Inspiration
With a plethora of social, communication, and video platforms, people can connect with anyone anywhere, anytime. Although, if you are trying to build a connection with someone you’ve just met, doing so virtually is significantly harder than in person. Why? Well, it’s hard to read body language through a screen, there’s lack of non-verbal communication. Overall, it is hard to make conversation when I wanted to create a platform suitable for groups of people who don’t know each other and wants to connect. It’s called Icebreak games.
What it does
Icebreak Games aims to help people build connections amongst each other in a virtual environment. It’s very easy to use with no login required. Simply create a room or join an existing one and all you need is the room code. After that, you and the other players can run through the various games offered by IceBreak Games such as “Two truths One lie”, “Would you rather”, “Where are you joining from”, “Rank movies”.
How we built it
The main programming language used in this project is Javascript and we used Node.js. The user interface is built with Vue.js, a front-end javascript framework, as well as HTML and CSS. The backend is built with the help of Express.js. We used Socket.IO for communication between the server and the client in real time.
Challenges we ran into
- Being conflicted whether to use the time to work on project or attend the workshop
- Keeping track of the state of the game. I discovered Vuex, a state management pattern + library for Vue.js applications, that allowed me to do that. It took some time figuring out how to incorporate it into the project and notify the server of game state changes.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Creating a simple yet cute user interface
- Implement a working prototype in such a limited amount of time.
What we learned
It was my first time using Socket.IO and I got to learn the basics of how the client interacts with the server and vice versa through websockets. Also got to improve on my front-end work.
What's next for IceBreak Games
Plenty room for improvements
- Implement of the rest of the games: Would you rather, Where are you joining from, Rate movie
- Choose preset avatar
- Keep track of score and have a ranking system in the end.
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