Telemaphoneroo

About the game

Telemaphoneroo is an online telephone game.

To host a game of Telemaphoneroo go to telemaphoneroo.glitch.me, enter your name (you can choose any name you like!), and click Host game. On hosting a game, telemaphoneroo will give you a URL that you can send to your friends to invite them to play with you.

Game rules

By default, the game asks players to first enter a 2-word phrase, then on subsequent turns they are asked to add a syllable to phrases entered by the other players. As the game progresses, the initial phrases become more and more unrecognisable (for instance, telephone game might become telemaphoneroo gamabarane).

Custom settings also allow the person hosting the game to define their own prompts or game rules. This makes it possible to create a variety of different games using the same basic format. It turns out there's a lot you can do with the telephone game format!

Some fun custom rules:

First prompt Subsequent prompts
Enter a noun Enter an adjective before the noun

Credit: @DouglasFlinders
Enter an object + "of"

e.g. "hat of"		 Add a noun or verb either side of the "of"

Credit: @_kaymay
Enter an emoji Add another emoji
Enter a word Add a word that rhymes with the last word
Give us a beat! Keep the beat going!

The license

Telemaphoneroo was created by Niall Moody.

The game and its source code is released under the Anti-Capitalist Software License. You can read the full text of the license and its rationale here, but if you're looking for a summary, the important part is:

This is anti-capitalist software, released for free use by individuals and organizations that do not operate by capitalist principles.

You can view the game's source code on glitch.com. As long as you abide by the license you are free to remix the game in any way you want.

Why this license?

The ACSL page lists a number of very good reasons you might want to use this license for your projects.

Personally, I chose this license because I worry about the ways freely-available, open source software can be exploited by corporations and organisations inflicting demonstrable harm on people and the planet.

Specifically, I do not want to find, months down the line, that this silly, playful game I made has somehow ended up being used as, say, a team-building exercise by a company like Nestlé known for exploiting child- and forced-labour (among - many - other things). Or by the military. Or the police.

These may be unlikely scenarios, and it's entirely possible that nobody is going to play this game anyway. But as much as I possibly can, I would like to avoid adding to or perpetuating oppression and suffering, even indirectly.

Thanks

This game was born out of the conversations we've had, and the games we've played, over the last year or so at Biome Collective. I am indebted to everyone who's taken part in our weekly sharings and (sometimes sporadic) games nights. I am incredibly grateful to everyone at Biome.

Infrastructure Credits

Telemaphoneroo is built on the following platforms, frameworks, libraries, and fonts:

(also, the main (light mode) background gradient is taken directly from the first example on this MDN page, which I originally used as a placeholder, but ended up liking so much that I kept it)


Niall Moody, 2021.