This looks fun! Had to open two tabs on my phone to test it before I consider sending it out to others. I often play a “sing a song from a word” game with my sister so it’s cool to see a framework around it.
curious how you keep the lyric highlight in sync across players given this is browser audio, not a native client. each phone's audio pipeline has different buffering (bluetooth headphones alone can add 100-200ms of latency depending on the device), so if the highlighted line advances off local playback position rather than a shared server clock, two players on the same "beat" can end up seeing different words highlighted, which matters a lot for a game about lyrical timing. also on iOS safari specifically, an audio element started from one gesture and then paused/resumed later (someone switching tabs to grab a drink) can get stuck needing another user tap to resume playback, which for a fast round based party game would just look like the game silently broke for that person mid round.
Nice one! I built something similar [1]. It has you type in the name of the actual song and artist and the game compares it to a database of lyrics. The goal is to find as many songs as possible that contain a given word (or one of its derivatives) within one minute. Getting actual lyrics was the hardest part, so not all songs are in there.
Not to take away from this game, but I had a friend who said he got lots of joy from Smule. IIRC it connects you with a random stranger, you can opt into having it auto-tune your voice, and you sing duets.
i've never played it, but a guy in a coffee shop (a patron) once gave me his Smule business card(!!) and i checked his songs on there; looks like they have a real cult following
This reminded me something you might find fascinating. We grew up playing a similar game in India. It's Antakshari[0] and it means "The game of the ending letter". There was even a popular game show for over 10 years in the 2000s on Indian TV.
I'm gonna give an English example, but in a tonal language like Hindi, Mandarin, Thai, it would make "more" sense. Players have to sign a song that starts with the same tone as the previous song ended on.The game starts with a couplet to initiate the game and since the last word of the couplet ends with an m, the first song starts with that. And yeah, only Indian/Bollywood songs are allowed but I'm gonna break that rule to make an example. Taking tones don't really make sense in English so I'll use the last word.
Player one might sing "Mamma mia, here I go again. My my, how can I resist you", and the next goes with "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, You make me happy when skies are gray." and then the next starts with gray. The person who can't find a song is out of the game, and you can't repeat songs.
It seems very cool!! Congrats! But I can't play alone am I right? :( It would be nice for a fast testing! but no problem at all! I'm going to find one friend! :D
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[ 7.0 ms ] story [ 613 ms ] threadThat and this are clever ideas.
[1] https://deriese.net/songs.html?t=hn
It's been out for 14 years?
https://www.smule.com/
lots of sample videos on the site. I never had the nerve to play nor a place I'd feel comfortable singing out loud (apartments with thin walls)
I'm gonna give an English example, but in a tonal language like Hindi, Mandarin, Thai, it would make "more" sense. Players have to sign a song that starts with the same tone as the previous song ended on.The game starts with a couplet to initiate the game and since the last word of the couplet ends with an m, the first song starts with that. And yeah, only Indian/Bollywood songs are allowed but I'm gonna break that rule to make an example. Taking tones don't really make sense in English so I'll use the last word.
Player one might sing "Mamma mia, here I go again. My my, how can I resist you", and the next goes with "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, You make me happy when skies are gray." and then the next starts with gray. The person who can't find a song is out of the game, and you can't repeat songs.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antakshari