The post Writing RPG Adventures appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.

• Massive projects require several small steps. Stressing over those steps add up to a huge headache.
• Be mindful how minor steps can lead to major progress.
• Progress is not always visible. Not every moment needs to be dedicated to building a thing.
• Remember all things are made of smaller parts, and they all add up to a greater whole.

The post Small Steps, Big Picture appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.

When I go to a brick-and-mortar store to purchase a game, this is not an issue. I bring the game home and store it in the game cabinet until it is ready to be played. Simple, huh?

How is that behavior mimicked for a gaming website? This is not one game from one game cabinet played at one table. This will be a variety of virtual game templates to clone multiple game sessions for multiple players each connected to the sessions through their own browser nodes. So many decisions need to be made on how to program such a feat.

Are all games available to all players? Or, are some free and some are available for purchase? Because it is a virtual environment, can a player have more than one session of these virtual games at a time? How are the games organized on the page to differentiate between an active game session versus a dormant game still in the cabinet? How does the site handle solitaire games and multiplayer games? Can players favor some games over others? Should newer games be highlighted over older games? What happens when players are allowed to modify their games, and have the option to kick off a mod-version or the original game?

It boils down to what needs to be done to allow players to quickly find the games they want to play and jump into a game session with people they want to play with. Because this site will support solitaire games, many of which will be designed to be on-going, with other games designed to play with other players, with the possibility of playing over an indeterminate amount of time. I have been more focused on how pieces are manipulated within a game session, I have set aside what happens outside the game session, both before and after the game session.

This and so much more is what I have been brainstorming over the past several days. I am going to break this down into three different moments: presenting the games in the virtual cabinet, inviting others to play, and managing the game session.

Virtual Game Cabinet

Most likely, games will be listed in alphabetical order, but sorted into three buckets: Active, Invitations, and Dormant. Active games are ones in the middle of a game session. Invitations are ones waiting in the wings for players to express their interest in playing or not. Dormant games are ones still sitting in the cabinet of game templates. Each game needs its own entry, listing its title and a thumbnail image. Other information might indicate the type of game, how many players, and other useful details (especially for an active session).

Instead of a home game cabinet, imagine a scenario where a player enters a game hall with different games at different tables. This player wants to play several games at once, and switch between games when it is not their turn. If this were an actual game night, the other players would probably be annoyed with this dude for picking up his phone between turns to play Wordle. Also, this is me imagining a not-ideal-but-possible scenario for a virtual game night scenario.

Back to the scenario, this player is in the middle of Wordle at one table. At another table, they have a game of Sudoku. At other tables, this player is in the middle of a game of Monopoly and a game of Risk. While other players take their turn, this player, juggling multiple games, can return to his Wordle and Sudoku, and then return to these other tables to take their turn.

As the proprietor of this virtual game hall, should I allow a player to jump between games? For the solitaire games…Sure! Why not? The game might not be a quick game of  Wordle or Sudoku. Imagine it is an RPG or simulation game where they can invest time into building their world or their character in short moments of their spare time. Other players may have more issues with game-jumping in the multiplayer games, but these kinds of scenarios need consideration, too.

For multiplayer games, I may have a turn time limit to keep the game progressing as long as at least one player is actively online. When other players are annoyed by this type of game-jumper, they can decide to block him from playing future games with them. Or, maybe I allow the system to let other players will know when the other players are still in a game or when they have stepped away. These are all things to consider when developing a game engine to facilitate virtual table top gaming.

While on the subject of multiplayer games, let’s change focus to explore the social aspect of virtual gaming.

Want to Play a Game?

For multiplayer games, I want Peggy to be flexible for turn-based games to either progress in a (somewhat) timely manner, or allow games to be played “by mail” (not really, but like the days when pen pals would play a game, like chess, over a long period of time, letting the other know the move and when it is the next player’s turn). I want players to dictate how they want to play. I want players to have the freedom to be able to complete a game session in one sitting, or allow them to play over a long stretch of time. Taking turns and the timespan of a game session is another topic. Let’s focus on inviting others to play a game.

After selecting a game to play, the host (I.e., the player inviting others) determines some of the parameters, like how many other players to invite and what variation of a game to play. They declare, I want to play X and am looking for Y players to join me. If the host has an extensive list of friends, they may want to invite specific players or open it to any of their friends. New players on the site might have an interest in playing, but have not yet built up many friend connections. All three options should be available to the host: specific invites, open to their friend list, or open to anyone.

The host should also let everyone know how long the invitation is open. Hey players! You have until this time to respond. The host can cancel the invite if there are no other players, or can start before the deadline when enough players have shown up, or can allow the game to automatically start when the deadline is met. Again, how the invite is handled should be mostly up to the host player.

What should be done when some invited players decline? Should the invite be extended to other friends? Or, globally to all players? This flexibility should be available to the host, too.

What if the host wants to openly invite any interested players? Ok…Maybe not everyone. In past sessions, the host has played with Jimbo, who is a poor loser. The host blocked Jimbo. This open invite should be available to any unblocked players, and should be hidden from any blocked players. What if the host is okay with Jimbo, but his friend Sarah refuses to play with Jimbo and his temper tantrums. If the host has not blocked Jimbo, but his friend Sarah has, when the host invites Sarah, the invite is hidden from friends’ block lists, too.

The game session has not really kicked off, and yet how to handle who plays with who can be a big hurdle to figure out. Let’s move onto the non-host perspective.

What’s Going on Over There?

Before a player decides to host their own game session, they might want to see if anyone else has already made a call for players. A player might inquire a game and see what other sessions or potential sessions might already be available. Associated with the game, others can see existing invite and session information. Maybe seats are still available for a game starting soon. Maybe a player is curious about a game, and wants to be a spectator for an active game session.

One thing I want to allow is for players to view how other people play a game. I want people to be able to jump into a game session to watch, but not interfere with, an on-going game. If a spectator has arrived late, I want them to be able to jump back to the beginning and step through the progress of the game. I even want spectators to be able to read the in-game conversations shared among the players and the game logs. If players want a more private conversation, they are free to use other means, like Discord.

What if the in-game chat gets too heated? Again, the host should have the controls to help police their game session. Mute any player from using the in-game chat. Or, if the host won’t step in, give the option for players to exit a game, ending their participation in that session.

Since the host is the one starting a game session, they are also the one to end a game session at any point, just like players are allowed to exit a game at any point. The session is mostly controlled by the host. The instance of the game is their responsibility to clean up once the game is over. Now, as an admin of the site, if I see that a player has not cleaned up a very stale game session, I may reach out to the host player to prompt them to clean up their virtual room. And, in the event of a ghosted game, the admin can also clean up anyone’s game session.

One thought, for a post-clean-up scenario, I am considering sending the players (through on-site messaging) a brief survey. I might ask questions like, who do they declare as a winner of the game? What did they think of the other players? Should they friend or block anyone? How would they rate their experience? Would they like to offer any feedback?

Game Over

As you can see, there is a lot of decisions to be made when it comes to designing a fully functional, tabletop game engine and website. As the solitary developer, these types of decisions are what challenges this designer, and slows progress of how to program this entire project.

Until next time!

The post Want to Play a Game? appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.

The post 9 Game (Types) to Get to Know Me appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.

Quirkery

Many years ago, around the time Urban Legions (a browser-based RPG) briefly existed, I had an idea for a photo safari. The idea was to have someone provide a prompt, and then people respond with a drawing, photo, or video to match the prompt. Then, people vote for their favorite submissions. The winner provides the next prompt, which leads to the next round of submissions and voting.

At the time, the social media scene was still fairly young, and I did not have enough programming knowledge to have these sorts of things shared on my own website. Nor, did I want people to reply with such stuff, mainly due to the lewdness mentioned above.

Now that social media incorporates and supports posts with GIFs, videos, pics, emojis, and so on, I think this idea could easily be implemented on top of any of the current platforms. Use Likes for votes. Repost with the winner tagged. I think this type of game could spark a lot of fun interaction. Social media overflows with creativity.

Micro RPGs

One of the most clever forms of fan-fiction I have seen on the internet was someone using a forum for role playing. In this particular use, the forum was essentially Hogwarts. The “students and teachers” at the wizarding school (forum users) would take on a role of a character from a non-Harry Potter source. Maybe Batman taught potions to Shaggy and Princess Bubblegum.

I love the concept of essentially turning the forum into an unregulated RPG. I wonder if social media could do something similar, but I do not know how I would implement this. I imagine the poster acts as the DM for that post’s thread, presenting any responders with a scenario. Responders indicate their approach to the situation. The DM either responds with a given outcome, or prompts them to “make a roll” if the outcome requires a bit of chance.

How the randomization works might take a bit of work. You wouldn’t want responses to either post a 1 or a 20, assuming the best or worst case scenarios. You would almost need to make a short list of acceptable responses and award those responding close enough to the predicted outcome, or creatively knock them down for anything else.

Guessing Games

Guessing games might work well in a social media world. I think I could get games like 20 Questions or Pictionary to work well.

For 20 Questions, I’d start with a vague prompt (Ex. “What I saw today”). People respond with yes or no questions to get more information. When enough info is provided, people can start guessing. But, if it is not answered within 20 replies, the game is lost. Eventually, the poster reveals the solution by congratulating the first to guess it correct or gives the answer after surpassing allotted guesses.

For Pictionary, again I’d start with a vague prompt (Ex. Movie Title). I would post a series of pictures of an on-going doodle. The first is a line or a squiggle. After a while, contribute an addition to the doodle. Keep posting more and more additions to the doodle. With each doodle-post, people reply with their answers. I figure eventually someone will guess it correctly, or the doodle-poster would need to forfeit the solution.

One-for-Ones

At times, I see posts designed to influence activity. Usually, these are prompts for likes, replies, or shares with a promise in return. For every X you give me, I will reply with one Y.

I imagine this type of activity would be good for creative posters. For every share, I will write you a haiku. Or, reply to this post with your favorite animal, and I will reply with a blindfolded doodle of that animal.

These types of posts, I have seen more on social media platforms that rely heavily on gaming the algorithm.

What other kinds of games could people play on social media? And, more importantly, would you like to play a game?

The post Gaming via Social Media appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.

I do not remember exactly when I first learned of D&D, but I remember obtaining the beginner’s box of D&D, the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Player’s Handbook. I may have received them as Christmas gifts one year. My friends and I did not know how to play, but I do recall experimenting with some of the game’s concepts, like staging combat scenarios on a chessboard, using the pieces to mark our heroes and the foes we faced. Chopsticks marked the boundary’s walls and dominoes marked the doorways. That was my earliest memory of using other stuff as game mods, which is what I decided to blog about.

The dice came with the beginner’s set. In the days where miniatures were too expensive an investment, my friends and I improvised with other game pieces or things found around the house. Back then, I had no idea such improvisation would continue throughout my life well into adulthood.

Introduction to Inspiration

Games have always played a big part of my life. Those same friend and I would play Risk throughout New Year’s Even night. We would play travel scrabble, chess, and cards on school trips. It was not until after college, when I started my first “real” job, that new friends introduced me to Cheapass Games.

Cheapass Games has been around for decades and had a wonderful philosophy about making cheaper boardgames that borrowed pieces from other games. They figured most people already had dice, pawns, fake money, and other bits from other games, so their more affordable games (at least, back in those days) focused on the different pieces, like the game board and card decks.

On their earlier website, James Ernest said not to send him game ideas, but try inventing it yourself. His words are what inspired me to start Pegamoose Games. To this day, he is still inventing new games under Crab Fragment Labs, while ye olde Cheapass Games are now licensed by Greater Than Games. I completely understand what James meant. Once I started coming up with ideas for one game, I started thinking of ideas for other games. This flood of game ideas eventually led me to design Peggy, a game engine for tabletop games.

Many of those ideas centered around how I would modify an existing game, or if I were to make my own, somewhat similar game, how would I modify it? In a way, it related back to those earlier days of playing D&D with things we found around the house. At that time, wWe knew we did not play it the way it was intended, but we improvised, essentially inventing our own way to play it. As far as playing D&D our own way, I remember hearing about someone playing an RPG using a standard deck of cards and poker hands instead of dice rolls.

This kind of game improvisation reminds me of one of the classic episodes of The Simpsons where the family combines pieces from the remains of various lacking games into their own improvised board game. This leads Homer to declare, “You sank my Scrabble ship!”

Enhancing the Existing

My son introduced me to video game mods, especially the world of Minecraft mods. Before that, as I tweaked the earlier versions of Snipe Hunt, I had been pondering how to modify some of the more traditional games I had played.

Monopoly particularly interested me. There are so many ways in that game draining money from players, I pondered ways to give players a bit of a break (even though this would prolong an already long game). Before diving into this blog, I dug up my notes on modding Monopoly. These helper cards were to be their own deck and are only drawn on doubles. Players could opt to take another turn, or draw a card. Here are a few of the ideas I entertained:

• Train Delay – Landing on one of the railroads, the player plays this card to pay nothing to the owner, claiming the train’s cancelation.
• Speed Train – Play this card to jump from one station to the next train station, and then pay the owner of that next station, instead.
• Natural Disaster – Play this card when landing on one of the utility spaces. The next player to land on the utility rolls the dice and received 5x the amount as a power-outage refund.
• First Month’s Free – Play this card on any one property. The next player to land on that property does not pay rent to the owner. The card stays there if the owner lands on their own property.
• Meter Maid – Each time the player with this card passes Free Parking, they receive half of the money collected there. The card is discarded when anyone lands on Free Parking.
• Certified Public Accountant – The player with this card, when landing on one of the tax spaces, receives a $100 refund instead of paying their taxes.

I do not remember all the details, but I think I decided not to take this idea any further, because I did not want Big Parker Brothers suing me and my tiny game company into oblivion for even considering a mod add-on for their cash cow. Still, I can always quietly mod my own game sessions. They probably also would not care for my suggestions for improving upon Clue.

I have encountered one game company who has a mod for chess. Steve Jackson Games released decks of cards called Knighmare Chess (LINK) to enhance a game of chess. Chess has been around much longer, and SJG has nothing to fear from Big Parker Brothers and their legions of lawyers.

Mods through Merging

Speaking of SJG, Munchkin has been a family favorite. For those who have not played this, it is a stripped down version of a role playing game into its most basic form: kick down the door, defeat the monster, loot the room. Be warned, there are many add-ons and flavors of sets, which could be a gateway drug to other RPGs.

I have been pondering merging Munchkins with another recent favorite, Dice Throne. A co-worker introduced me to this game and it is another fantastic game series to invest in. Basically, it is like combat by Yahtzee. Each set comes with unique characters, each with their own dice rolls and abilities. Any character may compete against any other character.

As I have said, I have been pondering merging the two games. Instead of Munchkin characters, play with Dice Throne characters instead. It could be played as a cooperative dungeon crawl, or as an arena game each taking hits on a line of monsters charging into the arena. The levels of the Munchkin monsters relate to the health of the dice thrones. Maybe players roll for initiative to see who faces the next challenge.

I have not worked out all the details, but it is something I am pondering. If I ever nail down the how-to for this, I will happily share via this blog.

Have you ever mixed and matched games? If so, what crazy game have you come up with? Please share in the comments below.

The post Tabletop Mods appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.

My Problem with Sports

When I was a kid, my parents pushed me to play sports. I do not think poorly of them for wanting me to be well rounded. Unfortunately, I have never had much interest in sports. Even though they enrolled me in soccer and baseball, I had no interest in playing competitive sports. Maybe my disinterest was because this was around the time I learned I needed corrective lenses. Maybe I lacked confidence and did not feel coordinated. I have never grasped the concept of dribbling a ball. I was constantly penalized for either traveling or double dribbling. Maybe I lacked that competitive spirit, and just enjoyed playing.

My disinterest in sports was not because I was inactive. I was a very active kid and got my exercise in many other ways. I enjoyed playing tag, hide-n-seek, and capture the flag. Even though I could not dribble the ball, I loved playing Horse and Around the World. In the summers, I practically lived in the swimming pool. And, when I wasn’t in the pool, I explored the world around me on my bike. I am more of a couch potato now, but I still enjoy being active. I have even overcome some of my coordination issues by learning how to walk on stilts, bounce on a pogo stick, and juggle.

I believe my lack of a competitive nature boils down to how I generally approach games. For sports, there is a push for excellence. It’s all win, win, WIN! People who follow sports retain the statistics and number of wins. That is not how I play. I do not keep score long term. I enjoy a good game in the moment and how a game is played. I do not track how many times I, or anyone else, wins. I do recall the impressive strategic moments. But, to me, it is more about playing a good game and having fun.

Another difference between sports and games are the conditions of the participants. Sports favors the more elite participants who are athletic. Games are more more available to a general audience. There are some games, like Scrabble and Pictionary, which favor intellect and creativity. Most games, I feel like anyone can pick it up and play it, and the more a person plays, the more exposure to different strategies, and the better they can get without exercising more or without studying or reading more. Most games are tailored to be very accessible.

My beef with games are more about balance. I choose not to play unbalanced games. For more on this, see these blogs about Clue  and Rummy. If a game is not fun, I choose not to play.

The Sports I Want

Touching back on those two articles I mentioned in the opening paragraph, what could be done to improve player equality? Why not restructure sports to be more inclusive and equal? Support more co-ed sports. Support more sports that do not favor strength, intellect, or creativity. Support sports allowing for more well-rounded players who put up a good game.

Finding a sport supporting well-rounded players means looking for more well-rounded games. What games have a decent balance and do not favor the strong, smart, creative folk? What games are more accessible to a wider variety of players? Where do we go for inspiration to find these kinds of sports?

As a couch potato, I suggest looking at TV for inspiration. My wife and I love watching The Amazing Race. There are people from all walks of life on that show. Sometimes, you go into the race thinking the most athletic teams are going to do better. Sure, they might be able to run faster or carry more weight, but often they overlook details or struggle with grasping simple concepts. The more well-rounded teams often perform the best.

The Amazing Race reminds me of the Nickelodeon game shows in the 80s (isn’t there a documentary about these?) or Battle of the Network Stars in the 70s. Teams had a variety of players, and they did both physical and mental activities. What other forms of inspiration?

What about Role Playing Games (RPGs)? RPGs involve more mental and creative activity than physical. There is the Live-Action Role Playing (LARPing) in which players act out their role playing. Before jumping into a campaign, gamers construct a variety of character types to improve their chances of success for anything they may encounter. A campaign would not last nearly as long if all the characters were barbarians or all were wizards. If you don’t think watching people play a role playing game would be interesting, you should check out Geek and Sundry’s Titansgrave campaign run by Wil Wheaton. Or, look up the documentary Uber Goober.

Many years ago, I read an article in Games Magazine about a group who had started a company of Live-Action Puzzle Hunting based off the 80s movie, Midnight Madness. In a way, The Amazing Race reminds me of this type of event. Even more so is the short-lived reality show, The Mole, which Netflix has recently revived. I enjoy The Mole more, because viewers at home can play along by looking for clues and observing the players to figure who they think is the Mole.

What would I suggest?

First, let me stress that I am not suggesting the elimination of the sports we currently enjoy. I am suggesting exploring new, more inclusive sports that most anyone can watch and think, “That looks like fun and something I could do! Where do I sign up?”

One thing I would like to see different than reality shows is getting rid of the weekly eliminations. Allow viewers to root for the same team all the way through a season, hoping to make it into the finals. For reality shows, I often root for certain teams, and then hit a moment of disappointment when a team is eliminated and long to see more from that team, but still watch half-heartedly to the end of the season, because I have invested enough of my time to continue watching to see who does win. If I were to design a game, all teams fight for a place at the end, and then the finale is an elevated version of what those teams had been through. These two teams have proven themselves to be the best two, what happens when they go head-to-head?

I could see the creation and execution being split into two types of seasons. I may not have watched much of them, but I know there are reality shows in which individuals or teams show off their creativity. Imagine a sport with two types of teams: the creators and the competitors. This new sport could have creative teams pitching concepts for what teams could experience in the next season. Teams design and pitch ideas for things like escape rooms, mini golf holes, hide-n-seek venues, puzzles, or other kinds of features experienced over the competitive season. The sport could go on all year long watching both the creation process and the competitive progress for both seasons.

Like The Mole, the experience could be enhanced by including a play-at-home aspect. I suppose there could be something like fantasy football or call-in-with-your-vote. I think it would be more immersive if the presentation of the games does not reveal the answers, but provides the same parts for viewers at home to figure out themselves, or a variation of the same puzzles. As for physical activities, people could post videos of themselves performing similar activities to be ranked by their peers. Maybe even advancing up the at-home leaderboard could help recruit new players.

What is Your Opinion?

The world today has so much potential, but we often hold ourselves back from exploring what more we could do. I am open to changes in the world of sports. Where do you stand on the possibility of reinventing sports? Are you fine with how things are? Or, are you looking for something more? What would you suggest to make the world of sports more equal or inclusive?

The post Reinventing Sports appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.

Instead of a challenge for random piece behaviors, why not create a simple game? Or, I could recreate one of ye olde Pegamoose Games from many years ago. I constructed a list (in one of my work tickets) of the various solo mini-games. Dress-a-Moose was very similar to elements of the first few challenges, for this one, I intended to present a “naked” pegamoose image and a variety of items to decorate it. I decided to table this challenge for a bit to work on a “Code Breaker” prototype instead.

History

Code Breaker is my variant of another game I have played under a couple different names (Master Mind the tabletop version, and Hits and Blows on Nintendo Switch). These games arrange four colored pegs in a row and the player guesses what the colored pegs are based on feedback after each unsuccessful guess. A different set of pegs indicates which colored pegs are the correct color and in the correct position, a correct color in a wrong position, and which are flat out wrong.

As I outlined the work and brainstormed ideas for Code Breaker, I considered making the “secret codes” of colors increasingly more difficult. I considered allowing players to specify how many code digits to guess and other, possible game options. As much fun as I thought these ideas might be, I reminded myself, “Keep it simple, stupid!” After all, the challenge is meant to be a basic prototype plus a bit of coding practice.

My Variant

The current prototype includes a secret code of six digits, instead of the usual four. Hits and Blows allow the option for no duplicates or colors used twice. In my version, any color may be duplicated up to six times. If my rusty, dusty math is correct, that makes six to the power of six possible different codes (or 46,656 unique codes). Instead of limiting the game to eight guesses, my version provides unlimited guesses.

The four types of hints this variant provides are:

1. An empty square indicating the player did not specify a color for a space.
2. A green check for correct guesses in a correct space.
3. A yellow yield for correct color in a wrong space.
4. A red X per incorrect guess.

Hurdles

The trickiest part of this project involved accurately calculating the hints. Correct guesses? No problem! Guessing a color not in the code? Piece of cake! Empty spaces? A scoop of ice cream with that cake! Everything else…Uh…

In my first attempt, I figured everything else would be the number of spaces minus the correct and incorrect guesses. Something was not quite right with this possible solution and the yield hints did not accurately reflect the comparison of the code versus the guess. I tweaked the code to check for right colors in the wrong space, but a miscalculation resulted in more hints than possibly number of spaces. Try again.

I tried several times to calculate the yellow yields accurately. I encountered difficulty distinguishing the difference between a color in the wrong space and guessing a color too many times (which should result in the red X, instead of yellow yield). This is what resulted in indicating more than six hints, one for each space. For the final solution, I realized I needed to compare the counts of colors for both the guesses and codes.

Design Decisions

One design decision evolving out of this project, I had considered dragging and dropping the colors into the different slots. I may do that for the “live” version (as a Pegamoose Games featured mini-game). I think the point and click (or double-click) works well enough for this prottype.

When I started this project, I had used underscores for the blanks and question marks for the code placeholders. As I wired in the colorful pegamooses (which I had intended to use from the start), I remembered I had also created a mystery token with a question mark and an empty circle.

Restarting a game is as easy as reloading the page. I provide this in a New Game button, too. Plus, I added another button for the rules. Plus, two more buttons for either clearing a selected blank or clearing the entire guess.

Future Considerations

At the moment, because of “unlimited” attempts, I want to issue points for the different types of incorrect guesses. To prevent the game from truly being unlimited, I might cut the game off when a player meets or exceeds a threshold score.

Once the game is wired into Peggy, I may consider those additional options mentioned earlier in the blog for adjusting the constraints of the game for a possible deluxe edition of the game. Players could earn points when the game ends with scores falling within certain ranges. Also, because players would login to their account, the Peggy version would preserve game states so players may continue an in-progress game at a later time. Play at your leisure!

Another possible feature, I may have thought earlier, but am thinking it now as I write this blog, is to allow the player to click on one of their rows of guesses and fill in the guess with the same set of colors. This might be particularly useful the more accurate a player’s guess.

Play on!

Here is the link if you would like to play this Code Breaker prototype:

https://pegamoosegames.com/games/codebreaker/

All in all, I am very proud of myself for making a very playable, working prototype that can be wired into the final product once Peggy is more “live-worthy”. A majority of this project was completed within two to three days. More of these types of mini games help the site get closer to a “live-worthy” status.

If you have any suggestions, please share in the comments section. Or, if you have suggestions for other mini games, I would like your input on that, too!

The post Code Breaker (Prototype) appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.

Currently, I have three roadmaps for the Pegamoose Games website. I have developed other roadmaps for my more recent books, which I refer to as IPCs (Indie Publishing Checklists). These checklists are for the entire story publishing process, from outlining an idea to providing a post-production marketing checklist, and every step in between. Essentially, outlines and checklists are forms of roadmaps. They are a series of checkpoints helping navigate to a desired goal.

Why does Pegamoose Games need three roadmaps? Because, one is for the epic journey and the other two are major side-quests. The main roadmap states what to do to help build and run my business, and features for the website to support the business. The other two are for two game engines, which will be key products for the business: one for Peggy (tabletop game engine), and one for Reggie (role playing game engine).

Developing a Roadmap

The first thing to designing a well-crafted roadmap is to hire a really good cartographer and a professional origamist to fold your maps. More jokes. No cartography or folding are necessary when designing a roadmap, but it will require work.

Above, I mentioned IPCs and outlines., because developing a roadmap is similar to outlining a story. They are called roadmaps because it can be like planning an epic journey. You know where you are starting from and you know your destination. Break down that journey to figure out the points of interest along the way.

Two Points

Start with the beginning and end points. What do you currently have? What are you trying to achieve? Where do all the other dots come from to connect the beginning and the end? I suggest as much brainstorming as necessary to start filling in the details. Do not dismiss any ideas, and do not stress over any missing details.

Brainstorming

To kick off the brainstorming, consider the difference between what you already have and what you need. For example, I have a website for Pegamoose Games, but the goal is to allow people to play games online. What do I need? Player accounts? Games to play? Maybe a store to facilitate what games players want to play? Maybe a leaderboard? This is great! Four additional points on the map!

Each of those midpoints may require more granular brainstorming to iron out additional details our journey. We start with the site having no player accounts, and work towards establishing the winner of a game. What happens in between those points? Do not stress over organization during the brainstorming phase. Just get all those ideas out and noted. In fact, you might consider brainstorming onto Post-It notes or index cards for when you do begin organization.

Organizing

We now have ideas all over the place. How should we go about organizing these ideas into something more linear? First, group ideas together into piles that make sense. Let’s take player features as an example. Each player needs and account. Their account most likely will need a profile. We might include password recovery in the event a player cannot log in. Players will friend and block other players. Players have a set of games they have purchased. Players will need a way to invite others to play a game. Some players may have active game sessions. These are all important aspects of the site involving the players, but it is a bit of a mishmash of different things players have or can do. It is messy, but a good start. You might even wonder if Player Accounts belongs with the pile of Player-related ideas or the Access Control-related ideas. Either pile is fine at this point.

Ordering

Now we have vague piles of ideas, grouped by concepts that may overlap with other groups. Start ordering those piles into a logical progression. You may start at the beginning. Typically, I organize better starting with the end and working backwards. Eventually, I will bounce around to help smooth the progression. The end goal is to have players playing online games. Games and Players fall before the end goal. Which is first? We need Games to attract Players to the site. Good. Games is now before Players. But, Players are needed before there can be a Game Session. Ah. This is where logic begins to divide those piles. There is now a new pile for Game Sessions which is after another pile for Game Design. And, a Player Account pile is before the Player Sessions pile. Continue this process enough, and there is general outline as the first draft of a Roadmap. Congratulations! We can finally get this show on the road!

Detours

Adjusting

Once the roadmap has a logical progression between the beginning and the end, it is time to kick off the journey. Start at the beginning to work your way towards the ultimate end goal. Uh oh. Things were going fine, but we have hit a snag!

Like any road trip, keep in mind you may need to deviate from your route. Recalculating and adjusting the roadmap along the way is essential. This is why map systems don’t continue to follow the same route when the driver deviates. It may nag you to get back to where it thinks you should be, but unforeseen things happen and there may be setbacks.

The roadmap is not set in stone and should be referenced and modified as often as necessary. As the project evolves and has setbacks, the roadmap should be edited to accommodate for the evolving landscape. Like the long car trips we had as a kid, we sometimes took detours to visit a corn maze or see the world’s biggest horse shoe. Then, we checked the map and returned to our plotted route. Going off on tangents happens all the time, and is nothing to stress about. Recalculate your route and keep going as best you can.

Documenting

One other thing I recommend is documenting the journey. For development projects, this may be in the form of detailed design docs and work tickets. For writing, this may be keeping a bible of events and characters. Any time you associate adequate documentation while following the roadmap, these details act like the map’s legend, providing key information to reference to help better understand where you are going and why.

There have been times when I do not provide enough details, and I begin to question my design decisions. I may go off on unnecessary tangents or second guess a design, develop a different way, and realize why I settled on the original design.

Other times, I may have provided enough details, but some new factor is introduced which may impact various points on the roadmap. I can refer to all my notes to better decide what is best approach for getting things back on track. Things happen. Refer to the roadmap, make changes where necessary, and keep moving forward.

Driving Blind

This seems like an awful lot of work. Are roadmaps really necessary? For bigger projects, yes, some form of roadmap is necessary. If the project is small enough, you may not need an elaborate roadmap. You may not think you need a roadmap, but even when you microwave a meal, how often do you double check how much time it should be heated? Those microwave instructions are a roadmap in a basic form.

When you progress through the same steps over and over, you may realize you no longer need a roadmap. Just like going to the store each week, you most likely do not need your GPS system, unless there is traffic or construction diverting your memorized route.

I do not need a recipe to make a breakfast scramble. I generally know what to add and when and how long to cook it. But, designing games and self publishing a book is not the same as whipping together a few ingredients into a meal. When necessary, I recommend providing some form of roadmap.

In the writing world, we refer to those who follow roadmaps versus those who do not as Plotters and Pantsers. The Plotters make plans. They take time to create an outline for the story and a checklist to get it published. They adjust their plans based on feedback. The Pantsers, on the other hand, “fly by the seat of their pants”. They make it up as they go. They start a story, throw in some characters, and see what those characters get up to and where the story goes. I do not know how Pantsers do it. Some are good at making it all up as they go along. Not me. I am a definite Plotters. Even this blog started with an idea, evolved into an outline, and became this blog. I even adjusted and edited out bits as I wrote it.

What type of worker are you? Are you a Plotters or a Pantser?

What kind of roadmaps help you with your projects?

The post Roadmapping appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.

• A growing set of proof-of-concepts demonstrates a monumental project is achievable.
• Each code sample is a reference point when coding the main project.
• Smaller chunks narrows the view of how to construct the larger features.
• Be diligent when commenting the code. Also, journal thought processes and design decisions.
• Consider all sides of simplifying. Is there a better way? Is it simpler than a current implementation? Is anything neglected by simplifying?

The post A Little Chunky appeared first on PegamooseG's Blog.