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Case study · Stagebox

Offline game shows, built in two weeks

The Go Game needed to run game shows at venues with no internet at all. I shipped Stagebox in two weeks using agentic, AI-driven development.

Client
The Go Game
Role
Sole engineer
Timeline
2 weeks, 2026
Platform
macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, web

2 wksfrom start to shipped

0internet connections needed at the venue

42 sto issue a real HTTPS certificate

How a show runs

The event is authored in a web dashboard. The host's laptop downloads it and runs the whole show offline: it becomes the Wi-Fi hotspot, players join by scanning one QR code, and the laptop drives the presenter screen while everyone plays on their phones.

The hard problems

  • Wi-Fi with no internet. macOS has no public API for Internet Sharing. Working with an AI agent, I reverse-engineered it and drove the SystemConfiguration C API through a JXA/Objective-C bridge. An always-on loopback service gives it something to share, so the hotspot works fully offline, with a single password prompt.
  • Real HTTPS on a local network. Phones only allow camera access on secure pages, and nobody installs certificate profiles on 100 phones. Each laptop gets its own hostname with a publicly trusted Let's Encrypt certificate (the model Plex made popular), and a small DNS server on the laptop answers it with the hotspot address.
  • Live camera from phones. A player who buzzes in streams their phone camera straight to the presenter screen over one-way WebRTC, with no media servers.

What it's made of

A cloud API and authoring dashboard, an Electron + React host app with a local server, React Native player apps for iOS and Android plus a web version, and a shared package for types and the message protocol.

Outcome

Built and shipped in two weeks, by one engineer directing AI agents, on a problem with no documented solution.

Screens

Stagebox in use

The Stagebox desktop app running a live game: the current multiple-choice question and every team's answer.
The host console during a live round, fully offline.
The Stagebox About screen: what works on this network, the account, and the LAN identity with its Let's Encrypt certificate.
Each box gets a real hostname and HTTPS certificate on the LAN.
The Stagebox join screen on a phone with a game code entered.
Players join from their phones with a code.
A multiple-choice question on a player's phone after time ran out.
A multiple-choice question.
A buzz-in round on a player's phone with a large red Buzz button.
A buzz-in round.

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