p5.party adds online multiplayer features to p5.js

p5.party is a library that adds networking features p5.js. With p5.party, students can quickly prototype ideas for multiplayer games, realtime multi-user apps, and multi-computer art projects.

Made for sketching, teaching, and learning.

Shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic led to classes moving online, I started looking ways to turn the hands-on worksheets and group activities I used in my classes into multi-user online experiences. I found that creating small networked apps was difficult because most networking libraries are designed for more complex projects. The overhead associated with setting up a server and writing coordinating front-end and back-end code was too much for the kinds of simple projects I wanted to create.

I started talking to my students and found that this complexity was an even bigger barrier for them. It raised the floor: you had to know a lot of things before you could get started making anything. With this in mind, I started working with two students, Munro Hoberman and Isabel Anguera, on the first versions of p5.party. Our goal was to create a tool that lets students build on their p5.js knowledge, jump in, start prototyping, and learn about making networked experiences by making them.