I am relatively new to web development. I come from a more mobile development background; however, I would like to make a web application over the summer which is somewhat similar to a game. I haven’t fully fleshed out any idea yet but my ideas involve creating a lobby(based on users inputting a specific lobby code to gain access to a certain lobby) with a group of users in which each client gets automatic updates when other users make certain actions. I have looked into Firestore as it allows for real-time updates and I know the client can directly listen to the database – but wouldn’t using a backend which then accesses Firestore be more secure in terms of vetting write requests from the client to the database. In this situation where several clients are all in the same lobby and actions can occur in real time(and updates must be receive quickly) would I need to make a backend using node.js if I am using Firestore? I was originally planning on using just Firebase authentication with a backend to handle the websocket connections to each of clients.

Thank you so much in advance!