What Now?

Inspiration

Inspired by What Next? Boardgame, Reigns, and Jackbox.

Description

Players join a lobby on their phones like Jackbox, and then play through a "choose your own adventure", voting together on options by swiping, and playing mini games that affect how it progresses.

Tech Components

Development

git clone git@github.com:maael/what-now.git
cd what-now
yarn prep
yarn dev

This will start the backend at http://localhost:8081, and the frontend at http://localhost:3000.

Client

Next.js client with Tailwind for styling, deployed to Vercel.

Server

Socket.io server deployed to Heroku.

Game State/Screens

                    ┌────┐
                 ┌──┤Join├──┐
                 │  └────┘  │
                 │          │
 ┌┬─────┬┐   ┌───▼──────────┴───┐
 ││Start│┼───►Waiting for Player│
 └┴─────┴┘   └────────┬─────────┘
                      │
                ┌─────▼────┐
                │Start Game│
                └─────┬────┘
                      │
             ┌────────▼─────────┐
┌─────┬──────►Assign Lead Player│
│     │      └────────┬─────────┘
│     │               │
│     │        ┌──────▼──────┐
│     │        │Vote Decision│
│     │        └──────┬──────┘
│     │               │
│ ┌───┴────┐    ┌─────▼──────┐     ┌───────────────┐
│ │Get Item◄────┤Resolve Vote├─────►Start Mini Game│
│ └────────┘    └─────┬──────┘     └──────┬────────┘
│                     │                   │
│                     │             ┌─────▼──────┐
│                     │             │Resolve Game│
│                     │             └─────┬──────┘
│            ┌────────▼─────────┐         │
└────────────┤Draw Next Decision◄─────────┘
             └──────────────────┘

Tech Questions

• How much game state to have in client?
• How to handle game state in server? Worth using a state machine?
• How to handle reconnects?
• How to handle others viewing the active mini game?
  • Stream screen or replay events.

Mini games

• Sliding tile picture
• Free the tile sliding game
• Reaction time target tap game
• Memory see and repeat game
• Slide and land in zone game
• Slide and land in moving zone game
• Tap amount in X time
• Flip coin
• Memory matching card game
• Item hunt in picture
• Path through maze game
• Spin tiles to connect pipe game
• Use shapes to make a shape outline
• Phone tilting/gyro marble maze game