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How the Family Arcade works

The Family Arcade is a set of browser games your family plays, on its own devices, together or alone. This page starts with the arcade itself, then playing together, then how families make their own games and share them.

Where the Family Arcade livesThe server familyarcade.eu in Germany sends the arcade to your tablet or phone once and keeps no log. Players, tickets and saves stay on your device, in the browser, and the arcade works offline after the first visit.familyarcade.euA server in GermanyKeeps no log of visitsThe arcade, onceYour tablet or phonePlayers, tickets and savesstay here, in the browserWorks offline after the first visit

The arcade at familyarcade.eu

Section titled “The arcade at familyarcade.eu”

The arcade’s home page: game tiles, the welcome card and Play together

familyarcade.eu is a web app. Open it in a browser on a phone, tablet or computer. On an iPad, you can add it to the home screen. Then it works like an app, even offline.

  • Players are made on each device. The device’s browser saves a name, tickets, wins and recent games. There are no accounts.
  • Games are tiles on the home page. Some are for one player, some for a few players on one device, some for one player per device.
  • Play together links phones and tablets with four letters. A game can invite the others. Up to four devices can connect.

The arcade’s games are made by one family, and they come with the arcade.

Playing together across homes

Section titled “Playing together across homes”

Two devices connect with a four-letter code:

Playing together across homesA free matchmaking service, PeerJS, introduces your tablet and your cousin's tablet with the 4-letter code. After that, the game's moves travel directly between the two devices, not through any server.MatchmakingPeerJS, free and publicIntroduces, with the code"Hello, ABCD"Your tabletHome 1Cousin's tabletHome 2The game travels directly between them
  1. One device asks a free matchmaking service called PeerJS to hold the code.
  2. The other devices type the code. PeerJS introduces the devices to each other.
  3. From then on, the game’s data travels directly between the devices. It uses the same technology as video calls (WebRTC).

The matchmaking service and two small public helpers from Google and Twilio only help devices find each other. They never see names, moves, video or voice. It works across homes and countries. A few strict networks, such as some school and office networks, block it.

The device that made the code runs the game. The others send what their player does and get back what happens.

Making and sharing a game

Section titled “Making and sharing a game”
  1. Copy the starter. On GitHub, the game starter is a template. Choose Use this template to make your own copy. It starts as an empty home page for your game, with Play together already working.
  2. Build with an AI helper. Claude Code reads the starter’s rules and writes the code you describe. Claude leaves each change for you to merge. Merging means choosing to add that change to your copy of the game.
  3. It goes on the web by itself. Every merged change is tested, built and published to your own address, such as https://your-name.github.io/dragon-dash/. GitHub hosts it for free.
  4. Share the link. Anyone you send it to can play it, alone or together with a code.
  5. Add it to the arcade. In the arcade, tap Add a game from a friend and paste the link. The game becomes a tile on that device.

Nothing in this needs our server. Your game lives in your GitHub account. The arcade only remembers its link on your device.

Arcade kit in each game

Section titled “Arcade kit in each game”

Every game made from the starter has a small folder, src/arcade/, called the kit. It is the only part of a game that knows about the arcade:

  • Who is playing. The arcade hands over the player’s name and colour when it opens a game. If it does not, the game asks “Who’s playing?”.
  • Saving. Scores and progress stay in the browser, per player and game.
  • Playing together. Making and joining codes, for up to four devices.
  • Back to the arcade. A button that returns to where you came from.

The details are in Arcade kit reference.

Opening a friend’s game

Section titled “Opening a friend’s game”
Opening a friend's game from the arcadeTapping a friend's game in the arcade opens the game's own website, on the other family's GitHub Pages. The player's name and colour go along inside the link and never reach a server. The game's back button returns to the arcade.The arcade, on your tabletTap the friend's game tileunder From friendsOpens withyour name← ArcadeThe friend's gameIts own website, on theirfamily's GitHub Pages

When you tap a friend’s game, the arcade opens its website. It puts the player information in the link after a #:

https://cousin.github.io/dragon-dash/#arcade=eyJ2IjoxLCJuYW1lIjoiS2xhcmEi…

The part after # never leaves the browser. Websites do not receive it. The game reads the name and colour, removes them from the address bar and shows “← Arcade” so you can go back.

Hosting locations

Section titled “Hosting locations”
What Where
The arcade familyarcade.eu, a server in Germany (Hetzner, Falkenstein)
This guide learn.familyarcade.eu, the same server
A family’s game that family’s GitHub Pages
The starter’s code GitHub
Players and saves the browser on each device

Features that may come

Section titled “Features that may come”
  • Accounts for parents, so a family’s players and saves follow them across devices.
  • Friends without codes: link two families once, then invite each other.
  • A public gallery of games, checked before anything is listed.
  • A benchmark: a public ranking of how well AI models do at the parts of making a game: concept art, 3D models and game mechanics.