Games · Devlog #05 · personal project

4Naipe

Brazilian card games online, built for accessibility

Buraco, tranca, truco and dominoes in real-time multiplayer, with bots, a table simulator, tested rules and a typeface designed for low vision and dyslexia.

1 min read by Edinaldo Sá

  • Card games
  • Multiplayer
  • Accessibility
  • Next.js
  • boardgame.io
  • Vitest
Pixel-art illustration: a green felt table with a wooden rim, four large cards (ace of spades, king of hearts, queen of diamonds and jack of clubs), a domino tile and cards showing “Aa” and “7”.
Pixel-art illustration made for this post. Not a capture from the game.

The card games people actually play

Anyone who plays buraco or truco online tends to find dated apps, full of ads and with no accessibility. 4Naipe brings together the card games Brazilians actually play, with real-time multiplayer and a design built for people with reading difficulties.

Seven games

The catalogue focuses on Brazilian card games: buraco in two variants and truco under both the São Paulo and Minas Gerais rules, in the same app.

  • Buraco Canastra
  • Buraco STBL
  • Tranca
  • Truco Paulista
  • Truco Mineiro
  • Dominoes (draw game)
  • Texas Hold’em poker

Accessibility as a decision

The buraco and tranca crowd is broad and includes lots of people over 50. That’s why accessibility went in as a product decision, not a checklist item.

  • The Atkinson Hyperlegible typeface, designed for low vision and dyslexia.
  • A responsive, mobile-first layout, designed for the phone first.

A real-time table

Real-time multiplayer

With a dedicated game server.

In-match chat

Talk during the game, like at a real table.

Bots

They fill empty seats and let you play solo.

Per-game bots

Each game has its own bots.

Tested balance

Card games have lots of rules and lots of exceptions. Instead of trusting my eye, the project tests:

  • Each game’s rules covered by automated tests (Vitest)
  • A table simulator
  • A stress-test suite

The balance is tested, not guessed.

Stack & tech sheet

  • npm workspaces + Turborepo
  • Next.js 14 (App Router)
  • React 18
  • Tailwind
  • Zustand
  • TanStack Query
  • Zod
  • Framer Motion
  • boardgame.io
  • Koa + JWT
  • PostgreSQL 16
  • Vitest
  • Playwright
  • Node 20+
Status
Working web platform with 7 games, bots, a simulator and stress tests
Architecture
Monorepo; Next.js front end; Koa + boardgame.io game server
Next phase
React Native app, planned (doesn’t exist yet)

Play buraco or truco, or care about accessibility in games? Let’s talk.

Write to me