The Royal Game of Ur
JavaScript Game Dev SVG AI
I’ll write a detailed case study here soon. In the meantime, here’s the short version.
The Royal Game of Ur is one of the oldest known board games, dating back roughly 4,500 years to ancient Mesopotamia. I built a playable browser version as an exercise in game development and iterative UI polish.
The game went through multiple major iterations:
- v0.1 – Minimum viable product. Functional rules and turn-taking, basic HTML layout.
- v0.2 – Significant UI overhaul with better board presentation, move guidance, dice feedback, keyboard controls, and historical-style SVG board art inspired by the original artifacts (shell, lapis lazuli, and carnelian motifs).
- v0.3 – Full visual reboot. Single SVG coordinate system for the board, pieces, and highlights. Warm tabletop presentation with parchment and wood textures. Responsive layout with dedicated mobile portrait and landscape modes.
The game features an AI opponent, move preview on hover, binary dice with visible sum calculation, match history tracking, and fullscreen support. It’s a static site – no server, no dependencies, just HTML/CSS/JS that runs in any browser.