ft_transcendence
A real-time multiplayer Pong platform exploring WebSocket communication, tournament management, and full-stack development with Django.
01 · Problem
What made this hard
Building a real-time multiplayer experience means solving state synchronization across clients, managing WebSocket connections reliably, designing tournament workflows that handle creation and matchmaking, and maintaining a responsive UI under concurrent play.
02 · Approach
How I solved it
Designed and implemented the frontend for the Home page, Tournament pages, and Matchmaking interface using vanilla JavaScript. Built backend logic in Django for tournament management, creation, matchmaking, and local/remote tournament handling. Worked with WebSockets to synchronize multiplayer interactions and tournament state between clients. Developed and ran the project using Docker with a Django application architecture.
03 · Result
What came out of it
A functional multiplayer platform with real-time gameplay, tournament management, matchmaking, and responsive user interfaces — all Dockerized for reproducible deployment.
04 · Highlights
Key technical details
Constraints
- →Real-time state synchronization across multiple clients
- →WebSocket reliability under concurrent connections
- →Tournament lifecycle management with matchmaking
05 · Architecture
How the pieces fit
Frontend
Vanilla JavaScript interfaces for the Home page, Tournament pages, Matchmaking, and game views — responsive across screen sizes.
Backend
Django application handling tournament management, creation, matchmaking, and persistence with PostgreSQL.
Real-time Layer
WebSocket connections synchronizing multiplayer interactions and tournament state between connected clients.
06 · Decisions
Choices worth naming
- 01
Vanilla JavaScript
Chose vanilla JS for the frontend to maintain direct control over DOM updates and WebSocket message handling without framework overhead.
- 02
Django for backend
Django's structured approach to application architecture fit the tournament management and matchmaking workflows.
07 · Trade-offs
What I gave up
Real-time multiplayer requires low-latency bidirectional communication that polling cannot provide reliably.
Dockerized the entire stack for consistent environments across development and deployment.
08 · Reflection
Lessons and what's next
Lessons
- ·WebSocket state management requires careful handling of connection drops and reconnections
- ·Tournament lifecycle logic benefits from clear state machine design
- ·Real-time UI updates need to be batched to avoid layout thrashing
Future
- →Add spectator mode for live tournament viewing
- →Implement tournament bracket visualization
- →Explore WebRTC for peer-to-peer gameplay
Team Project
My Contributions
Frontend
- →Designed and implemented the Home page
- →Built the Tournament pages and management forms
- →Developed the Matchmaking interface
- →Built Local and Remote Tournament experiences
- →Created responsive interfaces using vanilla JavaScript
Backend
- →Implemented backend logic for tournament management and creation
- →Built matchmaking logic for local and remote tournaments
Real-time Features
- →Worked with WebSockets to synchronize multiplayer interactions and tournament state
- →Integrated real-time communication between players and the backend
Infrastructure
- →Developed and ran the project using Docker
- →Worked with the Django application architecture and deployment environment
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