Music Round
Music Round started as a pub quiz game brought online. Players join lobbies with shareable codes and compete to identify songs from 30-second Spotify previews. The real-time sync was the interesting technical challenge - multiple players need to see the same timer, same scores, and same round transitions simultaneously. Convex handles this with reactive queries that push updates to all connected clients.
Key Features
- ▸ Real-time multiplayer with shareable game codes
- ▸ Daily challenge mode with global leaderboard
- ▸ Battle royale mode - 50 rounds, 3 lives, last player standing
- ▸ Hint system that reveals letters at a point cost
- ▸ Multiple curated playlists (decades, genres, festivals)
- ▸ Time-decay scoring rewarding faster answers
Technical Architecture
Frontend
React 19 with TanStack Start for SSR and routing. TanStack Query for server state management. Tailwind CSS for pixel-art styled UI components.
Backend
Convex for real-time database and serverless functions. Handles game state, player synchronization, and round transitions. Spotify Web API for song previews with Deezer fallback.
Infrastructure
Deployed on Netlify with Convex cloud backend. Real-time subscriptions keep all players in sync. Deterministic daily seeds ensure same songs for all players.