Make 24 — Valentine's Card Challenge ♥

A real-time multiplayer card math game where two players race to combine 4 poker cards using arithmetic operations to hit a target number.

Features

• Real-time multiplayer — Two players compete head-to-head via WebSocket
• Configurable target — Default is 24, but any number 1–999 works
• Guaranteed solvable — Every deal is verified to have at least one solution
• Poker card visuals — Beautiful CSS-rendered cards with suits and values
• Valentine's theme — Pink/red/gold palette, floating hearts, love-themed messages
• Expression builder — Click cards and operators to build your answer
• Round timer — Optional countdown per round
• Score tracking — Best of N rounds with final scoreboard

Tech Stack

• Next.js 14 (App Router, TypeScript)
• Tailwind CSS (v4)
• Socket.IO (real-time communication)
• Express (custom server)
• Framer Motion (animations)

Getting Started

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

How to Play

1. Enter your name and Create Room
2. Share the 4-letter room code with your opponent
3. Opponent enters the code to Join Room
4. Host clicks Start Game
5. Both players see 4 cards — click cards and operators to build a math expression that equals the target
6. First correct submission wins the round!

Game Rules

• Use all 4 card values exactly once
• Use any combination of +, −, ×, ÷ and parentheses
• Card values: A=1, 2–10, J=11, Q=12, K=13
• First player to submit a valid expression wins the round

Scalability Path

• Add Redis adapter for Socket.IO → horizontal scaling
• Extract game server to a standalone microservice
• Add authentication + database for persistent leaderboards