הרודף · HARODEF

An online voice trivia game for Chrome, in the spirit of "The Chase". It's built for a 16:9 screen, needs at least 8 players, and sends everyone's voice live.

How to play

1. One player opens a lobby and gets a 4-letter code (or an invite link).
2. Everyone joins with the code. Microphone access is required (headphones recommended).
3. In the lobby, the host chooses who the chaser will be (a specific player or a random draw) and the minimum number of players to start (2–16, default 8). Once there are enough players, the host starts, and the rest are put in a random order.
4. Qualifying round: each contestant gets 90 seconds. Every correct answer is worth 5 points, and you need 40 to go on. You can answer out loud or by typing. A question stays on screen until you answer it correctly or say "דלג" (skip); a wrong answer just means "try again".
5. Square choice: the chaser stands on square 1 and the contestant on square 4. The contestant picks square 3 (+10 points, closer to the chaser) or square 5 (−10 points, farther away).
6. The chase: a multiple-choice question with 30 seconds on the clock. A correct answer moves you forward one square; a wrong one leaves you in place. While the question is open, the chaser and the contestant can't hear each other, but everyone else hears both of them.
7. Reach square 8 and you've escaped. If the chaser lands on your square, you're caught.
8. The winner is the player who escaped with the most points. If nobody escaped, the chaser wins.

Running locally

npm install
npm test
npm start      # http://localhost:5173

For testing alone: http://localhost:5173/?dev lowers the minimum to 2 and adds a "add bot" button to the lobby.

Hosting on GitHub Pages

The repo includes .github/workflows/pages.yml, which runs the tests and deploys on every push to main. In the repo settings: Settings → Pages → Source: GitHub Actions.

3D studio

The game runs inside a 3D studio in the style of the Israeli show "המרדף" (three.js, js/studio3d.js):

• A vertical 8-step board tower in the middle of the studio. The chaser lights it red from the top, the contestant is lit blue with their points, and "home" is gold.
• A raised podium for the chaser and a podium for the contestant, with a screen showing the name and points.
• Every player is a colored 3D piece: lined up in front of the board in the lobby, then on the team bench. A piece glows when its player talks.
• A camera that moves between shots: a wide studio shot, a close-up on the contestant, the board in the chase, and the winner at the end.
• An LED wall, light beams and effects: a red flash and shake when the contestant is caught, gold confetti on an escape. If the computer doesn't support WebGL, the game automatically falls back to a flat look with a 2D board.

Architecture

• No server: whoever opens the lobby is the "server" (host-authoritative). The connection uses PeerJS (WebRTC, with the free public signaling server and the TURN that comes with PeerJS).
• js/game.js holds all the rules as a pure state machine, with tests in tests/. Correct answers stay with the host until the reveal.
• js/net.js handles the connection, heartbeat and timeouts. js/voice.js runs voice between all players and cuts audio between the chaser and the contestant during a question (on both the sending and the receiving side).
• js/speech.js does Hebrew speech recognition (Web Speech API in Chrome). js/match.js checks answers forgivingly (niqqud, ה prefix, numbers in words, small typos).
• js/ui.js holds the screens and js/main.js connects everything together. Animations use anime.js, sounds are synthesized with WebAudio, and there are no media files.

Known limitations

• If the host closes the page, the game ends.
• Voice runs as a full mesh, so up to 16 players are supported.
• On very strict networks (some corporate or university networks) the WebRTC connection may fail.
• Speech recognition in Chrome goes through Google's servers and needs an internet connection.