Veiled Dominion: Sovereign Infrastructure

A live 2-player chess variant with fog-of-war mechanics, built engine-first — no Unity, no Unreal, just Node/Web deployed on Cloud Run.

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## What it does

Veiled Dominion (engine name: *Duet*) is a real-time, server-authoritative 2-player chess variant played over the web. The game introduces three original mechanics layered onto a standard board:

- **Radius of Ruin** — an OP piece called Rebirth has a permanent 1-square aura. Any piece ending its turn in that radius is "Veiled" — losing special abilities and moving only as a Pawn for one turn.
- **The Sanctuary** — the Death piece stabilizes the board; any allied piece within 1 square of Death is immune to Rebirth's Radius of Ruin.
- **Martyr's Boon / Soul Reservoir** — sacrificing an allied piece grants a Boon Token to temporarily suppress the aura; every three friendly pieces in the Graveyard unlocks the Rebirth Dash (movement through pieces as ghosts).

The game runs live: two real players, real-time socket communication, no AI opponent, no asynchronous turns.

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## How we built it

Stack: Node/Express, Socket.io, plain HTML/JS/CSS — no game engine. Deployed on Google Cloud Run. The architecture is deliberately engine-agnostic to preserve the option of console distribution (Xbox's WebView/UWP path is the most viable near-term target) and to allow PWA packaging for Steam Deck and mobile without platform certification gatekeeping.

AT Protocol integration is live at Phase 1: match events are posted to a dedicated "the-rift" bot account on Bluesky via `atprotoPoster.js` using app-password auth. Phase 2 (OAuth + DPoP write-back to `actor.rpg.stats`) is the planned next step, which will supply stats-driven character progression for a future second product built on this engine's lore and brand.

The lore world is registered at `veileddominion.loptrlab.com` on lore.farm as a community canon layer — separate from the stats/gameplay layer.

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## Challenges we ran into

- Keeping the server-authoritative model clean while supporting multiple input methods (mouse, keyboard, speech input via "Speak Move," and a planned gamepad layer using the browser Gamepad API) funneling through the same `#cmd` confirmation bar.
- Designing the Radius of Ruin mechanic to be non-trivial without making it feel arbitrary — the Sanctuary and Boon Token exist specifically to give players tools to work around it rather than be helpless to it.
- AT Protocol Phase 2 write-back requires OAuth with PKCE + DPoP (no server-side secret), and the merge-put into a shared `actor.rpg.stats` record carries data-corruption risk across unrelated game systems using the same lexicon — requiring a disposable test account before anything touches live data.

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## Accomplishments that we're proud of

- A fully functional live 2-player engine with no game engine dependency — shipped and playable.
- An accessibility-first input design: speech, keyboard, click, and a forthcoming gamepad path all feed the same command bar.
- An AT Protocol integration architecture that treats gameplay stats as sovereign, portable player data rather than siloed platform data.
- A design evolution traceable from a pure-chess concept (April 2026) through a dice/card hybrid prototype, back down to a clean 4-player chess variant — with every pivot documented and preserved.

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## What we learned

Engine independence is a design constraint as much as a technical one. Every architectural decision — from Cloud Run deployment to plain HTML/JS rendering to the AT Protocol integration — was made to keep the system distributable without depending on a third party's certification, gatekeeping, or business survival. That constraint shaped the product more than any single mechanic did.

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## What's next for Veiled Dominion

1. Gamepad accessibility (browser Gamepad API, UI-layer only — top current priority)
2. AT Protocol Phase 2: OAuth + DPoP stats write-back to `actor.rpg.stats`
3. 4-player board expansion (teams or chaos mode)
4. Stats-driven playable characters as a second product (PWA/Canvas/WebGL, engine-independent, no console certification required)
5. Xbox distribution via UWP/WebView wrapper

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Updates

posted an update —

Veiled Dominion: Sovereign Infrastructure — Project Update

September 14, 2026 · Loptr Lab

We didn't submit to the Build with Gemini XPRIZE hackathon.

That's worth explaining directly, because the project is very much alive — the decision wasn't about the work not being ready. It was about realizing partway through that the competition's frame didn't fit what we're building.

The Build with Gemini XPRIZE turned out to be a real-business venture competition: P&L disclosure, demonstrable revenue, customer acquisition spend. That's a legitimate bar for a venture-backed product. It's not the right bar for Loptr Lab. Our funding model is sustaining open source — GitHub Sponsors, Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee — not revenue-in-90-days. Forcing the submission into that frame would have meant misrepresenting what the project is. We decided not to do that.

What we took from it instead: the discipline of getting the game in front of real users and gathering feedback. That practice stayed. The deadline pressure didn't.

Where the engine actually is right now

Duet — the live 2-player engine — is deployed and playable at duet.loptrlab.com. Here's what's real and what isn't:

Shipped and working:

  • Real-time 2-player remote play, server-authoritative, Socket.io + Firestore persistence
  • AI opponent with alpha-beta minimax and a custom board evaluator (veil penalties, center control, Rebirth/Death positioning)
  • Fog Mode (elevation, vision radius, HP-based combat) — optional toggle, live
  • Speech input ("Speak Move") — browser-native Web Speech API, confirm-before-commit
  • AT Protocol Phase 1: match events post publicly to @the-rift on Bluesky when a real remote game ends
  • Custom domain live at duet.loptrlab.com

In progress / not yet built:

  • Gamepad/controller support — top current priority, framed as accessibility-first
  • AT Protocol Phase 2: OAuth + DPoP write-back to actor.rpg.stats for persistent player stats
  • The 4-player engine — a future chapter in the design, not a current build
  • Stats-driven playable characters — a second product concept that depends on Phase 2 landing first

The 4-player version and the playable-character expansion are real parts of the roadmap. They're just not the current build. Duet is.

We're moving at a healthier pace now — responsive to playtesters, not to a pitch deck. If you've played it, feedback is genuinely useful. If you haven't, duet.loptrlab.com is the door.

— Dominique / Loptr Lab

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