BrainBuddyNet — gamified social learning

The problem

Connecting learners and mentors for live mentoring sessions, with gamified progress — rankings, achievements, levels — to sustain the habit beyond the first session.

The approach

Instead of implementing pure WebRTC end to end, with the complexity of setting up its own STUN/TURN, Socket.io is used only for signaling and Agora as the real video and audio transport — a pragmatic combination that avoids reinventing the hardest part of real-time video calls.

An AI module, via OpenRouter, helps improve and split learning "topics", applied specifically to the product's domain rather than being a generic chat bolted on top.

Result

Mentors and learners connect in real time without the team having to solve the most expensive part of WebRTC from scratch.