Rush

A multiplayer, fake-money casino battle royale. Players drop into a lobby with a virtual bankroll, play Stake-style mini-games against the house and each other for a fixed time, and whoever has the highest balance when the clock runs out wins.

No real money is ever involved. It's a game about competing for a high score, styled to look like an online casino.

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How it works

• Battle royale lobbies — Everyone starts with the same play-money balance ($1,000). A round lasts 3, 7, or 15 minutes. Highest balance at the buzzer wins.
• Two ways to play:
  • Find Match — public matchmaking. You're grouped with other humans (or filled out with CPUs) into a 4 / 8 / 16-player lobby that starts automatically.
  • Create Lobby — a private room. Share the code with friends, add CPUs with + Add CPU, and Kick / Ban as the host. Starts when you do.
• Bust & rebuy — Drop below $1 and you're "busted," but the Last Chance zone (Wheel / Mines / Flappy) gives you a shot to climb back in.
• CPUs — Bots with distinct personalities (cautious / balanced / chaotic) that bet, react with emojis, and shift the leaderboard in real time.

Game catalog

Single-action	Multi-step	Real-time	Last Chance
Dice, Limbo, Plinko, Keno, Roulette, Wheel, Slots, Baccarat, Diamonds	Mines, Dragon Tower, Hilo, Blackjack	Crash	Wheel, Mines, Flappy

• Auto-bet is available on the single-action games plus Mines (pre-select tiles), and Crash uses auto-cash-out as its equivalent.
• All outcomes are decided server-side with crypto.randomInt — the client only animates the result it's given.

Tech stack

• Next.js 15.5 (App Router) + React 19 + TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS v4 (CSS @theme, no JS config)
• Supabase (Postgres) for persistence; atomic balance changes via Postgres RPC functions
• Pusher Channels for real-time lobby events (private channel per lobby, reference-counted subscriptions)
• Custom JWT auth (jose) with guest and registered accounts; passwords hashed with bcryptjs
• Vitest (unit/integration) + Playwright (e2e)

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Getting started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18.18+ (Next.js 15 requirement)
• A Supabase project
• A Pusher Channels app

1. Install

npm install

2. Environment variables

Create .env.local in the project root:

# Supabase
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=https://<your-project>.supabase.co
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=<anon key>
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=<service role key>

# JWT — used to sign the rush_session cookie. Must be >= 32 chars.
JWT_SECRET=<random 32+ character string>

# Pusher Channels
PUSHER_APP_ID=<app id>
NEXT_PUBLIC_PUSHER_KEY=<key>
PUSHER_SECRET=<secret>
NEXT_PUBLIC_PUSHER_CLUSTER=<cluster, e.g. us2>

.env.local is gitignored — never commit it.

3. Apply database migrations

Run the SQL files in supabase/migrations/ against your Supabase project in order (the Supabase SQL editor works fine):

20260529_000_initial.sql          # core tables (lobbies, players, bets, ...)
20260529_001_balance_fns.sql      # deduct_balance / credit_balance RPCs
20260530_000_matchmaking_queue.sql
20260531_000_more_games.sql
20260531_001_table_games.sql
20260601_000_custom_lobbies.sql   # no size cap + lobby_bans

4. Run

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Local dev note: the gameplay loop (Crash rounds, bot activity, end-of-round, matchmaking) is normally advanced by Vercel cron jobs. Locally there's no cron, so the client polls the same endpoints every few seconds while a relevant page is open — so everything works without any extra setup.

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Scripts

Command	What it does
npm run dev	Start the dev server
npm run build	Production build
npm run start	Serve the production build
npm run lint	ESLint
npm run test	Run Vitest once
npm run test:watch	Vitest in watch mode
npm run test:e2e	Playwright e2e tests

Project structure

src/
  app/
    api/            # route handlers — auth, lobbies, games, cron
    lobby/[id]/     # the in-game lobby page
    play/           # the hub (find match / create / join)
    ...
  components/       # game UIs (CrashGame, PlinkoGame, ...) + shared UI
  lib/
    auth/           # JWT + session cookie helpers
    games/          # pure game math + payout tables (server-authoritative)
    lobby/          # codes, nicknames, host/ban helpers
    realtime/       # Pusher client/server + typed events
    db/             # Supabase client
supabase/migrations/  # SQL schema, applied in filename order

Architecture highlights

• Server-authoritative RNG. Every game's outcome is computed in an API route with crypto.randomInt. The UI receives the result and plays an animation toward it — it can't influence or predict the roll.
• Atomic balances. Deducting a bet and crediting a payout go through Postgres RPC functions so concurrent bets can't corrupt a balance.
• Real-time via Pusher. Each lobby has a private channel. Balance updates, joins/leaves, reactions, and Crash round events are broadcast to everyone. Subscriptions are reference-counted so switching game tabs doesn't tear down the shared feed.
• Cron + client-poller hybrid. vercel.json schedules end-rounds, crash-tick, and matchmake every minute in production. The same endpoints are pinged client-side while pages are open, so the game is playable even where cron isn't running (local dev, or hosts without per-minute cron).

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Deployment (Vercel)

1. Push to GitHub and import the repo at vercel.com/new. Next.js is auto-detected and vercel.json registers the cron jobs.
2. Add the 8 environment variables above in Project Settings → Environment Variables.
3. Deploy.

On Vercel's free Hobby plan, the every-minute crons are throttled to roughly once per day. Live gameplay still works via the client pollers; the crons are only a background backstop for cleaning up abandoned lobbies. True per-minute cron is a Pro-plan feature.

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Disclaimer

Rush is a game that simulates a casino for entertainment and competition. There is no real currency, no deposits, no withdrawals, and nothing of monetary value can be won or lost.