return to table of content

Show HN: I built a Jeopardy game maker with buzzer support

bfdm
8 replies
1d3h

This is really nice. Well done!

I've had a jeopardy based toy project on the backburner for several years, with the north star goal of solving the problem I've had with every jeopardy game I've ever played: you need an Alex/host who knows the answer and can judge players right or wrong. This ability to buzz in, be wrong and then have another player respond is fairly crucial to real strategic play.

I get this is for fun and not meant to be "real" jeopardy, but I wonder if you could add support for something like this by allowing a "join as host" option when using the QR code that would reveal the answer and not have a score.

Great work and thanks for sharing it!

Wolfmans55
7 replies
1d3h

In the menu you'll see there is a "Show answer" button. The host can log in on a different tab or device to see the answer to the currently flipped clue.

explaininjs
3 replies
18h44m

You mean the question? Everyone should be able to see the answer of the active clue.

Wolfmans55
2 replies
18h12m

Nope. Everyone should be able to see the clue, but not the answer or correct response to the clue.

re
1 replies
15h55m

I believe that explaininjs is making a pedantic/semi-tongue-in-cheek joke about the gimmick of Jeopardy where the clues are "answers" and contestants buzz in to respond with the "question". https://youtu.be/KDTxS9_CwZA?t=156

hunter2_
0 replies
13h48m

It would be pedantic if it were indeed nothing but a joke, but I think the existence of this gimmick forces us to assimilate our non-joking language in order to avoid ongoing problems. Easier to have common ground among participants and onlookers than not. To exclude yourself, should you wish, simply stick to clue/response.

gamerDude
1 replies
1d2h

I cannot find this button. :( It also took me multiple reloads to find the menu button since it disappears after a few seconds. My eyes are drawn to the board and not the upper left hand corner.

Wolfmans55
0 replies
1d2h

You'll only see it if you're logged in. I'll fix the menu button!

bfdm
0 replies
22h23m

Ah neat, I'll give that a try!

apgwoz
4 replies
23h50m

“I’m a lawyer for Sony Pictures Television, producers of the hit syndicated television show “Jeopardy.” While we appreciate our fans, we cannot allow this to continue. You must cease and desist” arriving in your inbox in 3…2…

jdiff
3 replies
21h30m

Lots of these exist out on the open net, I don't know why this guy would be the guy to bring the wrath of the mediatech industry down upon him.

apgwoz
2 replies
18h38m

I’m not familiar with all of the ones that already exist, but this is clearly trying to replicate the Jeopardy look and feel. Back in the NES days, there were licensed Jeopardy cartridges and board games. Maybe things haved changed… but I’m pretty sure they still protect at least some of the Jeopardy brand.

jdiff
1 replies
17h21m

The others do likewise. And actually include the word "Jeopardy" in their own names.

apgwoz
0 replies
14h24m

There you go then. I guess they don’t care.

Wolfmans55
2 replies
15h21m

Yes. If a team buzzes in and the host marks their response as incorrect, they can’t buzz in again.

re
1 replies
15h5m

I meant this part:

If a contestant attempts to ring in before the gameboard lights activate, the system locks out their signal for a quarter of a second.

This discourages contestants from repeatedly tapping the buzzer before the question has finished being read.

Wolfmans55
0 replies
14h58m

Oh, I see. No, not yet.

indus
3 replies
19h21m

Very cool! Love the project. Thanks.

I watch Jeopardy a lot -- that bartender from New York achieving 9 days of wins, was an amazing thing to watch.

Curious: are you using questions from the game or built your own database?

Wolfmans55
2 replies
19h9m

There’s only two public boards: “Animals”, which I clobbered together awhile ago just as a demo for folks to test Buzzinga with.

I later added the “Millennials” game, which I created myself and played with friends on a game night.

Neither have clues from the Jeopardy! show itself AFAIK.

indus
1 replies
18h21m

is there a way to add our own questions/board?

Wolfmans55
0 replies
18h12m

Yes, you just hit “Create new board” on the play.buzzinga.io page which will prompt you to sign up or log in.

hk1337
3 replies
1d

That's really cool. I always liked trying to do interactive applications like this.

What's the story behind the name, "Buzzinga" aka Bazinga?

Wolfmans55
2 replies
23h20m

When I was thinking of a name I thought, well, what do you do when you’re playing? Buzz in. So I just thought “Buzzinga.” That’s the origin story.

hiatus
0 replies
20h57m

No. The trademark you linked to is for "Bazinga!" with an exclamation mark.

Mark Literal Elements: BAZINGA!
staplers
2 replies
1d

Make this a tvOS app and it would be perfect. Parties aren't fun if you have to lug out your laptop and hook up the hdmi to the tv.

jmpavlec
0 replies
22h33m

I've been working on a similar-ish project with native Chromecast support and Amazon TV and using phones/tablets/laptops as controllers. You can give it a look at https://gametje.com (no login required, just continue as guest). It's less jeopardy/trivia and more like Jackbox. Currently has 3 games with the 4th almost done (available for Alpha testers). Was planning on sharing it on HN soon. Playable in 9 languages.

For Chromecast, you can cast directly from your phone and it copies the game code to join easily.

Wolfmans55
0 replies
23h15m

This is a great idea.

dsr_
2 replies
1d3h

You're going to want to change the wording to "Jeopardy-style" rather than implying that it's a Jeopardy product.

I would also recommend changing the default color scheme; it's inviting a lawsuit.

Wolfmans55
1 replies
1d3h

Yeah, the wording is a good point. I'll think about the color scheme.

CodeWriter23
0 replies
3h0m

IANAL but I had one who advised us our Trade Dress was defendable.

thelazyorcas
1 replies
20h39m

This is super cool!

I'm going to try in the next game night with my friends. Will let you know how it goes.

Wolfmans55
0 replies
19h14m

Excellent!

poopsmithe
1 replies
23h28m

Every other anime convention I go to has a fan panel featuring an interactive Jeopardy-style game. It's usually built using powerpoint or a half baked webapp that crashes the moment the audience connects. Would love to see more of them use buzzinga instead!

Wolfmans55
0 replies
23h13m

I’d like to make an offline mode so you can connect physical buttons/buzzers and not have to worry about connectivity/latency, etc.

iJohnDoe
1 replies
1d4h

Great job! Really well done. Congrats on launch!

Wolfmans55
0 replies
1d3h

Thank you!

hoistbypetard
1 replies
1d2h

That looks like a lot of fun... can you share a little about what you used to make phones work nicely as buzzers?

Wolfmans55
0 replies
1d2h

So overall, the site including the buzzer page uses websockets for (close to) real-time client-server communication.

Obviously latency can be an issue, so my non-perfect B+ solution is to essentially calculate the round trip of the buzz, divide it by 2, and subtract it from the server time.

client ------------ pingTime ------------> server

client <----------- serverTime ----------- server

roundTrip = pingTime + pongTime

buzzTime = serverTime - (roundTrip / 2);

The server time is always the source of truth since client times can vary. Not using NTP which could possibly be more accurate.

encomiast
1 replies
1d3h

This seems like a cease and desist letter waiting to happen. Are you worried that using the name “Jeopardy” and styling it so closely to the actual game might bring Sony lawyers knocking on your door?

Wolfmans55
0 replies
1d3h

It's possible, but there are other jeopardy game maker sites out there that charge money and have existed for 5-10+ years that do similar things but with "Jeopardy" actually in their name (e.g. jeopardylabs)

Worst case, they do, and then I know I made a good product.

ddtaylor
1 replies
1d4h

Very fun! I can't wait to give it a run through when I finish some of the questions. I have really enjoyed the "Hacker Jeopardy" at Derbycon and a few others and I will enjoy the opportunity to play without being forced to drink an intentionally warmed bottle of smirnoff as punishment for getting the wrong answer =)

Wolfmans55
0 replies
1d4h

Ha, never heard of this event. Watching the one from DEFCON 31 now. Did you play in that one?

RockRobotRock
1 replies
1d5h

This is awesome! Is there any chance of open source?

Wolfmans55
0 replies
1d4h

No plans at the moment, but I’m not fully against the idea.

PaulMest
1 replies
1d5h

Very cool! I built a no-code version of this for my friends' birthdays where all of the clues were about them (inside jokes, dumb bets, catch phrases, etc). I just printed out categories in a grid on a sheet of paper and had a bunch of questions listed out in OneNote on my phone and manually kept score. I didn't put penalties in place if somebody got it wrong to encourage people to participate vs just optimizing for score. "Jonpardy" and "Joshpardy" are two of our friend groups most cherished and repeatedly cited events from the past 10 years.

I've dabbled with the idea of creating some real implementation of this. I most recently put together an @Midnight / After Midnight no-code game for a friend's bachelor party. The buzz-in mechanics and score-keeping are somewhat similar. Maybe you could repurpose your core logic for several different game show themes?

Wolfmans55
0 replies
1d4h

Yeah, I made a category for a game night with friends called “Who wrote this Facebook status in ‘09?”, which was very popular.

Repurposing the logic for different game shows is definitely interesting. Although I’ve matured Buzzinga in the last seven months, there’s definitely still room to improve, but eventually I can see this transition!

willcipriano
0 replies
1d2h

I have no notes, this is really dialed in.

sadeshmukh
0 replies
22h22m

only one I've seen so far is buzzin.live, which acts only as a buzzer (pretty good one at that)

remram
0 replies
1d

That's funny, I too made a phone-buzzer app to watch Jeopardy with the in-laws. All it does is pause the video on the laptop for 10 seconds when someone presses the button on their phone, and show their name. On the plus side it works for any YouTube/PeerTube/local-file video, on the minus side no score-keeping or even checking of the answer.

https://github.com/remram44/video-buzzer

I think we only used it once, years ago.

racl101
0 replies
2h1m

That's awesome! Gotta check this out.

prakhar897
0 replies
8h36m

Great Implementation!! Jackbox games are ever more popular with remote work. There's a huge market for games like these.

I think bundling a few of these and selling B2B to corporates as FunFriday activities would bring huge sales.

notpushkin
0 replies
12h41m

This is cool, congrats on launching!

Jeopardy is an extremely popular “playing in Discord with friends” activity in Russia / CIS (called Svoya Igra here, lit. “own game”, or just svoyak for short). I think this is the most popular app of this kind here: https://vladimirkhil.com/si/game

netik
0 replies
23h36m

fantastic! I’ve been building game show buzzers and various PCBs for them for about ten years and used them at a lot of events.

any chance you’ll open source this?

My boards and code live here:

https://github.com/netik/rpi_gameshow

lame-lexem
0 replies
13h52m

There is actually a pretty cool clone of Svoja igra (russian jeopardy clone <https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Своя_игра>) sigame <https://vladimirkhil.com/si/game> which is popular with russian streamers and is open source. It is available as a web and native application, and has an extensive library of packs (sets of questions, tho many of them are in russian).

jonmb
0 replies
1d4h

For a few years I was hoping someone would create something like this, or I’d eventually do it myself. Thank you!

hobs
0 replies
5h20m

A classic thing I was looking for back when I was doing technical training, well done.

demondemidi
0 replies
1d

When I was in high school in the mid 80s I was in the av club and we filmed things for local access cable. We made a jeopardy game on a Commodore 64 and converted a joystick into three buttons with latches to prevent ties. We broadcast three episodes and had the most feedback to the local paper of any local access tv show. We were proud. Fun to still see kids doing this.

carterdmorgan
0 replies
3h0m

Love it! It's not really Jeopardy without the buzzers, is it?

aloisdg
0 replies
1d3h

Is the website open source?

akam4n4n
0 replies
10h18m

Hi! this looks amazing. wanted to confirm what the pricing will look like? i want to try it out in a college quiz contest.

RNAlfons
0 replies
6h11m

You should pitch this for the next Chaos Computer Congress. They used to play "Hacker Jeopardy" with some self hosted solution. Yours looks much better.