🕹️ Pacman Multiplayer Game on Kubernetes

A real-time multiplayer Pacman game powered by Flask + Socket.IO, Redis, and a static JavaScript frontend. The entire stack is containerized and deployed on Kubernetes using Minikube, complete with observability via Prometheus, Loki, and Grafana.

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📦 Tech Stack

• Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript, HTML, CSS
• Backend: Flask + Flask-SocketIO
• Real-Time Sync: Redis Pub/Sub
• Deployment: Kubernetes (Minikube)
• Monitoring: Prometheus, Loki, Grafana
• Dev Tools: Docker, kubectl, Helm

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🛠️ Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed:

• Docker
• Minikube
• kubectl
• Node.js (for frontend build)
• Python (for local backend testing)
• Helm (for monitoring setup)

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🚀 Quickstart

1. Start Minikube with Ingress Enabled

minikube start --driver=docker
minikube addons enable ingress

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2. Build Docker Images Inside Minikube

eval $(minikube docker-env)

# Frontend
docker build -t pacman-frontend ./pacman-js

# Backend
docker build -t pacman-backend ./multiplayer

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3. Deploy Kubernetes Resources

kubectl apply -f k8s/

Ensure k8s/ includes:

• backend-deployment.yaml
• frontend-deployment.yaml
• redis.yaml
• ingress.yaml

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4. Configure Local DNS

Edit /etc/hosts:

sudo vim /etc/hosts

Add:

127.0.0.1 pacman.local grafana.local

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5. Enable Ingress Exposure

kubectl patch svc ingress-nginx-controller \
  -n ingress-nginx \
  -p '{"spec": {"type": "LoadBalancer"}}'

If still inaccessible, run:

sudo minikube tunnel

⚠️ Keep this terminal open.

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6. Access the Game

Open your browser:

http://pacman.local

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📊 Monitoring & Observability

This project comes with a full observability stack using Prometheus, Loki, and Grafana.

🧰 Setup Instructions

1. Ensure minikube is running with ingress enabled.

2. Add the following to /etc/hosts (if not already):

   127.0.0.1 grafana.local
   

3. Navigate to the monitoring setup directory:

   cd k8s/monitoring
   ./setup-monitoring.sh
   kubectl apply -f grafana-ingress.yaml

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📈 Access Grafana Dashboard

http://grafana.local

Default credentials:

• Username: admin
• Password:

  kubectl get secret loki-grafana -n monitoring \
    -o jsonpath="{.data.admin-password}" | base64 --decode

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📦 Monitoring Components

• Prometheus: Collects metrics
  • Kubernetes cluster
  • Node & app performance
• Loki: Aggregates logs
  • Frontend + Backend logs
  • System logs
• Grafana: Visualization dashboards
  • Cluster overview
  • Application metrics
  • Logs

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🧰 Troubleshooting Grafana Access

# Check all ingresses
kubectl get ingress -A

# Verify Grafana pod status
kubectl get pods -n monitoring

# Ensure correct Grafana service name
kubectl get svc -n monitoring

# Check Grafana logs
kubectl logs -n monitoring -l app.kubernetes.io/name=grafana

# Run minikube tunnel if access still fails
minikube tunnel

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🧱 Project Structure

pacman-distributed/
├── docker-compose.yml          # Local dev option (non-K8s)
├── pacman-js/                  # Frontend game code
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   ├── *.js, *.css, *.html
│   └── sounds/
├── multiplayer/                # Flask backend
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── main.py
├── k8s/                        # Kubernetes manifests
│   ├── backend-deployment.yaml
│   ├── frontend-deployment.yaml
│   ├── redis.yaml
│   ├── ingress.yaml
│   └── monitoring/             # Monitoring setup
│       ├── grafana-ingress.yaml
│       ├── loki-stack-values.yaml
│       ├── prometheus-values.yaml
│       └── setup-monitoring.sh

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🧪 Useful Kubernetes Commands

# Logs
kubectl logs -l app=pacman-backend
kubectl logs -l app=pacman-frontend

# Resources
kubectl get pods
kubectl get svc
kubectl get ingress