Mexican Train - The best domino game out there.
For those out of the know, Mexican Train is a classic domino game that has been around for decades. It is a game of skill and strategy, where players try to make the most points by playing dominoes in a train of dominoes. The game is played with a standard set of dominoes, and the objective is to be the first player to play all of their dominoes.
The goal of Mexican Train is to be the first player to play all of your dominoes. You start by drawing 9 dominoes each, this is your hand. Dominoes start from 12 and go down to 0 (blank).
Why make this?
My family has played Mexican Train for years, over 10 at this point I think! One thing that we noticed colletively was during Covid there wasn't a good way to play Mexican Train online with friends. They all seemed to be made a long time ago or where all single player. Imagine teaching your grandmother not only how to use technology but also how to use a non-mobile friendly website on an iPad. Not ideal.
My Uncle made something in his spare time and it was fantastic, played well and was made with everyone in mind. I wanted to expand on this and build something with more front end and mobile friendlyness as thats something I feel I can bring to the table.
What was the key?
This project would not be possible without DnDKit, huge shoutout to the team there! Having all the major details and little bugs that come with managing dragable components sorted early on in development was a game changer. Tailwind has become my standard go-to for styling and I feel that the site has a very unique design overall incompassing the theme. Websockets keep everything in sync, they where a lot more fun to use then I expected.
With a twist.. and them some!
Now this being a project based on Mexican Train, it was only natural to add some twists to it that my family has developed over the years of playing.
- Bot Takeover. Sometimes life calls and you can't play, no problem! You can just let the bot take over for you.
- Auto Play. Nature calling? Baby crying? Solved. Auto play will continue your turns for you in the mean time, not holding up the game.
- PROFESSIONAL! If you close another players double, well that makes you a professional!
- BOOOOOOO! Played a double but closed your own train? That's no fun! You get a booooo for that.
- DOUBLE TROUBLE! If you play a double and leave it open, well now someone has to deal with it. Double trouble lasts till the double is gone.
- A few more secrets, give it a play to find them!
I'm very happy with this project, its been fun to make a play, my family helped me test and run it (Thanks Kelly and Mumma!) and it feels like a collective effort. Work will continue, but the game is there and ready for all to play! Enjoy!