This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Julius
Hey Devs 👋
I just soft-launched Doodely — a fast, browser-based multiplayer drawing & guessing game built in 3 days using Cursor.
This was my first real attempt at building something interactive with real-time multiplayer — and I’m still very much a frontend beginner. My goal was to experiment with AI-assisted workflows to see if tools like Cursor could help me ship faster and write clean, future-proof code.
TL;DR: it worked better than expected — and I’d love your feedback 🙏
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🎮 What is it?
One player draws, others guess the word in real time. The faster you guess, the more points you earn.
Think: Pictionary meets charades, but lightweight, modern, and no friction.
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⚙️ Tech Stack
• Cursor (AI dev environment — my primary tool)
• React (frontend + basic server routes)
• TypeScript
• Socket.IO (for real-time sync)
• TailwindCSS
• Vercel (for fast deploys)
Game state is kept in memory for now, as I’m still testing out hosting tradeoffs.
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🧪 The Soft Launch Plan
I gave myself 3 days and kept the goals super tight:
• Core gameplay loop: draw + guess + score
• No login, no installs — just share a link
• Public + private rooms, custom word lists
Posted it on Reddit (r/WebGames, r/SideProject) to gather early feedback — and the response was surprisingly positive!
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💡 What I Learned
• 🧠 Small scope = faster iteration
• ⏱️ Real-time stuff breaks fast if sync/timers are off
• 🎨 Smooth UI makes a huge difference for casual games
• 🧪 Early users helped me fix bugs I hadn’t even considered
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🧠 Why Cursor?
As a beginner, I’m constantly jumping between learning resources. With Cursor, I was able to stay in flow and let AI fill in the gaps while I learned in context.
I still had to verify and refactor a lot of the generated code — but the speed boost was real, and it helped me focus more on UX/game logic.
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🖍️ Try It Out
👉 https://doodely.app
(no login required)
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👋 Would love your thoughts!
• Is the code structure sane for something like this?
• Does the game flow feel intuitive?
• What would you improve or add?
If you’re building something similar or using AI tools in your workflow, I’d love to hear your approach too.
Thanks for reading! 🙌
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Julius
Julius | Sciencx (2025-07-23T21:16:53+00:00) 🚀 Built My First Multiplayer Browser Game in 3 Days Using Cursor (Soft Launch). Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/23/%f0%9f%9a%80-built-my-first-multiplayer-browser-game-in-3-days-using-cursor-soft-launch/
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