BobaVim — I built a browser game to help you speedrun Vim motions (solo + 1v1 modes)
Florent Tapponnier
Hey everyone,
I just launched BobaVim, a browser-based game designed to help you learn and master Vim motions through fast-paced challenges and races.
Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned Vimmer looking to sharpen your skills, you can play solo to train or jump into 1v1 duels to compete in real time. The game includes:
A built-in tutorial & manual
A leaderboard to track your progress
A set of handcrafted levels focused on real Vim usage
This is my small tribute to Bram Moolenaar and the amazing legacy he left through Vim. His work has had a huge impact on how I approach software and productivity.
I built BobaVim using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Go, and along the way I learned a ton about client prediction, real-time multiplayer, and concurrency. Happy to share more about the tech stack if anyone’s curious.
🔗 Try it out: https://www.bobavim.com/
🎥 Gameplay demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrwJ3-c9ptE
I’d love to hear what you think, and I’m always open to feedback or ideas for improvement!
Cheers,
Florent
Maxim Kim
Christian Brabandt
thanks, that looks quite nice. But I found the start screen
started a bit confusing, as I didn't know what to do there (e.g. what is
the difference between Play and Play online, what are those Boba
icons?). Also not clear why I should create an account.
You may want to share to the wider community using reddit (/r/vim).
Thanks,
Chris
Christian
--
Those who do things in a noble spirit of self-sacrifice are to be avoided
at all costs.
-- N. Alexander.
Florent Tapponnier
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Florent Tapponnier
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Roy Fulbright
Sent: Wednesday, August 6, 2025 3:40 AM
To: vim...@googlegroups.com <vim...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: BobaVim — I built a browser game to help you speedrun Vim motions (solo + 1v1 modes)
thanks, that looks quite nice. But I found the start screen
started a bit confusing, as I didn't know what to do there (e.g. what is
the difference between Play and Play online, what are those Boba
icons?). Also not clear why I should create an account.
You may want to share to the wider community using reddit (/r/vim).
Thanks,
Chris
On Di, 05 Aug 2025, Florent Tapponnier wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>
> I just launched BobaVim, a browser-based game designed to help you learn and
> master Vim motions through fast-paced challenges and races.
>
> Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned Vimmer looking to sharpen your
> skills, you can play solo to train or jump into 1v1 duels to compete in real
> time. The game includes:
>
> • A built-in tutorial & manual
>
> • A leaderboard to track your progress
>
> • A set of handcrafted levels focused on real Vim usage
>
> This is my small tribute to Bram Moolenaar and the amazing legacy he left
> through Vim. His work has had a huge impact on how I approach software and
> productivity.
>
> I built BobaVim using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Go, and along the way I
> learned a ton about client prediction, real-time multiplayer, and concurrency.
> Happy to share more about the tech stack if anyone’s curious.
>
> 🎥 Gameplay demo: https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DvrwJ3-c9ptE&data=05%7C02%7C%7C485fe5442fb94a4f887808ddd4bc9ca2%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638900628744601677%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FaBCWt34j9bZqNjVldI5nZ1i2F%2BkQTsEF0g4A9lLkes%3D&reserved=0
>
> I’d love to hear what you think, and I’m always open to feedback or ideas for
> improvement!
>
> Cheers,
> Florent
>
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Christian
--
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at all costs.
-- N. Alexander.
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Steve Litt
>Hey everyone,
>
>I just launched *BobaVim*, a browser-based game designed to help you
>*learn and master Vim motions* through fast-paced challenges and races.
>Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned Vimmer looking to
>duels* to compete in real time. The game includes:
That is sooooo cool, and will be a great resource when it works
reliably. Before adding features for the advanced Vim user, I think you
should get the main game to work reliably. Here are some things that
need attention, at least on the local game, which is the only one I
tried so far:
* It usually doesn't respect w or b, nor a number like 10h, forcing you
to use nothing but h, j, k, l, and then it penalizes you for
exclusively using those four keys.
* When you get into the menu, the menu isn't reliably responsive to
either the keyboard or the mouse. All your keystrokes filter
through to the still running game, which you can't see. You get stuck
there and need to close the tab and try again.
* As others have said, when you open the screen, your first reaction is
"ok, what now?". Nobody can know, at first, what the milkshake and
the frowny face are. Also, before you play, you see a keyboard,
leading you to think you're already playing.
* You use bank check typeface for some of the material in the manual.
This typeface works great for OCR, but it's a horror for human eyes.
* You can get in a state where you're permanently blocked and can't
escape the game or start a new game. I suggest starting with :q
* Finding a character appears to be f, F, t or T. Shouldn't it be / or
? ?
* The little window from the upper right that coaches you should not
only berate you, it should also give you better alternatives. This
can be hard coded: w, b, ^, 0, $, 3j, /c, ?a, etc.
Even if you never added a feature for experienced Vimists, once fixed,
this program will bring hordes of trained beginners into Vim. The
tough part is opening, quitting, saving, simple searching and and
motions. That's enough to move somebody comfortably into Vim, where he
or she can learn everything. This program will be spectacular when
fixed. Great job!!!!
PS: The only profanity I saw was "damn".
SteveT
Steve Litt
http://444domains.com
Steve Litt
IMPORTANT: I wrote my list of defects based on playing with the
qutebrowser browser. When I played with Chromium, it worked pretty much
as expected. I'll test it more later, time for a bicycle ride right now.
This is a spectacular resource!
Florent Tapponnier
-
Normally w, b, and commands like 10h should work. That’s an interesting observation; the only thing that should be penalized is using the arrow keys — h, j, k, and l are not penalized. There might be something with your browser or keyboard that’s causing these keys to bug out. Thank you very much for the feedback — I’m interested in finding the cause.
-
You’re right, thanks for pointing this out — I hadn’t noticed that detail. For now, j, k, and Enter can be used to move, and Esc to show the menu, but I will re-enable mouse support.
-
Indeed, I’ve received this comment a few times regarding the map and character selection. I’ll work on fixing this point.
-
Thanks for the remark — I’ll work on improving the font.
-
Interesting. Do you know when exactly this happens, or in what situation this state occurs? Integrating :q could indeed be done quite easily.
-
f, F, t, T, , and ; are search motions. / and ? are also interesting motions, but I’m not yet sure how to integrate them into the game without making it too easy, since they would allow the player to move too quickly across the game.
-
Thanks for the feedback — I went with the idea of creating a funny character who helps a little but not too much, and to make it humorous. Some players find it funny, others find it rude. I’ll see about reworking this tutorial; I’m still deciding whether I prefer to give a bit of help and let the player figure things out by themselves or via the manual, or to just explain everything upfront.
Thank you very much, Stevie, for taking the time to test the game and think about how to make it better. I read your feedback with great interest!
Florent
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Ven Tadipatri
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Florent Tapponnier
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