Wordlify

Inspiration

Word games have always been a fun way to challenge the mind, but we wanted to bring a social twist to the classic Wordle experience. Everyone's had the experience of dumping a daily Wordle in one or two or five group chats. We felt that it was possible to get more fun and interactivity out of this game. We were inspired by the excitement of multiplayer games and the joy of sharing moments with friends, which led us to create Wordlify, a word guessing game where friends can challenge each other’s vocabulary and have fun together.

What it is

Wordlify lets players create and join online rooms with friends, where they take turns selecting secret words to make into Wordle puzzles for the other players. There's a strategy aspect since scores earned for solving each puzzle are based on both speed and efficiency. Not only that, but you can see the 'colors' of other people's puzzles, opening up a new level of strategy and mind games to play on one another.

How we built it

We developed Wordlify using Next.js and Firebase. We used Next.js to build the front-end and used Firebase for real-time database management, microservices, and hosting. Everything was written in TypeScript, including the game logic. The multiplayer functionality is powered by Firebase's cloud functions, ensuring seamless room creation, live guessing feedback, and real-time previews of your friends' progress.

Challenges we ran into

Building a fluid multiplayer experience with real-time updates in just 36 hours was tricky, especially synchronizing game states between multiple players. It was also difficult to integrate the frontend and backend and develop each at the right pace so that they could be used to test each other.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of creating a polished, multiplayer Wordle experience that friends can enjoy together. Implementing real-time word selection and guessing in an intuitive and fun and visually appealing way was a major achievement, and seeing it come together as a full project is exciting.

What we learned

Throughout this project, we learned a lot about real-time game development, configuring CI/CD pipelines, Firebase functionality, and debugging under time pressure.