VerifyIt! Replicated & Live Multiplayer

A premium, real-time multiplayer civics, voting rights, and news literacy trivia game replicated from the original VerifyIt! layout. The application features a solo gameplay loop, a live multiplayer lobby with a dedicated host dashboard, real-time player controller inputs, and dual-database support using SQLite.

🚀 Key Features

• Real-time Live Multiplayer (Kahoot-style flow):
  • Lobby: Real-time player registration using a unique 4-digit PIN.
  • Host Dashboard: Controls game start, showing live answers distribution, points, and score leaderboards after each round.
  • Player Controllers: Responsive Web controller views with quick-feedback buttons (A, B, C, D) and immediate points calculation based on answer speed.
• Single Player Mode: Shuffled trivia rounds from selected tracks with instant explanations.
• Dual Database Toggle:
  • Original Database (verifyit.db): Sourced from the original 1,700+ question base.
  • AI Modern Database (verifyit_ai.db): AI-curated, highly polished modern trivia questions (e.g. AI robocalls, Section 230 algorithms, deepfakes, lateral reading) with clean HTML structures.
• Auto-Healing Parser: Automatically detects and repairs flipped columns or missing description tags in older database records (redirecting titles to questions and content to explanations).
• Source Reference Tooltips: Parses inline references like [1] or [2] dynamically and displays the backing source citation on hover using CSS tooltips.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend: React (Vite), Vanilla CSS (Glassmorphism & premium blue tokens), Lucide React.
• Backend: Node.js (Express), Socket.io (WebSocket room state management), native node:sqlite connection.

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💻 Local Setup

1. Prerequisites

Ensure you have Node.js (v22+) installed (required for the built-in experimental SQLite driver).

2. Installation

Install dependencies in both directories:

# Install backend packages
cd backend
npm install

# Install frontend packages
cd ../frontend
npm install --legacy-peer-deps

3. Running Locally

Start the backend and frontend dev servers:

# In the backend directory
npm run start

# In the frontend directory
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173 in your browser.

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🌐 Production Deployment

1. Backend (Node.js + WebSockets + SQLite)

Deploy to a persistent server host like Render or Railway:

• Root Directory: backend
• Build Command: npm install
• Start Command: node server.js
• Make sure both verifyit.db and verifyit_ai.db database files are committed to your repository.

2. Frontend (Vite Static Build)

Deploy to Cloudflare Pages:

• Add a .env.production file in your frontend directory:

  VITE_BACKEND_URL=https://your-backend-service-url.onrender.com

• Run local build and deploy using Wrangler CLI:

  cd frontend
  npm run build
  npx wrangler pages deploy dist