Betrayer's Ball

A multiplayer, turn-based, hidden-information grid card game with a social deduction element.

Place cards on the board to build the highest total score. Cards start face-down and are worth their base value plus effects from themselves or other cards — position, ownership, face-up status can all matter.

Play solo against AI, or host a real multiplayer game (2-8p) — all players join from their own phone (Jackbox-style).

Play now

• betrayers-ball.onrender.com — main deployment with multi-player support.
• board-game-bice.vercel.app — backup mirror, single-player only.

Features

• Single-player vs. AI, with four difficulty levels
• LAN multiplayer(2-8p) — host a room, everyone else joins from their own browser
• Screencast mode(2-8p) — one device shows the board, everyone else plays from their phone
• A dozen+ locations (center-tile effects) that bend the normal rules for the whole game
• In-app card/location catalogs, per-game and lifetime stats
• Card Balance, AI Arena, and Sandbox modes for experimentation

Development

npm install
npm run dev

Then open http://localhost:3000. npm run dev runs the real custom server (server.ts) with Socket.IO attached, so multiplayer works locally too — other devices on your network can join at the LAN address printed in the terminal.

Other scripts:

npm test         # run the test suite once
npm run test:watch
npm run build && npm start   # production build + the real server
npm run lint

Tech stack

Next.js (App Router) + TypeScript + Tailwind, with a custom server (server.ts) attaching Socket.IO for real-time multiplayer. See CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md for the fuller architecture rundown, and game_spec.md/board_game_design.md for the game's own rules and design rationale.