Boardwalk

Inspiration

Boardwalk was inspired by a simple problem: a lot of people want to play board games, but they often do not have enough people around them to play with. Many students and young adults enjoy games like Catan, Codenames, Monopoly, or Ticket to Ride, but finding a group, organizing a session, and discovering nearby events can be difficult. We wanted to create a platform that makes board gaming more social, accessible, and fun. Instead of letting board games stay boxed up at home, Boardwalk helps people discover game nights, meet new players, join tournaments, and become part of a real board game community. Our goal was to make finding board game events feel less like searching through posts and messages and more like stepping into a lively world built for players.

What it does

Boardwalk is a social platform for board game lovers where users can discover, host, and join board game events happening around them. The platform allows users to: :-create an account and manage their profile :-set game preferences, favorite games, and travel preferences :-browse a catalog of board games :-host game sessions with details such as city, venue, date, and player limit :-join sessions created by other users explore an interactive Game Hub, where sessions are visualized in a game-like virtual world host and join tournaments for specific board games view tournament structures, players, and leaderboards report unsafe or inappropriate hosts for safer community interactions Boardwalk is designed not only as an event-finding tool, but also as a social experience that encourages real-world connections through tabletop gaming.

How I built it

We built Boardwalk as a full-stack web application using modern web technologies and AI-assisted development tools. :-Frontend :-Next.js 16 :-React 19 :-TypeScript :-Tailwind CSS The frontend was designed to be clean, interactive, and engaging. We created pages for games, sessions, tournaments, authentication, profiles, and an immersive hub view that makes discovering sessions more fun than a standard list layout. :-Backend and database :-Supabase :-PostgreSQL :-Supabase Auth :-Row Level Security (RLS) Supabase handled user authentication, database storage, and secure access control. We created tables for profiles, board games, user preferences, game sessions, session players, tournaments, tournament rounds, tournament matches, tournament players, player statistics, and host reports. :-AI tools used Cursor (free version) was used as an AI-powered coding assistant for faster development, editing, and code suggestions. ChatGPT Plus (paid version) was used for brainstorming, feature planning, debugging, UI/UX ideation, and documentation support. These tools helped us move faster as a team and improve both development speed and idea generation. :-APIs and services used Boardwalk uses a mix of external services and internal APIs: Supabase API for authentication, database queries, session management, and tournament data Google reCAPTCHA for bot protection during session hosting Google Fonts for typography and UI styling We also built internal API routes in Next.js, including: /api/host-session /api/random-game /api/tournaments /api/tournaments/[id]/start /api/seed-games /api/seed-sessions These APIs and services helped power the app’s core functionality while keeping the frontend and backend logic organized.

Challenges I ran into

One of the biggest challenges was designing a system that goes beyond a normal event listing website. We did not want Boardwalk to feel like a plain booking app, so we introduced the Hub, which required extra work in how sessions were structured, displayed, and interacted with. Another challenge was database design. Since the app includes users, sessions, tournaments, match rounds, leaderboards, and reports, we had to carefully plan relationships between tables to make sure the system stayed scalable and secure. Authentication and access control were also important. Since users can host sessions, join tournaments, and edit personal preferences, we had to make sure only the right users could modify the right data. Setting up secure policies in Supabase added complexity but was necessary. We also had to think about trust and safety. Community-based platforms need moderation features, so adding host reporting and protections such as reCAPTCHA helped make the platform safer.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are proud that Boardwalk is more than just an idea, it is a working platform with multiple integrated features. Some of our biggest accomplishments include: building a full-stack social web app from scratch creating a complete authentication and profile system allowing users to host and join real board game sessions designing tournament support with players, rounds, and match structures developing a unique interactive Game Hub experience implementing security features such as RLS and reCAPTCHA successfully using AI tools to improve productivity and accelerate development creating a project that feels fun, community-driven, and practical The Hub is especially something we are proud of because it makes the platform stand out from standard event apps and gives Boardwalk its own identity.

What I learned

Through building Boardwalk, we learned a lot about both technical development and product design. On the technical side, we learned: how to structure a full-stack application using Next.js and Supabase how to design relational databases for social and event-based systems how to use authentication and row-level security effectively how to build reusable frontend components in React how AI tools can support coding, planning, and debugging workflows On the product side, we learned: how important community and trust are in social platforms how user experience can make a simple feature feel much more engaging how to translate a real-world problem into a product that people can actually use Most importantly, we learned that good software is not only about functionality, but also about making people feel excited to use it.

What's next for CrunchyCoders

This project has strong potential to grow further, and we see several exciting next steps for Boardwalk. We would like to add: location-based recommendations for sessions nearby better matchmaking based on favorite games and preferences in-app chat between hosts and players ratings and reviews for hosts and events tournament bracket visualizations notifications and reminders for upcoming sessions richer avatars and customization in the Game Hub mobile responsiveness and app-store-ready deployment real-time updates for session availability and tournament progress In the future, Boardwalk could become a complete social ecosystem for tabletop gamers, a place where players not only find games, but also build friendships and communities.

Built With

• nextjs
• postgresql
• react
• rls
• supabase
• tailwind
• typescript