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webdrawquiz

Play now at https://sigptr.me/apps/webdrawquiz

A small web service that enables the creation of online quizzes where answers are submitted as small drawings.

The service is designed for both desktop computers and mobile devices.

There are two separate roles; hosts and contestants. There can only be one host for every quiz, but there can be multiple contestants. Their workflows are different, but they both follow the same basic game plan:

  1. A pre-game period, where new contestants can join the game
  2. A question is posited to the contestants
  3. The contestants post responses, which are marked by the host
  4. The host decides to reveal the answer to the question and reward points
  5. Repeat 2-4 until there are no more questions left to answer
  6. Conclude the game, revealing the winner

Docker containers are now available!

In conjunction with a MongoDB instance, you can run webdrawquiz inside of a Docker container. See:

https://hub.docker/com/r/sigptr/webdrawquiz

The port is exposed as 80 by default; remap accordingly. Use the MONGO_CONNECT variable to specify a MongoDB connection string.

Installation

At the current stage of development, MongoDB has been chosen as a sole database provider. The access is unauthenticated by default, but an alternative connection URI can be provided as a MONGO_CONNECT environment variable.

Dependencies are provided using npm. Run the following to install depenencies:

npm install .

Usage

The executable is located in bin/www. Run it with the node command line utility, providing the port it should listen for connections as an environment variable:

PORT=7890 node bin/www

The application should be live at:

http://localhost:PORT/

Implementation

TL;DR: The core of the game is facilitated by an authenticated WebSocket API, the tokens for which are provided through an extremely basic HTTP API.

The host creates a game using the /create/ API. The details for the game are submitted via POST request to /create/ as well, returning the host's session ID and a unique four digit code, presented to the host. Contestants fill in the /join/ form with this code and a unique name that will be shown to the host. The form will also be submitted via POST request to /join/, returning a contestant session ID.

The host will be redirected to /admin/ and the contestants will be redirected to /play/. Both the host and the contestant connect using WebSockets directly to the server, which also facilitates passing messages between the host and the contestants. The host decides when to begin the game, when to reveal the answer and when to move on to the next question. The host also marks the contestant's responses. The contestants are tasked with creating responses to the questions presented to them using either a mouse or touch device to make a drawing which is then submitted to the server. Contestants can also submit later responses, but these will erase the previous responses and will be required to be marked by the host again.

The WebSocket API is documented (although not extremely meticulously) in /doc/api.md.

The game ends when there are no more questions to present. Both the host and the contestants are relieved of control. The host can announce the winner, and each contestant is provided with their accumulated scores.

Planned Features

This application was originally designed for a specific request, but I have designed the system as to allow for reasonable changes. Some of them may include:

  • Exposing per-question score and time limits in the UI (already in the API)
  • Allowing for responses to stop automatically when all contestants have submitted one response
  • Multiple choice questions
  • Free-form questions with more than one answer
  • Bonus points for selected answers