The game of tic-tac-toe.
In tic-tac-toe, the idea is to get 3 X's or 3 O's in a row, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. This is a two player game. When someone connects to the server, it will locate a game that either contains only one player (and needs one more), or create a new game. Once two players are in the same game, the game begins. Players then alternate clicking on an available spot to claim it with their symbol (either X or O). When one player wins, or the game contains no more available spots on the board, each are allowed to play again. This action clears the board and restarts the game.
The two players do not need to be on seperate devices, and can be on the same machine. If they are on the same machine, they need to be in separate browser tabs or windows. Each connection is considered a separate person. Currently there is no way to choose a specific person to play against, since the server just finds the next available game to place the player in (which could be a new game).
This game provided a sandbox to test out Socket.IO in a Node.js application. Backbone.js is used on the client side and Node.js on the server side, but the interaction between the two is done purely through socket.io. For example, each time a user clicks a space to claim it with their symbol (X or O), an event is sent from the client to the server, the server verifies the space is available (and the player is playing during his/her turn), and sends an event back to signal the space was taken to both clients. In this way, the rules and game board are both stored and run on the server side, and the clients only display what the server tells them.
The bulk of the game logic is in tic-tac-toe-game.js, which contains functions to create games, find games for new players, determine if moves are valid, and if anyone has won the game after the turn is over. The tic-tac-toe-controller.js contains all the socket.io logic to send and receive messages to the clients, and uses the tic-tac-toe-game.js file to handle game logic. On the client side, the board-view.js handles most of the socket.io messages while it runs the game board.
More information on the details of the application can be found here:
http://blog.dylants.com/2013/05/26/socket-io/
If the game is hosted, you may find the URL in the GitHub description above. Please be aware that the game may take a while to connect because of the cheap hosting.
To run it locally, you'll need to install Node.js, clone the repo, and within the directory of the game run:
npm install
npm start
Point your browser to http://localhost:3000 for each player who would like to play.