# Building the Crossplay Board

DevFeed: [Building the Crossplay Board](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/building-the-crossplay-board-39148.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://open.nytimes.com/building-the-crossplay-board-6de68c8574f9?source=rss----51e1d1745b32---4>)

Author: The NYT Open Team

Published: 2026-06-08T16:46:30Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [New York Times](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/new-york-times.md>)

Topics: [Android](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/android.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>), [Jetpack Compose](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/jetpack-compose.md>), [Mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mobile.md>), [ui](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ui.md>), [screen](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/screen.md>), [real-time](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/real-time.md>)

Tags: [android](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android.md>), [android-app-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android-app-development.md>), [asynchronous](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/asynchronous.md>), [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [compose](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compose.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [draggable](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/draggable.md>), [jetpack-compose](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/jetpack-compose.md>), [kotlin](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kotlin.md>), [mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mobile.md>), [multiplayer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/multiplayer.md>), [real-time](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/real-time.md>), [screen](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/screen.md>)

## AI overview

The New York Times Games team describes building the Android game board for Crossplay, a multiplayer word game with a 15x15 grid, draggable tiles, real-time animation, and asynchronous matches. The team used a hybrid architecture: an Android GridLayout with 225 tile Views integrated into surrounding Jetpack Compose UI.

## Source excerpt

How We Made a 15X15 Game Surface Feel at Home on AndriodIllustration by Lehel Kovács By Shafik Quoraishee What Is Crossplay? The New York Times Games team has been building daily puzzles for quite a while: Wordle, Spelling Bee, Connections, The Mini. These are solo games. The player opens them, solves them, and then closes them. This leads to a simple, satisfying experience which delights millions of players a day. Crossplay is an altogether different endeavor. It's the first multiplayer game from NYT Games, and it brings a friend (or a stranger) into the experience with them. So two players, one board, in real time. In Crossplay, players take turns placing letter tiles on a 15x15 grid to form interlocking words, but built for mobile with a focus on speed, fairness, and the back-and-forth tension that compels the player to play one more round. The matches are asynchronous by default. The player makes their move, the opponent gets notified and responds when they're ready. But the board animates as if the players are both sitting at the same table. When we set out to build it, we knew the board would be the hardest part. While the networking, the opponent matching, and the game logic were all challenging work, the board itself which is part of the core game loop was the most difficult piece because of the number of interactions required to make it function correctly, in concert. Since every cell is a potential drop target and every tile is draggable, the board needs to respond instantly to touch *and* animate their opponent's moves *as they happen*. This all must occur on a screen that is a few inches wide. In this post we discuss what it took to get that right on Android. Starting with the Grid One of our first questions was architectural. How should 225 tiles be laid out? Jetpack Compose is the obvious modern choice. But Crossplay's development started before our team had fully migrated to Compose, and the game board had specific requirements that made a pure-Compos