How I Built Three Small Party Games for a Spring Dinner

Description and use

Three lightweight Node.js party games—memory, rock‑paper‑scissors, and lottery—were built for a dinner event and published for reuse. They run locally with minimal setup and no database.

Problem

Create simple, event‑friendly games that can run on a laptop and projector without complex infrastructure.

Outcome

Three fully functional, event‑ready games that can be deployed on a laptop and projector with minimal setup.

Workflow

• 1. Design game concepts (memory, rock‑paper‑scissors, lottery).
• 2. Implement each as a small Node.js app with Express and plain JS.
• 3. For multiplayer game, use Socket.IO to share authoritative state.
• 4. For rock‑paper‑scissors, pre‑select winner before animation to avoid visual mismatch.
• 5. For lottery, use array removal to guarantee no repeats.
• 6. Add simple UI controls (Space to start, duration, quality).
• 7. Publish each repo with README and start scripts.
• 8. Run locally: npm install, npm start, open host and player URLs on devices.
• 9. Test on projector and phones, adjust settings via localStorage.

Evidence

All three are intentionally small Node.js applications. They serve static files with Express, keep the browser UI in plain HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and avoid a database.

Source

The multiplayer game treats the server as the referee… the server compares it with the server‑owned sequence.

Source

The lottery display has a slightly different invariant: a number that has already been drawn must not be available again.

Source