Show HN: Boardzilla, a framework for making web-based board games

Show HN: Boardzilla, a framework for making web-based board games

Tldr: We’ve made a framework for web-based board games. You can try out some games over at https://boardzilla.io, or you can take a look at https://docs.boardzilla.io to learn more about how to develop your own game. Source is available at https://github.com/boardzilla

Hey y’all. My brother and I have made a framework for board games. During the pandemic we started to look at BGA but got discouraged by how old-fashioned the tools were and how cumbersome the development process was. We set out to make our own framework where you could use the same code for both the client and server. Our hope is anyone familiar with Typescript and CSS could code up a game without worrying about state management, persistence or networking.

It’s still very much a wip, and we're rapidly adding features and games. But we’ve got our first draft of developer docs done, and we've put up a few games we've developed to showcase and test out the platform. Source for the games and framework is available on Github, and we’re excited to code more games and hopefully encourage other people to try it out. Happy for any feedback.

Show HN: Boardzilla, a framework for making web-based board games
boardzilla.io

Co-creator here.

I thought AGPL was ok as well, but Commons Clause specifically tried to address perceived deficiencies in the AGPL although I admit that it didn't really seem to catch on. I'm not super well versed in the technical details. Why would you recommend AGPL?

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing/CommonsClause has several links explaining what's wrong with the Commons Clause. The reason the AGPLv3 is my preferred replacement is that the FAANGs are irrationally afraid of it and refuse to let it be used anywhere in the company (e.g., https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/using/agpl...), but it's still 100% Free Software and Open Source and so allowed to be packaged in Linux distributions that disallow proprietary software.

Looks very cool, congrats on the initiative!

I think it can be great to develop prototypes, but to build a BGA alternative you will need permission from the publishers to implement / distribute their games, and given how big is BGA and that it belongs to Asmodee, that is going to be tough...

Hope I am wrong, good luck!

Hey jamager, thanks for the kind comments.

Totally agree, Asmodee has basically prevented a real competitor from entering the market. We have an idea in mind that doesn't involve going up against BGA, but instead looks at more smaller games from indie publishers. Not sure how viable that is, but not sure what else someone is supposed to do.