Find Vedha
ROLE
Product Designer & AI-Assisted Builder
Product Designer & AI-Assisted Builder
DURATION
2 weeks
Find Vedha is a browser game where one player moves through a city in secret and the rest hunt them across a transit map — 24 rounds, live, in a private room.
It's a digital take on Scotland Yard, built for the case that game never had: friends on different laptops and phones, on any network, playing together in real time.
No install. Just sign-up to try it.
Process
Research
Studied Scotland Yard, mapped the online-multiplayer gap
Define
Mapped the full game state and sitemap
Claude Code
Built the real game engine and UI
GitHub
Version-controlled the full build
Supabase
Wired real-time multiplayer, auth, and live rooms
Vercel
Shipped live, playtested with real friends
What is Scotland Yard?
A 1983 board game. One player — "Mister X" — is hidden on a map of London. Five detectives chase him using shared transport tickets. He surfaces on only five set turns; the rest is deduction from his last-known stop.
Everyone always knows where he was. Never where he is.​
The gap: there's still no proper way to play it online. The official app is single-device pass-and-play. Nothing lets a group on different machines just start a game together — so I built it.
The Idea
Why Scotland Yard?: Scotland Yard is one of the best hidden-movement games ever made, but it's locked behind physical setup: a board, coins, tickets, and everyone in the same room. That friction is exactly why almost no one plays it anymore.
The inspiration: chess.com wasn't the first place to play chess online, but it's the one that stuck: play a bot, play a friend, watch a game live, climb a leaderboard. That specific mix — not just "chess, but digital" — is what made it feel different from every other chess site. I took that as the model: don't just port the board game online, build the same kind of complete, differentiated experience around it.
Problem Statement
Scotland Yard's chase-and-deduce gameplay never made the jump online the way chess did — it still needs a table, a board, and a room full of people. Find Vedha rebuilds that same game as a real-time multiplayer web app: same hidden-movement chase, no physical setup, playable with friends from anywhere.
Key Features
1. Live private rooms
six-character code, one host, 2–6 players, real-time board and chat.
2. Hidden movement
Vedha moves in secret; detectives get a reveal on rounds 3, 8, 13, 18, 24.
3. Transport tickets
auto, bus, metro, wildcard, plus Vedha's double-move.
4. Solo vs computer
a full game against AI detectives or AI Vedha, nobody else needed.
5. Table video & voice
everyone on camera around the board (UI prototype).
6. Add Friends & presence
Add friends / see who's online / in a lobby / mid-game, invite in one tap.
7. After the game
result, match history, one-tap rematch, season stats.
8. Reconnect-safe
take over a dropped detective's pawn; the game pauses if Vedha drops.
Key Decision
1. The Full Layout
Rounds
Player turn
Collapse Switch
Manual
Leave Game
Video panel switch
Collapsible panel with
Vedha's log, players and chats
Left rail for viewing screens, Ai chat and direct to dashboard
Remaining Tickets
Game board with zoom
2. Landing page is a live demo, not a pitch.
The hero is a playable mini-board; a ring of cards walks through a round. You get the game before you read a word.
Brough a mini playable finding map making cursor like a zoom lense to understand the game
A giant card wheel instead of a scroll list for "how to play" — so the landing page feels like part of the game, not a manual bolted onto it.
3. First Pass vs. Final
One accent colour, not gold everywhere. The map used to glow amber all over; now roads stay muted and colour is spent on one signal
Version 2
Version 1
Nodes redrawn calmer and flatter so the network reads at a glance instead of competing for attention.
Moves open where you tap, not in a bottom bar. The early build made you glance down to a ticket strip for every move; now the overlay opens right on the stop you tapped.
4. A pulsing ring on the active pawn
Testers kept losing their own piece on the big map. Cyan "you are here" waves now sweep out from whoever's turn it is.
5. Lobby
The shared room everyone joins to pick roles, chat, and get ready — before the match starts.
Choose Characters
Lobby Chat
Players & Ready status
Video panel
Host can let the computer deal roles. Skip the manual pick; get a clean split — one player is Vedha, the rest share the detectives.
Start Game
Sitemap
The full structure, end to end: landing and auth, the dashboard, create a room, join by code, solo vs computer, friends, profile, settings.
User Testing
Played full games and tested with 20+ people across laptops and phones. Watched every session, noted every stumble.
Player 1
"I can't find my own piece." → added the pulsing locator rings.
Player 2
"Am I Detective 2 or 4?" → put player names next to the roles.
Player 3
"Pinch-zoom does nothing on my phone." → added two-finger zoom
Player 4
"I really love the game interface - Especially the landing page"
Player 4
"The game is very fun and interesting"
Key Learnings
-
Scale needs a "you are here" cue.
Pulsing rings fixed what a bigger map never could. -
The simplest gap beats the fanciest feature.
A name next to a role mattered more than any mechanic. -
Hiding data isn't the same as showing nothing.
A "last seen" trail gave detectives something to read.
What's Next
-
Wire the table video to a real service (currently a prototype).
-
Spectator mode for eliminated or waiting players.
-
A short ranked season with a real leaderboard.
