Multiplayer, interactive, realtime typing speed game
SwiftCODE is a multiplayer, interactive, realtime typing speed game
for coders.
The app is built around 2 main pages.
After logging in, or choosing to be anonymous, the user is redirected to the
lobby, where the currently active games are shown. From here, they can choose
to join a game or create their own (either single-player or multiplayer) from
a set of preconfigured programming languages.
Once the user has created or joined a game, they are redirected to the game
screen where the code snippet loads. There they wait until another user joins
their game, after which the countdown begins. Each game can have a maximum of
4 players. Once the game starts, players must type the provided code as fast
as possible. Throughout this, the players’ current positions are shown to
each other in real-time, and at the end some statistics are shown.
As programmers, we rely on many tools while coding. A keyboard is usually the
most basic and most important of all such tools. Of course, there are far more
important skills that a developer must have than typing speed. That being said,
however, it’s still great fun to hear the keys clicking away as you furiously
write out some code. In fact, it’s so fun, why not make it into a game? And a
multiplayer one at that!
In the past, I’ve enjoyed typing games, but there is a large difference between
typing natural language, and typing code (even the choice of programming
language can make a significant difference!). I had found
Typing.io a while back, which is great fun - but
unfortunately doesn’t support any kind of multiplayer.
The goal of this project was to fill that gap - to create a multiplayer,
interactive, typing game for developers! I envisioned multiple players
simultaneously receiving a piece of code, getting ready, and then racing each
other to type out the code, all while streaming the progress of each player to
his opponents, and animating their progress via multiple cursors on the
player’s screen.
Grab the source code and the dependencies.
git clone https://github.com/voithos/swiftcode.git
cd swiftcode
npm install
Create a database in MongoDB for SwiftCODE, and create a MongoDB user
account that SwiftCODE will use to connect.
mongo
> use swiftcode
> db.addUser({ user: 'swiftcodeuser', pwd: 'password', roles: ['readWrite'] })
Copy the sample settings.js.example.js file to settings.js, and fill out
the settings as desired (specifically, you must provide the database settings
to your MongoDB).
cd src
cp settings.js.example.js settings.js
vim settings.js
SwiftCODE does not come with code exercises preloaded, but does have a simple
admin interface which allows for the definition of new languages, projects, and
exercises. An admin user is required to access the interface, which can be
created through grunt (note, this requires the database settings to be in
place).
grunt add-admin
The following prompt is for a username and a password (must be >= 8 characters).
Once an admin user has been added, the admin interface can be accessed after
logging in, using the link in the drop-down in the top-right corner of the
page.
At this point, SwiftCODE should be fully set up, and runnable.
./runserver.js
Success!
Without open source technologies and libraries, this project would not be
possible. A great thanks goes to all of their creators. Listed in no particular
order: