Words you will meet
- Telugu cinema
- Films made in Telugu, a language of South India, with their songs, dialogue and stars.
- Installable web app (PWA)
- An app delivered as a web link. It opens in the phone's browser and adds itself to the home screen, with no app store.
- Takkar
- The game's name for its live multiplayer rooms, where friends answer the same question at the same time.
- Antakshari
- A song game: each player must sing a song that starts with a given syllable.
Chapter 1 · The problem
Our movie quiz nights only worked with everyone in one room, and each new round took hours to write
I run Telugu movie quiz nights with friends. One round, Badly Explained Plots, gives a film's plot in one absurd line and everyone shouts the title. Those nights need everyone in one room, and someone has to spend hours writing fresh rounds.
The name is chitra (cinema) and lahari (wave). The aim, in my spec, was to put the energy of the offline night on friends' phones, so it could happen anywhere.
Every offline round became a mode, and two new modes joined them
Exhibit 1
Eight offline rounds became nine app modes, and two new modes were added
| Offline round | App mode | How you answer |
|---|---|---|
| Badly Explained Plots | Plot Twist | Type the film's name |
| Extempore | Rapid Fire | Say or type as many answers as you can in 60 seconds |
| Longest Links | Six Degrees | Link two actors through shared films |
| Connections | Grid Connect | Sort 16 tiles into 4 hidden groups |
| Song Reading | Lyric Detective | Hear the lyrics read aloud, name the song |
| English Translation | Lost in Translation | Hear an English translation, name the song |
| Background music | Name That Tune | Hear a clip, name the song |
| GIFs and dialogues | Scene It, Dialogue Dhamaka | Name the film, or the film and actor |
| New | Antakshari | Sing a song starting with the right syllable |
| New | Poster Zoom | Guess the film as a poster slowly comes into view |
Sources: Chitralahari spec v2, sections 1 and 5, May 2026; lib/modes/registry.ts.
Chapter 2 · Decisions
I designed for iPhone's limits and for friends who write questions but not code, before the build began
I wrote the spec first, with a log of what changed from my first version. Most of its decisions were about who would play and who would write the questions.
Exhibit 2
Five decisions, each giving up something easier for a game friends could join and keep fresh
| Decision | What I gave up | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An installable web app instead of a store app | App-store presence and some phone features | Friends join from a link, and every fix reaches them on their next open |
| Typed and multiple-choice answers in every voice round | A voice-only game | iPhone Safari has no speech recognition, so a voice-only game would shut out every iPhone player |
| Song lyrics are heard, never shown | Easier rounds, for players who prefer reading | Lyrics on screen can be searched in seconds. The reveal always names the film, composer and year. |
| Questions written in a spreadsheet | A richer custom editor | The friends who write the best questions do not write code |
| Real song clips for private play only | A public launch | Clips and film images need licensing first |
Replays cost points, so listening carefully pays
In a song round you tap to hear the prompt. You can replay it, but each replay trims your score. Then the real recording plays, so even a wrong answer teaches you the song.
Sources: Chitralahari spec v2, decisions log and sections 2, 4, 9 and 14, May 2026.
Chapter 3 · What I built
In one day I built all 11 modes, live rooms and a spreadsheet editor
I built it on 31 May 2026 from the spec, in eight build plans, with Claude Code agents writing much of the code. Each mode is a plug-in behind one shared interface, with automated tests for its game logic.
Exhibit 3
The game, the rooms and the content editor are built; iPhone voice and three modes' questions come next
| Part | Status | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 11 game modes | Built | One shared interface; tests for each mode's logic |
| Song rounds by voice | Built | On Android and desktop. Lyrics read aloud by a free public text-to-speech service. Spoken Telugu is matched loosely, more loosely than typed answers. |
| Voice answers on iPhone | On the roadmap | Planned route: record the answer and send it to a cloud service. Until then the mic button hides, and iPhone players type or pick. |
| Live rooms (Takkar) | Built | Same question to everyone at once; 150, 100, 50 and 25 points for first to fourth and below |
| Daily challenge, leaderboards, profiles | Built | One shared puzzle a day, and rankings |
| Spreadsheet editor | Built | A sheet per game type, upload and download as CSV or Excel, then publish |
| Starter questions | Built | 90 questions; 8 of 11 modes have some. Scene It, Antakshari and Poster Zoom are next to fill. |
Random questions favored the biggest modes, so the pick was balanced
At first each round drew questions at random from the whole pool. Plot Twist holds 30 of the 90 starter questions, so random draws over-weighted it and games felt lopsided. The pick now cycles through the sections, so every section appears in each round.
Sources: lib/modes, lib/voice, lib/realtime and app/api in the project; commits for Telugu matching, placement scoring and the balanced pick, 31 May 2026; starter content file.
Chapter 4 · Status
Friends play it privately, and a public launch follows licensing
Chitralahari is a game for my friends, and they play it privately.
Exhibit 4
It runs for friends today; a public launch waits on licensing and iPhone voice
| Question | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| Does it run? | Built Linked to a private hosting project; no public link |
| Who plays? | Observed Friends, privately |
| Can it launch publicly? | Next Song clips, film stills and posters need licensing |
| Does voice work on every phone? | On the roadmap On Android and desktop today; iPhone voice is planned |
| Does it make money? | Not planned. Coins are earned in play only, and none can be bought. |
Sources: Chitralahari spec v2, sections 0 and 14; project folder, May 2026.
Reflections
A written spec carried the one-day build; play counts come next
What worked
A written spec with a decisions log. The hard choices, an installable web app, typed answers alongside voice, and songs by ear, were settled before any code, so the build day was spent building.
What I learned
Play counts belong in the first version: games per mode, who comes back, and where players stop. I will build them in from day one.
What I'd do next
Add play counts per mode and next-week return, fill the three modes with no questions yet, and build the record-and-send voice route for iPhone. A public version comes after the audio is licensed or original.