A two-player cooperative word-association game.
The goal: both players independently arrive at the same word without directly communicating.

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Table of Contents

• How to Play
• Screenshots
• Game Flow Example
• Architecture
• Key Code Snippets
• Installation

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How to Play

• Two players join a shared room.
• Both secretly type in random words.
• Their words are revealed to each other.
• Each player then tries to find a word that connects the two previous words.
• The cycle repeats until both players type the same word.
• If they converge on the same guess, they win!

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Game Flow Example

1. Player One starts with the random word: plastic
2. Player Two starts with another random word: container
3. The words are revealed.
   • Player One thinks of a connection and submits bag.
   • Player Two thinks of a connection and submits bin.
4. New words are revealed: bag and bin.
   • Player One guesses garbage.
   • Player Two also guesses garbage.
5. Both words match → Victory!

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Screenshots

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Architecture

The project uses:

• Express.js for HTTP routes and serving static files (public/ directory with EJS templates).
• WebSockets (ws) for real-time two-player communication:
  • Manages rooms, user joins/leaves, timeouts.
  • Provides a queue + matchmaking system (find game).
• Room codes: 5-character alphanumeric IDs allow friends to share a game directly.
• Timeout system: Cleans up inactive rooms to prevent memory bloat.

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Key Code Snippets

Express setup

const express = require('express');
const path = require('path');
const app = express();

app.use(express.static('public'));
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

const server = app.listen(5000, () => {
  console.log(`Listening on ${server.address().port}`);
});

WebSocket server and matchmaking

const WebSocket = require('ws');
const wss = new WebSocket.Server({ port:8082 });

const rooms = [];
var queue = [];

wss.on("connection", (ws) => {
  ws.on("message", (event) =>{
    const data = JSON.parse(event);
    switch (data.type) {
      case "find game":
        queue.push(ws);
        if (queue.length === 2){
          const roomCode = wss.generateRoomCode();
          const newRoom = { code: roomCode, users: [1,1], started: false, pubWords:[["",""]], privWords:[["",""]] };
          rooms.push(newRoom);
          queue.forEach(user => user.send(JSON.stringify({ type:"found game", code: roomCode })));
          queue = [];
        }
        break;
    }
  });
});

Word submission & victory check

case "word submit":
  // Save submitted word to player's slot
  // When both slots filled → compare words
  if (wordOne === wordTwo) {
    ws.send(JSON.stringify({ type: "game over", words: [wordOne, wordTwo] }));
  } else {
    ws.send(JSON.stringify({ type: "continue", words: [wordOne, wordTwo] }));
  }
  break;

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Installation

Clone the repo and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/yourname/321-game.git
cd 321-game
npm install

Run the server:

npm start

By default:

• HTTP server runs on localhost:5000
• WebSocket server runs on localhost:8082

Access via browser: http://localhost:5000