viciousfish/buzzwords

A browser based word strategy game featuring frictionless link-based multiplayer. Try it today!

Buzzwords.gg

"Scrabble meets Go" - a hexagonal word game about strategically taking territory

gameplay demo

Follow our twitter for updates

https://twitter.com/BuzzwordsGG

Running the code for development

0. drop a .env file in ./server with API_PREFIX=/api
1. run yarn in this folder
2. run yarn dev in this folder
3. go to http://localhost:5173/ in your browser

By default, the server stores all its data in memory only. To use mongo, drop a .env file in ./server with

DB_TYPE=mongo
MONGO_URL=<your connection string>

Because we're using transactions, your mongo must be a replica set. We're using Atlas for this reason.

Running the code in production

For now, production is dockerized with docker compose. docker-compose build or docker-compose pull, then docker-compose up. You'll need a .env file in the root folder with

MONGO_URL=<your connection string>
COOKIE_DOMAIN=<the domain you're hosting the API on>
MONGO_DB_NAME=<the name of your db, should match what's after the slash in your connection string>

buzzwords's Issues

Popup window size on mobile

The pop-up window for capturing a flower and ending a game is mis sized on mobile

Allow user to interrupt replays

Users want to stop (maybe pause?) replays

Current selection randomly clears itself

There are random instances when the text clears as I'm entering a word. Fix it <3

Submit move when user hits enter key

refresh on page focus and socket reconnect

Game state modals off center on mobile

Handle no vowel game state

The game can reach a state where a player cannot make any words.

Currently, nothing happens and the game must be abandoned.

Potential solutions:

• Ensure at least one vowel is on the board at all times
• When this state is reached, the player with the most tiles wins
• When this state is reached, all tiles reset
• The game is a draw

Loving the game!

pass/skip turn

Allow user to "pass" if they can't find any words. Maybe also reroll parts of the board if they do?

move from cookies to localstorage for auth token storage

• some people's cookies are disappearing (james's friend alex)
• sometimes cookies don't get sent along with the socket connection
• dealing with cross domain cookies on the mobile app is pain

bot moves sometimes don't sync

Some users have to refresh after every move to see their move or the bot move in bot games specifically. Originally reported by a user using Brave, who said it worked when they switched to chrome.

Spectate mode

Allow spectating on games you're not a part of

Implementation thoughts

• Add a "spectators" array to the game model
• POST /game/:id/join should add first caller as opponent, all subsequent callers as spectators
• on game update events, emit socket msg to all spectators

Replay system auto-replays your own move when you capture the AI's flower

Hamburger menu overlaps player names

Shrink selection word if it's too long to fit

This might involve moving the selection (and the clear/submit buttons?) into 3D.

turn notification is too loud

Share button sometimes links to homepage

chat feature

allow dragging the gameboard area to open/close the sidebar on mobile

Turn timer/chess timer

All active games gone

Was playing a game for the past number of days (not sure if URL is of use, but at https://buzzwords.gg/play/fZnn0-tzkFLttga0ysOVB), and now it 404s.

Simultaneously, all my active games in my sidebar are gone and I have "No games".

Offline mode

• PWA for true offline functionality
• game playable without API (service worker or pure thunk reimplementation?)

automatically initiate replay when user focuses game with unseen turn

Allow users to delete empty games

new endpoint to clean up games that never got an opponent

• should only allow deletion of games that only have one user

user must refresh page after opponent joins to see game board

Improve bot game difficulty selector

• look into using a dropdown library?
• add loading state
• add ability to start level 6 game

Backend crashes if AI opponent wins

• normal move
• /nudge move

Play a sound when it's your turn

auto-replay skips when game state modal (extra turn or defeat/victory) is shown on AI move receive

If the AI captures your flower, it prompts the extra turn modal, and for some reason that skips the replay

dictionary lookup for words

automatically initiate replay (configurable) when bot makes move

on a sufficiently slow connection, replay system may replay your moves

On a sufficiently slow connection, if you make a move (winning move vs AI in this case), then tab away, the move update event comes while the tab is unfocused and we'll count that as an unseen move, and play it back for you when you tab back

Throw out refresh result if we know it's stale

Refresh on focus takes so long it actually rolls back the game state under some scenarios. Check moves list length vs stored on a per-game basis

automatically initiate replay when user clicks a game with an unseen turn

Disable socketio mongo adapter

We might be being throttled by atlas, and the socket adapter collection is by far our largest collection

Rematch button

Button in UI that creates a new game with the same users and navigates user to it

Accessibility

• keyboard navigation
• screen reader support (?????)
• colorblind mode

Honestly no idea how to pull off the first two (especially the second)
maybe https://github.com/pmndrs/react-three-a11y can help

Socket doesn't always send authToken cookie

For whatever reason, socket.io doesn't always send the cookies header when it connects. Build a system where we manually send the authToken cookie over a socket message to authenticate the connection

allow users to change nicknames/usernames

endpoint already exists for it

Dictionary lookup is unreliable

• often missing words
• sometimes simply fails to load for me

solution: switch to webster's API. Requires routing calls through our backend.

Allow users to hide games, relegate to "hidden" collapsible section in gamelist

I’d like to request a way to resign a game or otherwise remove it from the sidebar. Sometimes I create an extra game by accident or someone will not play back for whatever reason
https://twitter.com/gestaltbb/status/1480070939417231360

• store list of hidden games on user model
• new endpoints to hide/unhide games
• button in sidebar
• goes hand in hand with #6: if game is empty show delete button, if game is full show hide button

Game state modals appear after all unseen turns have replayed instead of after the replay of the turn that triggered them

Add text to tutorial modal for mobile users who don't see sidebars

Users in discord report skipping tutorial video because who wouldn't?

Bot plays profanity

SPIC is a slur for hispanic people, which is not in our banned words list but in general we should be cross-referencing the banned words list for bot plays

During user's turn, grey out opponent tiles that will be captured

based on current selection

Put icon on menu button when it's your turn on another game

Bot uses same letter twice

replace "reconnected to game service" toast with less intrusive indicator

Dismissable text tutorial in sidebar

Suggested by LTT discord person

Game state modal dismiss button must be clicked twice if shown while window is in focus

User accounts

Hey http://Buzzwords.gg i'm lovign the game same with my mom. Is there any way to add authentication, like users and accounts. Or other cookie sharing. I want to be able to play both on ipad and kindle. God bless

https://twitter.com/gestaltbb/status/1480018946191507457