My biggest current project is a game called Order in the Court. Order in the Court is a browser-based multiplayer improvisational storytelling game for 3 or more people inspired by wacky court drama in daytime reality court shows and video games like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa. This idea first came in the form of a homemade card game a few years back. The digital re-imagining of the game has been a blast to make.

I’ve made board game companions before including virtual dice and virtual card decks, but never a full multiplayer game. Making a multiplayer in-browser experience was an exciting challenge, much inspired by Jackbox games. It also fits with the state of the quarantined world, as people can easily play together over a video call. The social aspect of the game also cheers people up in these times.

Like most of my apps, it consists of an Angular user interface, an Express backend, and a Mongo database. The game is playable, but I’m running weekly playtests followed by weekly updates as I find ways to improve the game based on actual user feedback. I’m currently on version 5 and have had 6 official playtests. I have done User Acceptance Testing at work before and playtested a board game casually in college, but never done this kind of playtesting. The current feedback is mostly positive, with constantly shifting problems that I’m addressing as I go. It’s really exciting to have complete control of the direction of the application and to watch it evolve for users with each update. I hope to eventually be in a position where I can have other people host the playtests, as I expect having a person between the users and the developer will provide more honest feedback.

Each week it feels closer to being “finished”, I’m thrilled to see where this project takes me.