QRuma: party games on one big screen with phones as gamepads

Most multiplayer games expect every player to own a console or to install an app. A room full of people has neither: guests at a party, a corporate event or a conference break will not download anything or create accounts.

QRuma removes that step:

• One screen for everyone. A TV, laptop, projector or LED wall runs the game in a browser.
• The phone in every pocket is the gamepad. Scan a QR code and play: no app, no store, no sign-up for players.
• Real time. Players move, race and answer at the same moment, and the screen shows all of it smoothly.
• Ordinary networks. Phones do not need the screen's Wi‑Fi; mobile data works.

The screen opens a game on qruma.app, creates a room and shows a QR code with a short room code. Each player scans it and the gamepad opens in the phone browser: a joystick, buttons or answer tiles, depending on the game. Anyone who cannot scan enters the room code.

Five games show that the platform is not tied to one genre:

• Immune Z. A co-op top-down zombie shooter for 1–10 players.
• Race Track. Racing for 1–8 players.
• Quiz Battle. A quiz for 2–30 players with ready-made and custom question packs.
• Tower Defence. Co-op defence for 1–4 players.
• WarLine. A team strategy game about territory for 2–20 players.

Authoritative game server. Node.js with Express and Socket.IO. The server is the single source of truth: phones send inputs, the server applies them up to 60 times per second and sends the state to the screen. A phone cannot decide on its own that it scored.

A connection that survives real networks. Socket.IO works over WebSocket and falls back to HTTP long-polling when a network blocks it. A phone that briefly loses the network reconnects on its own.

A browser instead of an app. Every install step loses part of the room, while every phone already has a browser. Updates reach all players at once.

Screen and gamepads. Next.js, React and TypeScript; the shooter is drawn with PixiJS. The interface speaks four languages.

Data and operations. PostgreSQL with Prisma. QRuma has its own server, database and release process, separate from VibeCatter.

• QRuma has run as a separate product at qruma.app since October 2026, with its own server and database.
• Five multiplayer games of different genres on one platform.
• Joining by QR code or room code, with no app and no shared Wi‑Fi.
• Four interface languages: English, Spanish, Ukrainian and Russian.
• Sign-in with Google, Apple or Telegram for players who want to keep their results.

1. Open qruma.app on a laptop or a TV.
2. Pick a game and start a room: the screen shows a QR code.
3. Scan it with your phone, and with two or three more phones if you can.

If you need a game for your event, a branded quiz or a product where phones act as controllers, write to me. For a whole product, see MVP development.