https://github.com/jcparkyn/scrobburl

A multiplayer word game, where all state is stored in the URL (no backend needed!)
https://github.com/jcparkyn/scrobburl

elm game scrabble

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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A multiplayer word game, where all state is stored in the URL (no backend needed!)

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/jcparkyn/scrobburl
• Owner: Jcparkyn
• Created: 2023-04-28T12:37:17.000Z (over 1 year ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2024-07-13T11:51:42.000Z (5 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-07-14T08:55:29.449Z (5 months ago)
• Topics: elm, game, scrabble
• Language: Elm
• Homepage: https://scrobburl.com
• Size: 2.23 MB
• Stars: 6
• Watchers: 3
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
# Scrobburl

A multiplayer word game where all state is stored in the URL (no backend needed!).

Just send a link to your opponent after each turn.

## Why store state in the URL?

Aside from doing it for the sake of curiosity, there are some practical benefits to doing this versus having a dedicated server:

- It's easier to host - the entire game is just some static files, so it can be hosted easily on a static hosting platform (I'm using GitHub Pages) without needing to run any code on the backend or use a database.

- Users don't need to log in or create accounts.

- It's decentralized - use whatever mechanism you want to send links to your opponents (email, SMS, etc).

## How do you prevent cheating?

Right now, the implementation doesn't do a whole lot to prevent cheating in the form of RNG prediction/manipulation.

However, it's not possible for a player to cheat by modifying the score counters or playing illegal moves. This is because the game state is actually stored as a _list of all turns so far_, so the opponent can easily re-compute the final state and verify that all moves were valid.

My original idea for this project was to take it a step further, and use cryptographic techniques to ensure that players can't view their opponents tiles or predict what tiles they'll get next.

I haven't gotten around to actually implementing this yet though 😃.

## Development

To run the app for development, open the dev container with VSCode, then press `ctrl+shift+P` and search for "Run build task". This will start the app on port 8000. The build task is defined in `./vscode/tasks.json`.

Notes:

- To make the dev server accessible from another device on the same network, change the [Local Port Host](https://stackoverflow.com/a/67997839) setting in VSCode to `allinterfaces`.

- If you're using Windows, make sure to clone the repo into your WSL file system, otherwise the elm-live file watcher won't work. Alternatively, you can probably do everything in Windows directly, but I haven't tested that.