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Show HN: Gametje – A casual online gaming platform (gametje.com)

112 points by jmpavlec ↗ HN
Hi all, I’ve been working on this project for a while but haven't shared it properly on Hacker News.

It is a casual gaming platform focused on simple multiplayer games that can be played in person with a central screen (like a TV) or remotely via video chat. You can also play on your smart Android based TVs via the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gametje (it was just released recently so could be buggy). It is also available directly in Discord: https://discord.com/discovery/applications/12153230008666071... as an embedded activity.

It is playable in 9 languages and doesn’t require any downloads. Most games revolve around creativity in some shape or form. They can be played by just about anyone whether or not you consider yourself a “gamer”. If you can text, you can play these games.

Why did I create it?

Some of you may see the resemblance to Jackbox games. I have been a huge fan of them for 10+ years and enjoyed playing their games a lot. However, I found their support for other languages a bit lacking. While living in the Netherlands, I have encountered quite a few non-native English speakers and wanted to help them have a similar experience. Jackbox also has some fragmentation issues between app stores. I own their games on PC and PS4 but I can’t share a “license” between them. They also come out with a pack every year with 5 games. You never know if the game(s) will be fun, or if you should try to buy a previous pack with the one killer party game in it.

I designed Gametje with these issues in mind. It is playable in multiple languages with more being added regularly (feel free to request one). You can play it from any device with a web browser. There is no need to install it via Steam or a game console. All games are available in one place with no “packs” to buy.

What’s up with the name?

I have been living in the Netherlands for some years and part of my original motivation stems from wanting to give my friends here a game to play in their native language. It's way easier to be witty/funny in your mother tongue after all! Because of that, I wanted to incorporate something Dutch into the site's name. The suffix ‘-tje’ is one of the diminutive endings in Dutch and is meant to soften a word or make it "smaller". Game + tje = Gametje, or a little game. I have been informed by native Dutch speakers that it should have been ‘Gamepje’ to be "correct" but I liked the way Gametje sounded better.

Where can I try it?

Go here: https://gametje.com/

You can test it out as a guest without signing up in order to get a feel for the games. Clicking into each game gives a short explanation and a small example of the gameplay. When creating a game room, you can choose to host via a central screen, host and play from a single device (like a phone) or cast the main screen to a Chromecast. There is also an Android TV app available that was just recently released: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gametje

After creating a game room, you can join from another browser window or device. You can also add AI players if you want to try it out on your own, although it is a lot more fun with real people. I also created a discord channel: https://discord.gg/7jrftHuHp9 where you can find other users to play with. If you sign up for an account, you can opt-in as an alpha tester and see the new games as they are developed. It’ll also keep track of all your previous games and ...

19 comments

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ChaosOp
This is a great idea! I'm not a fan of Jackbox's "pack" distribution model, so supporting any project that challenges it :)
kabes
There are certain Dutch dialects (e.g. west flemish) that would say gametje instead of gamepje. So you were not entirely wrong.
rapnie
The Dutch naming immediately struck my eye. I wonder.. it is not an easy name to pronounce for, say, English-speaking people, is it? Even in Dutch it does roll from the tongue a bit awkwardly imho.
snthpy
Afrikaans also users the -tje ending for diminutives.
freitzzz
Cool idea, but you need to polish the UI. It looks completely generated by LLM (that's bad)
energy123
Low friction co-op games are an underserved market, but none of these games are for me. I'd be a user if it was a challenging co-op tower defense or bullet hell game, even if the graphics were bad.
Bombthecat
Man, I really want a good coop tower defense game! Loved the warcraft 3 tower defense co-op games!
Thundernerd
I don't think it looks as AI generated as people say. It might not be the most flashy UI but it looks good enough to me. Good luck with the launch!

I have to say that as a Dutch person it always pains me to see products launch internationally with a Dutch name, for some reason it just feels super cringy. Do other people who's native language isn't English have that as well with their own language?

Fnoord
Ah yes, the game I know as 'pictionary'. There used to be an implementation of this on a website using Macromedia Shockwave. You'd have public rooms where you could start guessing. The person with most points would be next drawer. It was fantastic in start, but also a place where young kids would play, and some let us just define them as older kids who would ruin it by doing things like drawing dick pictures. Eventually, nobody would use Shockwave anymore, and you wouldn't even want to run such in a production environment anymore.

As for the name, boompje means little tree (kleine boom) but boontje means little bean (kleine boon) and koninkje means little king (kleine koning) but little queen would be koninginnetje (kleine koningin), and finally hoopje would mean little hope (kleine hoop). So while -tje is default, there are variations. If the word ends with -m, you do -pje. In this case, we have a word derived from English (game) and we need to use the way it sounds (geem) hence geempje (gamepje).

For a foreigner dealing with The Netherlands and Dutch, gametje sounds cute. It fits the role, so to say. In multiple ways. This is a kids/family game, and kids make simple mistakes in grammar when learning their native language, like adult foreigners do when learning a new language. The earlier mentioned website (I forgot the name, something like iSketch? Yes that was it [1]) existed before emoji were a thing. You'd have emoticons but not as part of a font , unless you count say wingdings or using (foreign language) symbols like :-) and more complex ones such as ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISketch

matthewfcarlson
I tried to build something like this during covid and got into the weeds around syncing a vuex store across server/client based on pinia (https://pinia.vuejs.org). Vue3 separated the reactivity model from the framework so when the server made a change, it forwarded the event automatically to clients. Since the game state was a series of mutations, it made it easy to replay on a client along with net code style rollback in the case of conflicts.

All told, congrats shipping something!

dandeto
Very cool! What engine/tech stack did you use to write the games themselves?
ivolimmen
I kinda guessed you would be Dutch given the name. Lovely idee, will try this out when I have time. Bedankt!
sudosteph
Reminds me a lot of AirConsole, which I once had a subscription to.

But ultimately it all comes down to the game quality and how buggy it is. If people can't submit their answer or reconnect, that wears down support. But people tolerate jackbox's absolutely terrible system because the games are great.

prakhar897
How long did it take for you to make this? I'm working on a similar branch of idea, started 30 days ago. Any advice for me? :)
Phemist
Although strictly speaking it is wrongly spelled as you mentioned, you missed that "Game met je" means "to (play a) game with you (or someone)", which could contract to "gametje" as well (and a similar contraction for "gamepje" would be much more violent ;)). I think this makes "gametje" an excellent name for a party game platform!
rwkim7
Very cool, congrats on the launch...will try it with my friends soon! Wish this was around during covid lockdowns lol
underscoremark
Nice. The game I was hosting kept dying with "Oh no, Something went wrong :(". However, I like the concept. These are good for personal social gatherings, but has great potential for more public places, too (like pubs/bars).