...

I better not get a coupon for sushi.

RiotRiot Xhanghai3 votes

We don't have that quest right now, but maybe something to we'll consider for the future! Right now all the coupons you receive are valid universally across restaurants on Eatstreet! Whether or not you'll be able to redeem it for sushi depends on whether there's a participating sushi joint in your area!

NickTDesigns3 votes

GENIUS

jama6553 votes

i am soon to be a broke college student and i approve this app

RiotRiot Xhanghai2 votes

Welcome to the ramen life. Hopefully Grubquest will offer you some intermediary escapes!

Rundus13 votes

I am sad that only one place near me does this... but it does delivery and has pulled pork sandwiches... so i'm in. I'm just sad my windows Lumia 640 can't get the app. At least i can pin the site though.

RiotRiot Xhanghai2 votes

Sorry we don't have more options for you! To be clear, the website has all the functionality the mobile app does - just no notifications for when new quests are put up. We hope you enjoy the pulled pork sandwiches!

Rundus13 votes

Np, for I can still enjoy ALL the pulled pork BBQ sandwiches. Do not misunderstand me. This is a truly glorious day. Many thanks for this site.

Placentas3 votes

"but it does delivery and has pulled pork sandwiches... so i'm in." hahaha

Your Next Kill3 votes

Now I can play League of Legends AND get food from it! Thanks!

RiotRiot Xhanghai2 votes

Glad we could we help. It's more fun and more food with friends! Spread the word!

NewBlueWorld3 votes

OMG. I hope you read this Xhangai since I'm way down in the comments but what an impressive and awesome idea. I sadly can't enjoy it yet since I live in Canada but to see a team of people do something like that is inspiring. I really hope it catches on because it could help so many people. I definitely know the university loan struggle and yes, coupons and deals make a huge difference, especially for doing something you already do.

Anywho, great job and keep on rocking, it'd be sweet as someone posted earlier if a moderatior at RIot pinned this to the top of the boards so that everybody could benefit from it.

Samflash32 votes

How do you build an app? Starting out on it so looking for recommendations on reads

RiotRiot Xhanghai3 votes

I'm the filthy non-technical on the team so I can't speak to it too much in depth, but as far as building a basic website/web application goes:

John Duckett's book set on HTML/CSS/Javascript/jQuery is great place to start. Honestly the best place I've found in jump-starting how to pick up a technical skillset is at hackathons. Alternatively, online resources like Udemy, Skillshare, Treehouse, and CodeAcademy can all help you get started.

Guy Fox Teemo4 votes

Try something like w3schools.com, it has A LOT of free resources for coding an such!

RiotRiot Goosetown2 votes

Hey SamFlash,

I would check out places like lynda.com or teamtreehouse.com. I've used both and they have pretty great course's to get you started in not only coding, but design as well.

I think if you're really interested in building or designing apps, the most important thing is to just start doing it. You'll definitely make mistakes along the way, and that's sort of the point. Learn from them. Get better. Try bigger things. Rinse. Repeat.

Pretty soon, you'll be making some cool stuff.

Samflash31 votes

Hey,

Thanks for the suggestion. Will give them a go.

Rico Nasty2 votes

THIS COULD ACTUALLY HELP SO MANY PEOPLE HOLY FUCK SIGNAL BOOST SIGNAL BOOST SIGNAL BOOST

InivtesPreeze2 votes

Am I the only person who sees this as an ingenious method to data mine thousands of idiots' passwords, emails, and related league of legends information to steal accounts?

InivtesPreeze2 votes

I mean, if I'm wrong it's an amazingly fun app and concept, but if I'm not; there's going to be a lot of butthurt kids pretty soon lol (and you won't be poor selling all of those accounts)

RiotRiot Xhanghai3 votes

Actually, we don't ask for any of your login information associated with your League of Legends account so there's absolutely no risk to anyone using the site. Only thing we need to access is your email to send you your rewards and your Summoner ID to track your progress. Everything else is securely hashed and stored somewhere we don't know by the wonderful folks at Firebase.

That being said, we understand that there is skepticism with this being too good to be true, but we're always more than happy to answer any of your questions or address any of your concerns!

InivtesPreeze2 votes

No, I realize you aren't specifically asking for any LoL related information, but the resulting information (because laymen don't know any better) will likely be the same or very similar.

I'm not accusing you of this, but it's just my first thought being a CS student with an interest in security.

edit for example:

layman's login to League: xX_Moron_Xx layman's password for their login above: 12345

layman's email address login: [email protected] layman's password for the email login: 12345

WhiteFang284 votes

Hey InvitesPreeze, as the lead backend web developer, this is a good point for me to step in. I can assure you that we never need to see or store your password. This is thanks to Firebase. Firebase abstracts away from us the need to deal with user authentication. When you create an account, your web browser sends a request to Firebase to create an account, and that password is encrypted and stored behind Google's safe architecture. The password does not touch our server in the process. When you need to log in, your browser again sends a request to Firebase to check that it is correct, and then redirected to the appropriate page. You can see this link for further details: https://www.firebase.com/docs/web/guide/login/password.html

We've worked really hard to get this site to the point it is now, with quests and deals for you guys. You can complete the quests yourselves, see the rewards are real, and know that our mission was not to create a malicious site but to bring gamers together through a shared food experience. We hope this will provide you the confidence that this site is used for genuine purposes.

InivtesPreeze2 votes

Okay, that's good to see.

AlsoJinxBot2 votes

Haven't used the App just yet, but I do wanna tell you guys that this is an amazing idea! I'll be recommending this to all my league friends. In the future, would there be any way to donate to you guys? I know this whole cause is about saving gamers some money, but i still do think you guys deserve some optional donation. on a side note, how much do you guys fork out for the website hosting along with anything additional to help further the development?

Arakadia2 votes

Broke, Resourceful, Brilliant college students built app that lets you save on food for playing League

Thats a better title!

Camp Top2 votes

I'll start this post by saying that I am not affiliated with grubquest other than signing up for an account. For anyone wondering about security information, this is completely safe as far as I can tell. The code method they used to verify you with a rune page is actually something I've seen before. The website elophant does this I believe, and they are a service with achievements and similar things but it's more for your account stats. Anyway, cool idea! I can't wait to complete a quest

RiotRiot Xhanghai1 votes

Thanks for the vote of confidence Jamiibo! We hope you enjoy your quest! Let us know what we can make better!

Camp Top2 votes

{quoted}

Thanks for the vote of confidence Jamiibo! We hope you enjoy your quest! Let us know what we can make better!

A trick I found for iPhone users is you can click the little button that brings up a share menu and you can click add to home screen and it will create a direct link to the website. It's a good solution to get there quick because it creates an icon on the iPhone :D

RiotRiot Xhanghai1 votes

Great to hear you found your own solution for iPhone users! Just a heads up, the site can look a little wonky in a mobile browser if you're using an iPhone 5! We tried our best to make it mobile responsive, but it should look good on the iPhone 6 and 6+ though! If you're not on the go we still recommend using Grubquest in a desktop setting!

DarkDeamonDragon2 votes

This is an awesome idea. Too bad there aren't any restaurants in my area on eatstreet.

RiotRiot Xhanghai1 votes

Glad to hear you're a fan of the idea! Sorry to hear that there aren't any restaurants in your area :(

Lycanoon1 votes

I like this idea and concept...however... The demands on the app are a bit extensive... Maybe tie up some lose threads and knot up some of the Needs Access to (Google's commons): ?

RiotRiot Xhanghai1 votes

Are you referring to the Android App consuming too much of your phone's resource (battery/data)? When we did initial testing it seemed fine, but this is the first app we've ever shipped, so we'll definitely keep working at it! Thanks for the feedback!

Lycanoon2 votes

The Data and Battery aren't really an issue for my phone, might be for some others. Maybe go a little lighter on the strings of data perhaps? I'm aware that shortening code is kinda difficult (believe me, I know...HTML5 is kinda painful...but moving on) but it might help some people with budget phones.

Which android OS did you guys test the app on? Most commonly used right now (apparently) seems to be Lollipop 5.1, and Marshmallow. But there are people out there who use phones like the Samsung Prime, Alceta, Older HTC's, etc.

Finding that Go-Between for everyone can be very difficult, but it might give your consumers some ease of mind knowing they're not going to struggle with using this app in particular.

While it's nice that your app requires no special permissions other that the basic google play identifiers, some people are finicky about their Identity and such...so I give you massive prop's there.

Other than my massive wall of text here rofl! Time to go slap around some Elitist's...

RiotRiot Xhanghai1 votes

We tested on 5.1 and 4.4 , but Android fragmentation is definitely something we've struggled with both from a development and design standpoint. We'll definitely work on continually trying to optimize our code, but the truth is we're all learning as we go - and we didn't really have any supervision or technical mentorship along the way!

Lycanoon2 votes

Ohhhh! Ok :) A Learn-as-you-Create project! Nice! Just a small tip from a Novice, watch for loop holes in your strings. When I took my Programming and various other IT classes, I learned a few things about various loop-holes...and how they can appear unintentionally.

Keeping it light on the graphics and the amount of items to load as well as shortining some strings will benefit you in the long run :-) Good Luck to you guys, and if you need some pokes, prods, and pointers, I suggest going the standard "How To for Idiots" guide and compare items with various other How To guides.

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