Re: CouchDB toolkit for turn-based games

[Sander Dijkhuis <ma...@sanderdijkhuis.nl>]

A short update to my earlier post about turn-based gaming on CouchDB: I didn’t get far with creating a re-usable library from my werewolves game. Instead, Lunacy’s original code is now on GitHub:

https://github.com/sander/lunacy/

It may be an example of how multiplayer games can be created using CouchDB, or a fun project to help hacking on. :-)

In case anyone is still interested in using this to create a general CouchDB game development kit, I’d be glad to share my ideas and unfinished code.

On Apr 22, 2013, at 8:54 , Sander Dijkhuis <ma...@sanderdijkhuis.nl> wrote:

> Is anyone interested in using and contributing to a toolkit for creating turn-based games with CouchDB? Or anyone else working on this already?
> 
> As a hobby project I’m working on a web-based multiplayer werewolves game [1]. It works in the browser with CouchDB in the backend, and for mobile I’m working with TouchDB [2] and WebView. CouchDB is a nice fit because of the ubiquitous JavaScript, security features, data replication and the real-time changes feed. Each game is a separated into a set of docs to make sure a player cannot access another player’s secrets.
> 
> There’s a lot of boilerplate code involved and it seems that I’m reinventing the wheel, along with others who make games like Draw Something and Words With Friends. My current toolkit contains:
> - design docs for summarised game lists, notifications, data security;
> - object-oriented syntax for game rules, easy bot creation, game state management;
> - an implementation of friend lists and group chat;
> - AngularJS modules to create interfaces to games, authentication and profiles;
> - node.js workers for user registration, on-demand replication and notifications;
> - an iOS shell using TouchDB for sync and WebView to render the game;
> - a Chrome App shell to easily access privileges like notifications and data sync;
> - a ‘free trial’ limitation and payment handler using Google Wallet.
> I hope to include:
> - auth, friend lists and sharing through Facebook;
> - notifications, payments that are native to iOS;
> - an port of the iOS shell to Android.
> 
> If there’s interest, I can release the boilerplate code under APLv2. It would mostly look like a compilation of existing libraries, configured together to work smoothly. With some help, we could make this into a toolkit that should work for all kinds of board games, card games and RPGs. (It’s the multiplayer gaming’s new revolution [3]!) The goal would be making it easy for users to get started and to focus on game logic and playful interfaces.
> 
> Sander
> 
> [1] http://playlunacy.com/
> [2] http://touchdb.org/
> [3] http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/04/asynced-gaming/all/