JOULE: ZERO POINT

"In the Zero Point, time is a weapon. Master the energy, shape reality."
A Cyberpunk Strategic Card Game with Advanced LLM Integration.

🌌 Overview

Joule: Zero Point is more than a card game — it's an immersive cyberpunk experience where the laws of physics have collapsed. Each player takes on the role of a Constructor, manipulating the flow of time across three distinct zones: Past, Present, and Future.

The beating heart of the project is the Zero Point Terminal, an AI-powered neural interface that assists players with lore retrieval, card statistics, and real-time rule arbitration — all while staying fully in-character.

📘 Technical Documentation

For a comprehensive analysis of the system's architecture, security protocols, and engineering decisions, I have prepared a dedicated document:

👉 Technical Deep Dive (docs/TECHNICAL_DEEP_DIVE.md)

Includes details on: SSoT with Google Sheets, AI Scudo Temporale (Safety Audit), NoSQL Sanitization, and PWA Caching Strategy.

🖼️ Screenshots

🏠 Home — The Zero Point Atmosphere

Home

🖥️ Zero Point Terminal — AI Neural Interface

Terminal

🎴 Fragment Database — Card Discovery

Database

🛠️ Deckbuilder — Tactical Workshop

Deckbuilder

✨ Key Features

Feature	Description
🖥️ Zero Point Terminal	LLM-driven AI referee that responds in-character to player queries
🎴 Fragment Database	Full card library with advanced type/stat filters
🛠️ Deckbuilder	Create, save, and share tactical decks with Constructor hero
📜 Rulebook & Lore	Integrated Rulebook 5.0 and News/Lore communication hub
🔐 Identity System	JWT auth, email verification, alias management, password recovery
📤 Deck Export	Client-side generation of PDFs and TTS kits (no backend dependency)

🚀 Quick Start with Docker (Recommended)

The entire ecosystem (Frontend, Backend, and local MongoDB) is orchestrated via Docker Compose for an instant setup.

git clone https://github.com/Galdrial/JouleZeroPointWeb.git
cd JouleZeroPointWeb
docker compose up --build

[!TIP] The frontend will be available at http://localhost:5174. The backend will use your .env configuration.

🧪 Database Seeding (Mandatory)

After the containers are up, you must populate the database with the card fragments:

docker exec -it joule-backend node scripts/seedCards.js

🛠️ Manual Installation (Non-Docker)

If you prefer to run the ecosystem without Docker, ensure you have Node.js 24.x with npm 10+ and MongoDB installed.

1. Backend Setup

cd backend
npm install --legacy-peer-deps
cp .env.example .env  # Configure your MONGODB_URI
npm run build         # Required for seeding
node scripts/seedCards.js
npm run dev

2. Frontend Setup

cd frontend
npm install --legacy-peer-deps
cp .env.example .env  # Ensure VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:3000/api/v1
npm run dev

🧪 Tech Stack

Frontend

Framework: Vue 3 (Composition API) + TypeScript
Build Engine: Vite
State Management: Pinia
Styling: Vanilla CSS — custom cyberpunk design system
Synthesis Engine: jsPDF (PDF) & JSZip (TTS)

Backend

Runtime: Node.js & Express
Database: MongoDB Atlas (Mongoose ODM)
AI Engine: OpenAI SDK (Neural Terminal)
Security: Helmet, Rate Limiter, CORS, NoSQL Injection Sanitizer
Infrastructure: Docker & Docker Compose

🔐 Environment Variables

Copy backend/.env.example to backend/.env and fill in the required values:

Variable	Description
`JWT_SECRET`	Secret key for signing JWTs
`MONGODB_URI`	MongoDB Atlas connection string
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	OpenAI API key for the AI Terminal
`SMTP_HOST / USER / PASS`	SMTP credentials for transactional email

🚢 Deployment

Layer	Platform
Frontend	Vercel (Production)
Backend	DigitalOcean / Private VPS
Database	MongoDB Atlas

👤 Author & Legal

Simone Camerano — Design, Mechanics & Lead Development

Joule: Zero Point is registered on the Patamu Registry (deposit #284864). © 2026 Simone Camerano. All Rights Reserved. Proprietary software.

"Chaos is a weapon. Use it."

Joule Zero Point