Node Go

A browser application to play Go in real time.

The project in it's current state
Client only prototype

About Go
Technical Challenges
Setup For Development
Known Bugs
Roadmap
Features
Tech

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The Game of Go

Go is a 2 player abstract strategy game of perfect information.

Players take turns placing playing pieces called stones on the intersections of a gridded board. This board is usually a square 19 points across. Stones remain on the points at which they are placed unless they are captured by the opposing player. Capture occurs when a stone or group of stones no longer has any adjascent empty points.

Play ends when both players agree that they have exhausted all advantageous moves. Scoring is determined by counting and comparing the area controlled by either player.

For a more detailed explanation of the rules, please see my previous illustrated explanation of the game of go or the American Go Association's Concise Rules of Go.

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Technical Challenges

Modeling Game State

A go board typically consists of 361 points which can exist in a number of states.

Partitioning Game Rooms

Finding a game starts with joining a game room. Watch an in progress game, join a game, or study a historic game.

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Setup

Local Repo

$ git clone https://github.com/sorrelbri/node-go.git

Install Deps

$ npm run bootstrap

Runs lerna bootstrap command installing dependencies for project, development and package dependencies

Initialize Database

Download PostgreSQL

To verify PostgreSQL installation:

$ psql -V

Node Go API was built with version 11.4. See documentation for Postgres download.

Create Databases

$ psql
# psql(11.4)

CREATE DATABASE node-go;
CREATE DATABASE node-go-test; # testing database

Configure Environment

$ touch packages/server/.env

# .env
NODE_ENV=development
PORT=# set development port for API
REACT_ADDRESS=http://localhost:3000 # default
PG_CONNECTION_STRING=postgresql://localhost:5432/node-go
PG_CONNECTION_STRING_TEST=postgresql://localhost:5432/node-go-test
JWT_SECRET=# generate a secret key for JWT signing algorithm
TEST_SECRET=# same as above, for test environment
SALT_ROUNDS=# set number of salt rounds for bcrypt hashing function
DOMAIN=localhost
USER_ONE_PASSWORD=# credentials for testing with 
USER_ONE_EMAIL=# same as above

Smoke test

$ lerna run test

Run Database Migrations

$ cd packages/server; npm run migrate; npm run seed

Running in development

$ cd packages/server
$ npm start # or if you have nodemon
$ nodemon

$ cd packages/play-node-go
$ npm start

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Known Bugs

• game end logic not implemented on front end yet
• no authorization for game moves
• websocket connections may remain open, pooling prevents runaway leaks, but tests may hang

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Roadmap

6/20

1. Frontend implementation of game end logic
2. Auth for games
3. Game request creation

7/20

1. Generate game records
2. Implement chat
3. Implement study mode

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Features

• Realtime play
• Account authentication
• Chat
• Study mode
• Multiple game settings
• Customizable board size
• Download games in .sgf format

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Built with

• Express
• React
• PostgreSQL
• Socket.io
• Sass

Management & Deployment

• Lerna
• CircleCI