Multiplayer browser-based Icehouse (Looney Pyramids) game. Icehouse is a tabletop game using plastic pyramid pieces from Looney Labs. The notable feature of this game is that players do not take turns; they just play a move when they are ready. The pieces can also be used to play all sorts of other fun games; buying a set of them opens up all sorts of interesting game ideas.
This project is a personal experiment to understand the current state and capability of vibe coding by asking AIs to write the all the code with myself guiding the process. My intention is to write zero lines of code and see what the result is, and maybe get a fun game out of it. I chose Clojure and ClojureScript just because I think they are fun and interesting to work with. It may be that other languages would be a better choice in terms of the agent competency for coding.
A real-time multiplayer implementation of Classic Icehouse for 3-4 players. Players connect via browser, join a lobby, and compete by placing pyramids to attack and defend. Requires only Java and a single jar file to play on a local network. However even a single player can start a game and place defensive pieces. Two players would be needed for attacks and captures. Three players for any real kind of strategy. The icehouse rule is not completely implemented yet because I have trouble convincing myself that giving a bunch of pieces to another player wouldn't just be instant game over anyway. I need to find some people for some trial games... I've never played a single game of it yet.
java -jar icehouse-game.jar
Then connect to http://localhost:3000, other players connect to http://SERVER-IP-ADDRESS:3000
make uberjarThis runs npx shadow-cljs release app to generate a production JS bundle without dev tooling,
then packages everything into the JAR.
- Real-time multiplayer via WebSockets
- Browser-based with HTML5 Canvas rendering
- Lobby system with player names and colours
- 1-4 player support (designed for 3-4; set
ICEHOUSE_DEV_MODE=trueto allow solo/duo play in lobby) - Classic Icehouse rules (standing = defense, pointing = attack)
- To play the game, only Java is needed.
- Java 11+ (for Clojure backend)
- Node.js 16+ (for ClojureScript tooling)
- Clojure CLI tools (
brew install clojure/tools/clojureon macOS)
This project uses Beads (br) for issue tracking.
br ready # Find available work
br update <id> --status in_progress # Claim work
br close <id> # Complete work
br sync # Sync issues with version controlThis project uses Jujutsu (jj) for version control. Use jj commands instead of git.
jj commit -m "description" # Record changes
jj status # Check current state# Install shadow-cljs globally
npm install -g shadow-cljs
# Download Clojure dependencies
clojure -PYou need two terminal windows:
Terminal 1 - Backend server:
clojure -M:runThis starts the WebSocket server on port 3000.
For development/testing, you can allow games to start with 1-2 players:
ICEHOUSE_DEV_MODE=true clojure -M:runTerminal 2 - Frontend dev build:
npx shadow-cljs watch appThis compiles ClojureScript and watches for changes.
Once both are running, open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.
Run the backend test suite:
make test
# or
clojure -M:testThe frontend tests run in the browser.
- Start the test watcher:
npx shadow-cljs watch test - Open http://localhost:8022 in your browser.
- Check the browser console for detailed test output.
You can also watch both the app and tests simultaneously:
npx shadow-cljs watch app testsrc/
clj/icehouse/ # Clojure backend
server.clj # HTTP + WebSocket server
websocket.clj # WebSocket message handling
lobby.clj # Lobby/room management
game.clj # Game state and rules
cljs/icehouse/ # ClojureScript frontend
core.cljs # App entry point
state.cljs # Client state atoms
websocket.cljs # WebSocket client
lobby.cljs # Lobby UI
game.cljs # Game canvas UI
See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
See LICENSE for details.