Building Mycelium Market in 24 Hours

reacthackathonsimulation3d

Another weekend in Gower, this time for , which meant 24 hours of straight coding and a lot of very fast decision making.

The theme was . So we thought what two strange things could be connected? - Weather and trading!

So we built , a that ended up being much stranger, and much more fun, than a normal market sim had any right to be.

The team was me, , and .

My part of the project was mainly , , and .

The fun part was that the market was driven by . Players could also . It turned the map into something you had to read, not just look at.

We also added . It was whimsical in exactly the way a hackathon project should be.

The project is .

It was a short build, a weird build, and won no awards ,but I'm really happy with how much personality we managed to squeeze into one day.

The event was fully set up by fellow Southampton . Big thanks to them for setting up the event and making it run smoothly!

Another weekend in Gower, this time for Sotonhack - the University of Southampton's biggest hackathon yet, which meant 24 hours of straight coding and a lot of very fast decision making. The theme was Unconventional Connections, where the goal was to connect two strange things that shouldn't really be connected in an interesting way. So we thought what two strange things could be connected? - Weather and trading! So we built Mycelium Market - a global trading and arbitrage simulation spread across a 3D Earth rather than a flat little spreadsheet, a React project with just enough structure to hold together under hackathon pressure that ended up being much stranger, and much more fun, than a normal market sim had any right to be. The team was me, Indigo Nolan, and Indigo Wolf-Garraway, which made for a very solid three-person sprint. My part of the project was mainly setup - ensuring we had an early prototype up and running as soon as possible so the team can iterate immediately, the 3D globe that gave the markets an actual sense of place, and the flight system that let players move between cities while still leaving room for the world to interfere. The fun part was that the market was driven by environmental signals rather than standard finance rules, so simulated storms and ecological conditions pushed prices around, changed movement, and generally made the world feel alive. Players could also fly between cities, but those routes were not guaranteed to stay friendly. Storms could disrupt movement, which made travel part of the strategy instead of just a fancy transition. It turned the map into something you had to read, not just look at. We also added a voice oracle using ElevenLabs, which reacted to the game state with live commentary and gave the whole simulation a slightly theatrical, slightly unhinged narrator. It was whimsical in exactly the way a hackathon project should be. The project is live on my VPS, so you can still spin the globe, poke at the systems, and hear the oracle comment on whatever state you manage to create. It was a short build, a weird build, and won no awards this time ,but I'm really happy with how much personality we managed to squeeze into one day. The event was fully set up by fellow Southampton Students, Rono, Alan, Indo, and Nik. Big thanks to them for setting up the event and making it run smoothly!