BadgerPlay is a mobile-first web application built for UW–Madison students to organize and join pickup sports games on campus.

It functions as a real-time, campus-wide game board where students can create games, join others, and build a social sports network.

BadgerPlay solves a simple but common problem:

“I want to play soccer right now — but who’s free?”

Users can:

• Post public or private pickup games
• Browse upcoming games
• Join instantly
• Chat with players
• Add friends and build a sports network

The system is designed to feel real-time, social, and mobile-native.

• Email + password signup
• Passwords hashed using bcrypt (10 salt rounds)
• 6-digit OTP verification on first signup
• .edu emails receive a "wisc.edu verified ✓" badge
• Non-edu users are labeled as Guest
• Returning users log in with email + password only

• Displays all upcoming public games

• Sorted chronologically

• Each game card shows:

  • Sport (emoji + color-coded)
  • Location
  • Date & time
  • Skill level
  • Host name
  • Player avatars
  • Capacity progress bar

• Sport filter chips at the top

• Tapping a game opens a detail modal with:

  • Full player list
  • Clickable player profiles

Users can create games by selecting:

• Sport (grid selection + custom option)
• Location (free text or campus quick-select chips)
• Date & time
• Max players (2–30)
• Skill level
• Optional description
• Public or Private toggle

Private games are:

• Hidden from the main feed

• Only accessible via in-chat invite

• Stored with:

  • visibility: "private"
  • Unique 8-character invite code
  • invitedUsers array

Backend enforcement:

• Feed endpoint excludes private games
• Join endpoint checks invitedUsers
• Game cannot be joined without invite

Displays:

• 🌍 Public Games (joined/hosting)
• 🔒 Private Games (joined/hosting)

Hosted games include a Manage button for deletion.

After scheduled time:

• Game automatically moves to Game History

Two-tab social system:

• Recent conversations
• Last message preview
• Real-time refresh (3s polling)
• New Message search

• Add / accept / reject friend requests

• Pending request badge

• Quick actions:

  • 💬 Chat
  • 🏟️ Send Game Invite
  • ⋮ Remove friend

Inside any chat:

1. Host clicks “🏟️ Invite”

2. Selects one of their hosted games

3. Invite appears as a styled message bubble

4. Recipient sees:

   • Game details
   • Green “Join Game →” button

5. Clicking joins instantly

This is the only method to join private games.

Each profile displays:

• Avatar
• Name
• Verified/Guest badge
• Games Played count (dynamic)
• Top sport
• Favorite sports (emoji tags)

From profiles, users can:

• Send friend requests
• Start a chat
• View game history

All avatars and names in the app are clickable.

Games follow a natural lifecycle:

1. Created (future time)
2. Visible on feed
3. Players join
4. Time passes
5. Automatically removed from feed
6. Added to Game History

Feed query:

time > now

History query:

time < now

Games Played count is calculated dynamically from history.

With more development time, we would add:

• WebSocket real-time messaging
• Push notifications
• Email-based OTP delivery
• Map view with geolocation
• Public deployment
• Scalable production environment
• Image uploads for avatars
• Admin moderation tools

Pickup sports are inherently social and spontaneous. Existing tools (group chats, text threads) are fragmented and inefficient.

BadgerPlay centralizes:

• Discovery
• Coordination
• Social connection

Into a single, structured campus platform.