On the night of October 4 to 5, while everyone else in the world was fast asleep, HackYeah 2025 was engaged in a real race against the clock. Until the very last seconds of the 24-hour challenge, hackathon participants consulted, modified, and improved their projects. And we were there at the finale of the whole event to admire the fruits of their sleepless night.
Hacking AI, Pitching Projects, and the Winners’ Grand Reveal
3…2…1… The clock at Tauron Arena struck 12 p.m., which meant that this year’s coding marathon had officially come to an end. The jury did not wait a moment to begin the first phase of evaluating the projects – after all, there were over 400 submitted entries, and more than 2,000 people were waiting on site for the verdict. We were also eagerly awaiting further developments, listening to the final keynote speech in the meantime. This time, the floor was taken by Mateusz Chrobok, a cybersecurity & AI expert who gave us some interesting tips on how to hack AI to get answers despite the model’s opposition.
After a few hours, we received a list of finalists. However, that was not the end for the selected teams – each of them now had to present their project during pitching sessions. Unfortunately, these were closed events, so we didn’t know who had the best chance of winning until the very end.
And finally, the moment arrived: the winners announcement. We had the opportunity to see the best teams up close and even talk briefly with the winners in the gamedev category – Hexateam. It turns out that this is their second win at HackYeah – a year ago, they also took first place for creating a game about lemurs caring for the environment.
A Success Story
During this year’s hackathon, the theme in the gamedev category was horror. Angelika, Mateusz, Mirosław, Marek, Piotr and Igor decided to create a cooperative horror game called “Exorcist Hotline.” According to the rules of their game, one player receives a document containing clues about the monster and how to defeat it, while the other plays the role of a character trapped in a haunted hotel. Only by working together can they survive and defeat their opponent.
When I asked the team if they planned to turn this project into a full-fledged game, they replied that after receiving such positive feedback, they would not rule out the possibility. Who knows, maybe in the future we will be able to try out the “Exorcist Hotline” ourselves.
And with that, we concluded our adventure with HackYeah 2025. It was 24 hours filled with interesting conferences, fun competitions, and new acquaintances. And although I didn’t understand everything that was discussed, it was a great opportunity for me to immerse myself in the world of technologies that will shape our future. This event also inspired me to attend more such initiatives and share the knowledge I gained from them on our website.
What else is there to say? Perhaps only that we consider the 11th edition of HackYeah a success. And also that now is a good time to catch up on some sleep.
