One platform for many games: rooms and watchers

The work: 8 October 2026 · Written 1 November 2026 · Entry 12 of 17

By October 2026 there were two games and a third on the way, and each had its own way of doing things. On 5 October a sketch of a shared platform began, and on 8 October it gained online multiplayer: a party lobby, a WebRTC link between players, spectators and players who join a game that is already running.

What the platform provides

A game now describes itself: its rules, its look, its sounds, its settings. The platform supplies everything around it: the page, the loading screen, the title and result screens, the settings menu, the on-screen keyboard, sharing, replays and online play. Adding a game no longer means rebuilding the lobby.

Rooms, players and watchers

A room has players and watchers. Players type; watchers see the game live. The host decides who is a player and who is a watcher, and a room that is full of players can still take watchers. An invite link brings a friend straight into the room: as a player when a seat is free, or as a watcher when it is not.

Joining late

Somebody can join a game that has already started. The host sends the new player the current state of the game, and the new player's computer catches up, so the newcomer sees the same game as everybody else and can take part at once.

One seat per person

Each player has one seat. When the same person opens the game in a second window, the newest window takes over the seat and the old one is told. This avoids a person appearing twice in the same room.