My presentation at the Seattle Google Technology Users Group on the development of http://scrabb.ly, a massively multiplayer word game.

1. Massive Fun
Building Scrabbly
Grant Goodale
twitter: @ggoodale

2. Scrabbly?
• http://scrabb.ly
• Massively Multiplayer “Crossword Game”
• Original version built in 48 hours
• http://nodeknockout.com
• @aviel, @damon, @railsjedi & me

3. Scrabbly!

4. The good stuff
• Implemented entirely in HTML5, CSS and
Javascript - front to back.
• (Okay, map generation is in ruby.)
• Works in Safari, Chrome, FF, IE, Mobile
Webkit

5. Lots of Open Source

6. Awesome Services

7. How it works
• Front end is a JQuery client-side web
application
• Node backend exports a simple JSON API
• MongoDB stores game state
• Browser events handled via Pusher

8. How it works
• Node.js as the back end: http://nodejs.org
• Google’s V8 JS engine with evented I/O
added
• Blazingly fast, stable (for us)
• Note: Not an Apache replacement

9. How it works
• Express Web framework:
• http://expressjs.com
• Similar to Sinatra for ruby
• Middleware: Connect
• Like Rack (again, for ruby)

10. How it works
• MongoDB on the back end
• http://mongodb.org
• Awesome for rapid development
• 2d geospatial indexing makes Scrabbly
possible
• Several 3rd party hosting companies

11. How it works
• Messaging handled via Pusher
• http://pusherapp.com
• trivial to implement, rock solid
• 500k messages/hour peak
• 170 avg. simultaneous connections first
day

12. The World

13. The Experience
http://www.startupmonkeys.com/2010/09/
building-a-scrabble-mmo-in-48-hours/

14. The Experience
• 48 hours is NOT very long.
• Do everything you can ahead of time: paper
prototypes, UI designs
• Feedback! Show it around. Iterate.
• Aggressively scope. Leave an out.

15. Questions?
• Twitter: @ggoodale
• Email: grant@moreblinktag.com
• Go play! http://scrabb.ly