Building a Jeopardy Game for Laravel Live Denmark
14 days ago
- #Laravel
- #Game Development
- #Hardware Integration
- The author created a Laravel-based Jeopardy game platform for Laravel Live Denmark, including physical buzzers with Taylor Otwell's voice announcements.
- Initial plans to use an existing JeoPHPardy project were abandoned due to its outdated status, leading to a new greenfield project using Claude Code.
- Arcade-style buttons were chosen over bicycle bells for buzzers, sourced in five different colors from BerryBase, and controlled using Dan Johnson's Pinout library.
- The TALL stack (Tailwind, Alpine.js, Laravel, Livewire) was selected for the project, leveraging familiarity and Laravel Boost for enhanced Livewire capabilities.
- Game state persistence was prioritized to prevent resets on browser refresh, with a client/server approach using Laravel Reverb for real-time WebSocket communication.
- Debugging synchronization issues between the game board and control UI was challenging but addressed with Laravel Boost and Playwright MCP for efficient logging.
- Categories and clues were creatively brainstormed with Claude, including a Danish-themed category and Taylor Swift-inspired questions.
- Hardware integration involved a Raspberry Pi 3 with GPIO hat, relays for 12V LED lights, and extensive wiring for five arcade buttons.
- On-site setup used a local WiFi router to avoid venue WiFi issues, though directional speaker problems and enthusiastic button-mashing caused minor hiccups.
- Key lessons included the efficiency of rebuilding from updated plans with LLMs and the importance of venue testing for live events.