Inspiration
We wanted to build something which allows an unbounded number of people to work together and achieve a common goal.
What it does
PuzzleFront is a large grid of cards, concealing an exciting background image. Each card can be flipped to reveal a puzzle, and solving the puzzle will remove that card from the grid. The same puzzles and cards are shared between everyone who visits the website, so anyone can contribute to revealing the image. Puzzles are first come first served, so no need to worry about another player putting an answer in for a particular puzzle while you're hard at work trying to solve it. There are a variety of different puzzles to choose from, including some for two players! These two player puzzles will show different information to each player, and only by communicating and working together will they be able to solve the puzzle.
How we built it
This app is 100% JavaScript. The frontend is built with Angular, and the backend is a node http server running socket.io to allow for two-way communication between frontend and backend. This means that one player can solve a puzzle and all other players will immediately see the card disappear without needing to refresh.
Challenges we ran into
We wanted to have plenty of variety in the puzzles that were available, which meant we needed to make the app very dynamic, without a fixed format that individual puzzles needed to follow.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're especially proud of the more complex puzzle like 'cheese crossword' and 'paint pots'.
What we learned
Lots about websockets, lots about puzzles!
What's next for PuzzleFront
More puzzles, more puzzles, more puzzles! A greater number and variety of puzzles would make app more interesting for players. A larger grid size would mean that even if many players were contributing it would take longer to full solve the grid.
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