My Pixel World

Real-time collaborative pixel art editor built with Next.js, Socket.IO, TypeScript, and MongoDB.

Project Structure

This project is split into two parts:

• client/: Next.js frontend application (deployed on Vercel)
• server/: Node.js + Socket.IO backend with MongoDB (deployed on Render.com)

Features

• 🎨 Real-time collaborative pixel drawing
• 🖌️ Multiple drawing tools (pen, eraser, hand)
• 🎨 Color picker with custom colors
• 🗺️ Large navigable canvas
• 👥 Multi-user collaboration
• 🏠 Room-based collaboration system
• 📱 Responsive design with loading screen
• ⚡ TypeScript support
• 🗄️ MongoDB persistence (no data loss on server restart)
• 🚀 Optimized for production

Quick Start

Development

1. Start the server:

cd server
npm install
cp env.example .env
npm run dev

2. Start the client:

cd client
npm install
cp env.local.example .env.local
npm run dev

3. Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Production Deployment

Server (Render.com)

1. Create a new Web Service on Render.com

2. Connect your GitHub repository

3. Set build command: cd server && npm install && npm run build

4. Set start command: cd server && npm start

5. Add environment variables:

   • NODE_ENV=production
   • CLIENT_URL=https://your-vercel-app.vercel.app
   • CORS_ORIGIN=https://your-vercel-app.vercel.app
   • MONGODB_URI=your-mongodb-uri

6. Create a MongoDB instance on Render.com or use MongoDB Atlas and connect it to your server

Client (Vercel)

1. Push your code to GitHub
2. Connect your repository to Vercel
3. Set environment variables in Vercel dashboard:
   • NEXT_PUBLIC_SERVER_URL: Your Render.com server URL
   • NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_NAME: My Pixel World

Technologies

Frontend

• Next.js 14 (App Router)
• TypeScript
• Socket.IO Client
• HTML5 Canvas
• Material Design Icons
• Tailwind CSS

Backend

• Node.js
• TypeScript
• Socket.IO
• Express.js
• MongoDB
• Mongoose
• CORS

Environment Variables

Server (.env)

PORT=3001
NODE_ENV=development
CORS_ORIGIN=*
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:3000
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/pixel-world

Client (.env.local)

NEXT_PUBLIC_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:3001
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_NAME=My Pixel World

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Test locally
5. Submit a pull request

License

MIT License