The Telugu paper-chit games you grew up with, now on everyone's phone. English-first, so the whole table can play. Real-time, cheat-proof multiplayer for 3–10 friends, built with Flutter and Firebase.
Download APK · How to play · Video walkthrough · Architecture
Paper-chit games like Chittilu Aata and Raja Rani are a staple of Telugu family gatherings, but they need paper, a pen and everyone in one room. Chittilata keeps the feel of real paper: chits are written, folded, shuffled and scattered on a mat, and you pick them with your finger. It also adds what paper can't do: a fair dealer, a referee that can't be fooled, timers, and scores that add themselves up.
| 🎬 Movie Chits · 3–10 players | 👑 King & Queen · 4–10 players | 🎭 Dumb Charades · 3–10 together |
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| Each player picks four folded movie chits. Slips travel one at a time around a random circle, and the first to hold four of a kind wins the round. Everyone else picks a secret character chit: Queen 800 · Police 500 · Thief 100. After several rounds the top two are crowned King and Queen. | Everyone picks one folded role chit: King, Queen, Police, Thief, plus Minister, Commander and more for bigger groups. The King must find the Queen, the Queen finds the next role, and so on down the chain. A wrong guess swaps roles. Everyone scores the role they end with. | One player secretly gets a movie and acts it out without a word. Everyone else picks the title from six on their phone, one guess each. The fastest right guess scores most, and the actor scores too. Everyone takes turns acting. |
| Full rules → | Full rules → | Full rules → |
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| Lobby with a shareable code | Pass one slip at a time | Four of a kind wins | Crown the King and Queen |
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| Your role, for your eyes only | King, find the Queen! | Wrong guess? Swap roles | Final standings |
- 📜 Real paper feel. Chits are written, folded, gathered and scattered on a woven mat, with a private unfold when you pick one. Paper sounds and haptics included, and reduced-motion settings are respected.
- 🔒 Nobody can peek, not even the host. Your hand and your role live in documents only you can read. Undealt slips and sealed chits sit where no client can read them at all.
- ⚖️ Fair by construction. Shuffles use cryptographic randomness, and the deal never gives anyone three copies of a name at the start. Every pick, pass and guess is checked on the server.
- ⏱️ Timers that keep the game moving. Every deadline lives on the server, so all phones count down together.
- Picking chits: you have 1 minute. Any chit you haven't picked is then picked for you at random, which can't change your chances.
- Passing and guessing: never done for you automatically. When time runs out, your phone buzzes and the others can nudge you 👋. After 45 more seconds, or if your phone is offline, someone at the table can choose to play for you, and the server makes that move fairly.
- 💬 Room chat. One-tap emoji reactions and fun preset lines (English first, with Telugu classics) float up on everyone's screen, plus a chat panel with the room's history and, in rooms of friends, short typed messages. Quick-match tables with strangers stay preset-only.
- 🎛️ Host controls, anytime. End the game for everyone, warn a silent player (they get a minute to respond, then anyone's phone can remove them; two warnings allow an immediate removal), and let friends join a running game from the next round. Players can leave at any time.
- 🤷 No stalemates. Four laps of passing with no winner? The host ends the round and everyone draws a character chit, King included.
- 🔁 Reconnect and resume. Close the app mid-round and come back to exactly where you were. Changed phones? Watch the game and ask the host for your seat back.
- 🤖 Practice with bots, 🌐 quick match with players online, and 📨 invite links that open the app straight into the room.
- 🔔 Turn notifications when the app is closed, never while you're watching the game.
- 😀 Profiles, levels and badges, 👥 friend groups with a monthly leaderboard, and 🪔 festival themes for Sankranti, Ugadi and Diwali.
- 🤝 Ties handled gracefully. Tied for King? Vote for a tie-breaker round or share the crown.
- 🎵 Sound, music and haptics. A festive menu theme and in-game groove, crisp button clicks, whooshes, chimes and a victory fanfare, plus vibration patterns for your turn and wins. Each has its own switch in Settings.
- 🎨 Polished, responsive UI. A night-sky theme with gold 3D buttons, light and dark modes, confetti and round reveals, and a history of past games. Every screen is tested on small phones, tablets and up to 200% text size.
- ⬆️ Update prompts. One setting in Firestore can show an optional "New version available" card or block very old builds, using Google Play's in-app update.
flowchart LR
A[Flutter app] -- "callable: pickChit / passCard / kqGuess" --> F[Cloud Functions]
F -- "Firestore transaction<br/>turn id · request id · deadline" --> D[(Firestore)]
D -- "public room + round state" --> A
D -- "rooms/{id}/hands/{uid}<br/>owner-only" --> A
D -. "secrets/* · audit/*<br/>no client access" .-x A
- Clients never write game state. Every move is a server transaction validated against the current turn, with idempotency keys so retries are safe and racing requests resolve to exactly one winner.
firestore.rulesis least-privilege, and emulator tests check it by trying to read other players' hands and roles and expecting to be refused.- The rules engine is pure TypeScript (
functions/src/engine) with property tests over thousands of random games.
More detail: docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.
| Layer | Tech |
|---|---|
| App | Flutter 3.44 / Dart 3.12, Android (minSdk 24) |
| Backend | Firebase Anonymous Auth, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Functions v2 (Node 22, TypeScript), Cloud Messaging, Hosting (invite links), region asia-south1 |
| Quality | 165 backend tests (engine, security rules, transactions on the emulator), 235 Flutter unit, widget and layout tests, GitHub Actions CI |
| Ops | Crashlytics (Dart + NDK), Firebase App Distribution, signed and R8-optimised release builds |
Chittilata is in closed testing on Google Play, and the public listing is coming soon. Until then:
- Download the APK from the latest release. Most phones need
chittilata-<version>-arm64-v8a.apk; if unsure, use theuniversalAPK. - Check it against
SHA256SUMS.txt, then allow installs from your browser or file manager.
The app needs Android 7.0 or later. Invite links (chittilata-game.web.app/join/CODE) open the app straight into a room once it's installed.
flutter pub get
flutter run # talks to the deployed Firebase backend
flutter analyze && flutter test # Flutter unit + widget testscd functions && npm ci
npm test # game-engine unit tests
npm run test:emulator # security rules + transactions (needs Java 21 for the Firestore emulator)The quickest way to try a game on your own is in the app: tap Practice with bots under Movie Chits or King & Queen on the home screen, or Add a bot in any lobby.
For scripted end-to-end runs, functions/scripts/bots.mjs adds bot players that use the same callables and rules as the app:
cd functions
node scripts/bots.mjs --code ABC234 --count 3 # bots join your Movie Chits room
node scripts/bots.mjs --mode kq --code ABC234 --count 3 # bots join your King & Queen room
node scripts/bots.mjs --create --count 4 --rounds 2 # headless game with conservation checks- Create a Firebase project (the Blaze plan is required for Cloud Functions) and enable Anonymous Auth, Firestore, Cloud Messaging and Hosting.
- Run
flutterfire configureto regeneratelib/firebase_options.dartandandroid/app/google-services.json, and update.firebaserc. - For invite links, change the host in
android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xmlandlib/core/services/invite_links.dart, and put your signing certificates' SHA-256 fingerprints inhosting/public/.well-known/assetlinks.json. - Deploy the backend:
firebase deploy --only functions,firestore:rules,firestore:indexes,hosting.
lib/ Flutter app (core/ theme + services, data/ models + repository, game/ controller, ui/)
functions/src/engine Pure TypeScript game rules (deal, exchange, characters, scoring, kingqueen)
functions/src/game Firestore transactions behind each callable (ops.ts, kq.ts, charades.ts, groups.ts, public.ts) and push triggers (push.ts)
functions/scripts bots.mjs: scripted bot players for end-to-end runs
firestore.rules Least-privilege security rules
hosting/public Invite-link pages and Android App Links (assetlinks.json)
test/, functions/test Flutter tests, engine tests, emulator security and integration tests
docs/ Rules, architecture, store assets, media
- Players: How to play · Movie Chits rules · King & Queen rules and state model · Dumb Charades rules · Video walkthrough
- Developers: Architecture & security · Release checklist · Changelog
- Store: Play submission guide · Listing · Data Safety · Privacy policy
Ideas, bug reports and pull requests are welcome. New movie packs and regional variants are especially welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md. To report a security issue, please follow SECURITY.md rather than opening a public issue.
If Chittilata brought back memories of family game nights, consider giving it a ⭐. It helps other people find it.
google-services.json and firebase_options.dart contain Firebase client identifiers, which ship inside every Android app. They are not secrets: access is enforced by Firestore rules and server-side checks. Signing keys and service accounts are never committed.
MIT © 2026 Chandra