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Games

Lockdown game night saved by a homemade Codenames

With clone sites congested, Kodnamn kept every player’s board in sync through a Firebase real-time database.

By Yannic Fréson, DeveloperFiled from Belgium

Screenshot of a game of Codenames showcasing the game’s design
Screenshot of a game of Codenames showcasing the game’s design.

During the first Covid lockdown I wanted a way to play Codenames with friends. The servers of most sites with clones were congested due to the surge in traffic, so I decided to make my own version.

In the first version users had to screen-share the board to the other players. That wasn’t very user-friendly, so I built a second version that uses a Firebase real-time database to sync the game state for all players.

In short

Online multiplayer version of the Codenames card game — for all your lockdown card-gaming needs.

Box of the real Codenames game
Box of the real Codenames game.
Screenshot of the spymaster’s view
Screenshot of the spymaster’s view.
Database structure per game: board state with card gender, value, counted and guessed cards, and both teams’ scores
Database structure per game: board state with card gender, value, counted and guessed cards, and both teams’ scores.

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