Two Players

A web platform for playing classic combinatorial games online, with support for multiple games, room system, and real-time chat.

Why I Built This

While exploring Wikipedia I randomly came across the combinatorial game theory page and found it really interesting. I picked up Lessons in Play based on the recommendations, and on the first chapter it told me to go play some games of Domineering with a friend first. However, I didn’t have dominoes nor a board to play on, looking online I didn’t see any place these classic combinatorial games… So I built one. This project became my way to explore both game theory and full-stack development, and now there is a platform where anyone can play these games with friends online ^^

Play here!: https://two-players.org

Features

• Multiple games: Tic-Tac-Toe, Domineering, Dots and Boxes, and more
• Real-time gameplay with WebSockets
• In-game chat to communicate with your opponent
• Rematch system for playing multiple rounds
• Modern and responsive interface with clean design

landing.webp tic-tac-toe_lobby.webp domineering.webp

two-players.org landing page

Game lobby for tic-tac-toe.

Playing Domineering on two-players.org

Tech Stack

• Backend: Go, PostgreSQL, WebSockets, sqlc, go-migrate
• Frontend: SvelteKit, TypeScript, TailwindCSS, Bun

What I Learned

• Real-time Architecture: Implemented WebSocket-based pub/sub system with goroutine per client pattern, handling concurrent connections with mutex guards and non-blocking channel queues
• Modular Game System: Designed extensible game architecture using factory pattern and interfaces, allowing seamless addition of new games
• Concurrent State Management: Built thread safe room system with lazy loading and automatic cleanup of stale connections
• Database Integration: Managed schema migrations with go-migrate and generated type-safe queries using sqlc
• Modern Frontend Development: Created reactive UI with SvelteKit components and TailwindCSS, implementing real-time state synchronization
• Production Deployment: Deployed fullstack application on VPS, managing Linux services and PostgreSQL database

Links

• Site
• GitHub Repository