A real-time multiplayer word puzzle game for remote teams, online meetings, and friend groups.
A host creates a room, shares a six-character code or invite link, and starts a five-hive game. Up to 10 players build words from seven letters while scores and room state update live. No account is required.
- Up to 10 players per room
- Five 2-minute hives per game (10 minutes total)
- Live player list, word counts, scores, and cumulative leaderboard
- Shareable room codes and invite links
- Between-hive standings and possible-word reveal
- Pangram detection and bonus scoring
- 15 bundled puzzle sets
- Host controls for starting rounds, ending early, and playing again
- Responsive interface for desktop and mobile browsers
- Supabase persistence and Realtime synchronization for multi-device play
- In-memory fallback for a zero-configuration, single-browser demo
Manual testing has covered a full 10-player room, the current room limit. This was a functional multiplayer test, not a throughput or scale benchmark.
Each game contains five hives. Every hive lasts two minutes and uses a randomly selected seven-letter puzzle; the same puzzle is not used in consecutive hives. Scores carry across all five hives, while each player's found-word list resets when the next hive begins.
A valid word must:
- contain at least four letters;
- include the highlighted center letter;
- use only the seven available letters (letters may be reused);
- appear in the puzzle's bundled valid-word list; and
- not have been submitted already by that player during the current hive.
| Word | Score |
|---|---|
| 4 letters | 1 point |
| 5 or more letters | 1 point per letter |
| Pangram using all 7 letters | Base score + 7 points |
A seven-letter pangram, for example, earns 14 points.
- Application: Next.js 16 Pages Router and React 19
- Styling: Tailwind CSS 3
- Data: Supabase Postgres
- Live sync: Supabase Realtime / Postgres Changes
- Local fallback: In-browser memory
- Player identity: Browser
localStorage - Deployment: Vercel
When both NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL and NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY are present, rooms and players are stored in Supabase. The client subscribes to changes on the rooms and players tables, allowing separate browsers and devices to receive room, round, and score updates.
Use this mode for the actual multiplayer experience.
When either Supabase variable is missing, the app uses in-browser JavaScript objects. This is useful for inspecting the interface without a database, but it:
- does not synchronize separate tabs, browsers, or devices;
- loses rooms, players, and scores on refresh; and
- is not a replacement for the Supabase multiplayer path.
- Node.js 20.9 or later
- npm
- A Supabase project for multi-device play
git clone https://github.com/kudala-bharani/word-hive-live.git
cd word-hive-live
npm install
npm run devOpen http://localhost:3000. Without Supabase variables, the app automatically uses its in-memory fallback.
-
Create a project in the Supabase dashboard.
-
Open the SQL Editor and run
supabase/schema.sql. -
Copy your project URL and anon key from the project's API settings.
-
Create your local environment file:
cp .env.example .env.local
-
Add the two values to
.env.local:NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=https://YOUR_PROJECT_REF.supabase.co NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=your-anon-key
-
Run
npm run dev, create a room, and join it from another browser or device.
The anon key is designed to be used by the browser. Never put a Supabase service-role key in a NEXT_PUBLIC_* variable.
If your Supabase project predates multi-round support, run supabase/migration-rounds.sql once.
- Import this repository into Vercel.
- Add
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URLandNEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEYas project environment variables. - Deploy or redeploy the project.
- Verify Realtime behavior by creating a room in one browser and joining it from another.
vercel.json already contains the Next.js build and install configuration.
components/ Reusable game and leaderboard UI
lib/gameConfig.js Five-hive timing configuration
lib/puzzles.js 15 bundled puzzles and word lists
lib/supabase.js Supabase data layer and in-memory fallback
lib/wordValidator.js Word validation, pangrams, and scoring
pages/create.js Room creation
pages/join.js Room joining
pages/room/[roomCode].js Lobby, gameplay, round breaks, and results
supabase/schema.sql Tables, policies, indexes, and Realtime setup
- Change round count or duration in
lib/gameConfig.js. - Add puzzle definitions in
lib/puzzles.js. - Change validation and scoring in
lib/wordValidator.js. - Change the honey color palette in
tailwind.config.js.
A puzzle definition must contain a unique numeric ID, exactly seven unique letters, a center letter included in that set, lowercase accepted words, and any pangrams to highlight in the results view.
The included Supabase schema prioritizes easy demos and portfolio review. It is not hardened for an untrusted public production service.
Before treating the app as production-ready, address the following:
- The current Row Level Security policies allow anonymous clients to read and write every room and player row.
- There is no account authentication or server-side host authorization; player identity is restored from
localStorage. - Word validation, score calculation, and game-state mutations run in the browser.
- The host's open browser advances the game when a timer expires, so a room can stall if the host disconnects.
- The 10-player cap is enforced by application code rather than an atomic database operation.
- Score updates use a read-modify-write flow rather than a database transaction.
- Rooms are not expired or deleted automatically.
- Rate limiting, abuse controls, monitoring, analytics, and automated tests are not included.
A hardened version should add authenticated or signed room membership, restrictive RLS policies, server-side/RPC mutations, atomic join and scoring operations, and scheduled room cleanup.
Please open a GitHub issue for bugs or suggestions.
No open-source license has been added to this repository. Standard copyright restrictions apply unless a license is added.