[lksslr]

shameless plug: we saw a similar problem, but our solution is spatial video calls in 3D instead of 2D: https://laptopsinspace.com it's also built on top of the jitsi meet api but uses an extra backend for managing the game data.

[moron4hire]

I had originally thought of 3D. This isn't my first time making a spatialized audio chat system. I built one for WebVR some 4 or 5 years ago. And I'm actually building one at work right now (with Calla as the underpinning). But for when I started this project (at the beginning of the pandemic) and for what purpose I built it (testing the current temperature of the waters in WebRTC land, as I hadn't done a lot with it since that last app, plus trying to support a weekend tech meetup that was finding Zoom to be a bit annoying, plus seeing if FOSS WebRTC libraries were at a level that I could use for my day job), I wanted to make the graphics portion of the app a simple as possible, support the most people as possible, and not get in the way.

One thing I've noticed with a lot of the "competitor"[0] apps out there is that they're more focused on the graphics than the audio. They're more focused on making a 90's-era RPG than on audio conferencing. I'm the opposite. I'm more focused on conferencing than the game. I get a lot of requests in the github repo for functionality in the game. The "game" is beside the point. It's just an exercise of the audio conferencing.

[0] I don't really see myself as in competition with gather.town or High Fidelity or any of the other apps because I'm not building Calla to be a startup. I love my day job and I won't be leaving it. Calla is just a component of a much larger thing I'm building.