Gut Check

Trust your gut. Swipe fast. Learn something.

Gut Check is a fast, mobile-first swipe trivia game. Read a card, trust your gut, and swipe before the timer runs out. Spot fake claims, catch scams, and build streaks — and pick up something useful along the way.

Live demo: add your deploy URL here

Screenshot: add docs/screenshot.png

Features

• ⚡ Fast swipe / tap / keyboard play, mobile-first with a desktop frame.
• 🎴 Multiple trivia decks (see Decks below).
• ❤️ 3-heart run loop with a difficulty-aware timer.
• 🔥 Streaks and combo milestone feedback (no currencies, no pay-to-win).
• 👤 Local profiles with avatars and lifetime progress.
• 🏅 Local achievements.
• 🔁 Review missed/wrong cards after a run, with explanations.
• 🔊 Generated Web Audio sound effects with a persisted mute toggle.
• 🧠 First-session tutorial, pause, restart, and game-over summary.
• 💾 Everything saved locally in localStorage — no account or backend required.
• 📲 Installable PWA — add to home screen and play offline (static app, no backend).

Game Modes

• Endless — the current mode. A run keeps going until you run out of hearts; questions recycle from the deck (reshuffled, avoiding immediate repeats) so you never "run out." Difficulty ramps with cards answered.
• Daily Challenge, Ranked Sprint — planned, and only meaningful with a real backend (see Roadmap and the account-ready notes below).

Decks

Deck	Status	Answer
Fresh or Fake	✅ Playable	swipe: Fake ⟵ / ⟶ Fresh
Scam Spotter	✅ Playable	swipe: Sketchy ⟵ / ⟶ Legit
Quick Math	✅ Playable	multiple-choice (tap / keys 1–4)
Weird Facts	✅ Playable	swipe: No Way ⟵ / ⟶ True (sourced facts)
Animal Facts	✅ Playable	swipe: Nope ⟵ / ⟶ For Real (sourced facts)
History Hits	✅ Playable	multiple-choice — which came first / when (sourced)
Science Snacks	✅ Playable	swipe: Nope ⟵ / ⟶ True (sourced facts)

Card model supports answerType: 'binary' | 'multiple-choice' (with math-input reserved for later), optional tiny graphic, and source fields. Factual decks cite a real source — see docs/CONTENT_SOURCING.md.

Gameplay always runs from bundled, curated card data. No live scraping, no runtime calls to external sources during play.

Getting Started

npm install
npm run dev
npm run build
npm run preview

Open the printed local URL (usually http://localhost:5173).

How to Play

• Pick a local profile (or create one) and an avatar.
• Choose a deck and a difficulty (Easy / Normal / Hard).
• Swipe right / tap right / press → for the right-hand answer.
• Swipe left / tap left / press ← for the left-hand answer.
• Esc pauses.
• Wrong answers cost a heart. Timeouts are "missed" — no points, no heart lost, and not counted in accuracy.
• Best scores, settings, avatar, and lifetime progress are saved on this device.

Local Profiles (not cloud accounts)

Gut Check uses local profiles, not accounts. There is no sign-in, no server, and no cloud sync. Profiles live only in this browser. The codebase ships with account-ready service interfaces (src/services/) backed by local adapters, so a real backend can be added later without rewiring the UI — but no online account system exists today.

Achievements

Local, on-device achievements (first run, streak milestones, perfect runs, deck play counts, and more). They unlock as you play and show on the game-over screen and in your profile. There is no global/competitive component yet.

Anti-Bot / Fair Competition Roadmap

Leaderboards in this build are local to this device and are labeled as such. They are not global and make no bot-resistance claims, because client-side scores can be manipulated.

Real online competition requires server-side enforcement and is intentionally not implemented until it can be done honestly:

• Server-generated, signed game sessions and server-chosen question sets.
• Server-side score recomputation and impossible-timing rejection.
• Per-user / per-IP rate limits and Turnstile-style bot challenges.
• Replay and duplicate-submission protection.
• Separate guest/local and verified-account scores.

See docs/PRE_SHIP_CHECKLIST.md for the full gate.

Tech Stack

• React 18 + Vite 5
• Plain CSS (sticker/arcade theme via CSS variables)
• Web Audio API for sound effects
• localStorage for all persistence
• No backend, database, auth, payments, ads, or paid APIs

Project Structure

src/
  App.jsx                 # game state machine + wiring
  main.jsx
  styles.css
  game/
    triviaModes.js        # deck registry
    foodCards.js          # Fresh or Fake deck
    scamCards.js          # Scam Spotter deck
    rules.js              # hearts, timing, storage keys
    scoring.js
    comboMilestones.js
    deckValidation.js
    seenCards.js          # local "recently seen" rotation
  audio/                  # sfx + manifest
  utils/                  # shuffle
  components/             # screens + UI (GameScreen, ReviewScreen, JbdFooter, ...)
  services/               # account-ready interfaces + local adapters
docs/
  PRE_SHIP_CHECKLIST.md

Data & Privacy

Gut Check currently stores local profiles and scores in browser localStorage on your own device. No cloud accounts, database, or backend are used unless a future account system is explicitly configured. Nothing is transmitted off your device. You can clear all local data from the app's reset control, or by clearing site data in your browser.

Security / Pre-Ship

This is a frontend-only static app: no auth, no backend, no database, no paid APIs, no data-sending forms, localStorage only, and no global leaderboard. See docs/PRE_SHIP_CHECKLIST.md. Real accounts or global competition must pass the account/security gate in that document first.

Roadmap

• More playable decks (Quick Math, Weird Facts, and beyond) with sourced facts.
• Multiple-choice and math-input answer types.
• Expanded achievements.
• Optional, future: real accounts + fair, server-validated competition.

Credits

Built by Jacob Britten — Media Systems Architect. Portfolio · Projects · The Lab · Ko-fi · PayPal