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Wolfmans55

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Show HN: A Wheel of Fortune game you can run in the browser

spinorama.io
2 points·by Wolfmans55·2 months ago·0 comments

Show HN: I built a Jeopardy game maker with buzzer support

buzzinga.io
284 points·by Wolfmans55·2 years ago·69 comments

comments

Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Wow, thanks for the heads up! Was not expecting this...
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Oh, I see. No, not yet.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Yes. If a team buzzes in and the host marks their response as incorrect, they can’t buzz in again.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Yes, you just hit “Create new board” on the play.buzzinga.io page which will prompt you to sign up or log in.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Nope. Everyone should be able to see the clue, but not the answer or correct response to the clue.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
There’s only two public boards: “Animals”, which I clobbered together awhile ago just as a demo for folks to test Buzzinga with.

I later added the “Millennials” game, which I created myself and played with friends on a game night.

Neither have clues from the Jeopardy! show itself AFAIK.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Excellent!
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
I’d like to make an offline mode so you can connect physical buttons/buzzers and not have to worry about connectivity/latency, etc.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
This is a great idea.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
When I was thinking of a name I thought, well, what do you do when you’re playing? Buzz in. So I just thought “Buzzinga.” That’s the origin story.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
So overall, the site including the buzzer page uses websockets for (close to) real-time client-server communication.

Obviously latency can be an issue, so my non-perfect B+ solution is to essentially calculate the round trip of the buzz, divide it by 2, and subtract it from the server time.

client ------------ pingTime ------------> server

client <----------- serverTime ----------- server

roundTrip = pingTime + pongTime

buzzTime = serverTime - (roundTrip / 2);

The server time is always the source of truth since client times can vary. Not using NTP which could possibly be more accurate.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
You'll only see it if you're logged in. I'll fix the menu button!
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Thank you!
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Yeah, the wording is a good point. I'll think about the color scheme.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
It's possible, but there are other jeopardy game maker sites out there that charge money and have existed for 5-10+ years that do similar things but with "Jeopardy" actually in their name (e.g. jeopardylabs)

Worst case, they do, and then I know I made a good product.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
In the menu you'll see there is a "Show answer" button. The host can log in on a different tab or device to see the answer to the currently flipped clue.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Ha, never heard of this event. Watching the one from DEFCON 31 now. Did you play in that one?
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
No plans at the moment, but I’m not fully against the idea.
Wolfmans55
·2 years ago·discuss
Yeah, I made a category for a game night with friends called “Who wrote this Facebook status in ‘09?”, which was very popular.

Repurposing the logic for different game shows is definitely interesting. Although I’ve matured Buzzinga in the last seven months, there’s definitely still room to improve, but eventually I can see this transition!