P2P Game Engine Introduction

Bonus Feature

Because the "engine" program handles the transfer of information, such as what piece you're moving and what happens when it gets there, very little data is sent back and forth between players. This allows you to use any kind of chat program you want without interruption. Instant Messaging, Voice over Internet (VoIP), even Video Teleconferencing is possible.

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P2P Bonus

The internet and computers are always changing. Who knows what kind of systems we will use to connect with each other in a few years? By keeping the P2P part of the Game Engine open, simple and flexible, it can adapt to any method that comes along.

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Adjustable Bonus Players

Some games are better with more players, and sometimes you want to play by yourself. Being able to add additional players at a moments notice will make gaming more fun for you and your friends. With the way the P2P Game Engine is designed, people who are good at programming artificial opponents can create antagonists for you to download, buy, modify, or trade.

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Bonus Games!

Because the P2P Game Engine is so flexible, you can mix game styles. Create board games with action figures, card games with maps, dice games with miniatures. Furthermore, you can modify games (if the game maker allows), so if you think a board game about knights and castles would be more interesting with hover cars and cartoon anvils falling from the sky, you can make it.

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Future Bonus!

Not only can the P2P Game Engine be easily converted to other computers and programmable devices, but it can be adapted to future systems as they come out. If you get a wifi enabled toaster with LCD display a few years from now, you'll be able to load the toaster version of the Game Engine into it and play all of your old games while making toast, strudel and pop tarts.

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Working Bonus!

By keeping the gaming system simple it allows for more flexibility. You can add new rules quickly, update existing games easily, or download and install mods made by other players. A simple design also allows for more variation. Look at a standard deck of playing cards: simple numbers, suites and colors, yet thousands of different games can be played.

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Bonus Game Pieces

The best game designers admit they can't think of everything, so they try to allow players the ability to modify various elements of the game to make them more fun to play. The P2P Game Engine makes this is easy, allowing games that can be adjusted for personal preferences or skill level, or even games where players have complete control over the playing pieces and what they can do.

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Bonus Maps

You can always breath new life into a favorite old game by changing the layout of the board or the map. Imagine Monopoly with toll-collecting shortcuts, or a war game where the hard to read topographical map is replaced by a picture from your family's last Thanksgiving get-together. Send your tanks across Uncle Bob's mashed potatoes as you invade Cousin Ed's stuffing fortress, but watch out for the cannons on the shores of Cranberry Lake.

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Bonus House Rules

Before computers, when friends got together to play they would often incorporate their own "House Rules" to personalize their games, make them more interesting, more challenging, or much more silly! With the P2P Game Engine you can make up your own House Rules, or do things like take a fighting game and replace "Sword of Deadly Might" with "Pillow of Distracting Feathers" just for laughs.

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Bonus Games

Given the open nature of the P2P Game Engine, there are thousands of different games possible. From simple rock-paper-sissors to massively huge wars, almost anything can be created and played. Given the imagination of gamers, you can expect many unexpected, surprising games to come out. The only difficulty will be in choosing which game to play.

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Bonus Variety

Due to the open nature of the P2P Game Engine, not only are the games open to variety, but also how you play them. Servers could be set up to specialize in one particular type of game, or expand the content and playing experience. Game companies could showcase their new games, game stores could hold tournaments, clubs and groups could host meeting places and events on-line.

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Security Bonus

The P2P Game Engine is so versatile you can use many different security options. You could include password activation, or require an official CD full of game content be inserted, or if you're hosting a tournament or gaming center on-line the server could be used to check for legitimacy. Or you could have no security at all, allowing players to send copies to their friends so they can see how fun it it and prompt them to buy it for themselves.

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Bonus Systems!

Because the "games" are just lists of data, they can be played on any computer system with a Game Engine. This means they never become obsolete. When a new Operating System comes out, a Game Engine can be made for it that will automatically play all of the old games. If a new form of mobile internet access becomes popular, a Game Engine can be created for that, so you can still play all of your games with your friends.

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Simplicity Bonus

If you look closely at the most popular non-computer games, you'll find they are quite simple. That simplicity allows for more strategy and gameplay. Chess and Go have just a few basic rules, but playing them requires much thought and planning.

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Easy Bonus

By making game creation easy, more games are made, and more unique games are created. With most computer game companies, the cost of programmers is so great that taking a chance on a new idea for a game is too much, so they keep churning out variations of the same thing (mostly color matching). With the P2P Game Engine, almost any type of board or card game can be tried out with minimal effort.

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What Is A P2P Game Engine?

It is a program that allows people to play games by themselves or with their family, friends and other people over any network, be it the internet, wi-fi, cables, or even email, from across the room or around the world. The "engine" takes the game information from all players and handles the rules for movement, conflict and events then sends the results to other game engines.

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What Does P2P Mean?

P2P means Player to Player. That's what it's all about: a Game Engine that makes it easy to play games together with other people, be it through a cable between computers, wifi network, internet server, or email.

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Do I Have To Play With Others?

The main purpose of the P2P Game Engine is to connect people for a fun battle of wits, but there are times when you want to play a game by yourself, if only to practice for your next encounter with a friend. Due to the open, simple nature of the Game Engine it is possible to make a wide variety of computer opponents that employ different strategies and levels of difficulty.

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What Kind Of Game Is It?

The P2P Game Engine is very flexible and can handle almost any board, card or token based game you can come up with. The games could be as simple as rolling dice and moving around a board, or as complex as a massive war game with thousands of pieces.

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Who Can Play It?

Thanks to the simple, open system of the P2P Game Engine, anyone with a computer or programmable device can play with each other. The "games" are really nothing more than a list of rules and simple graphics, which means an engine made for a cell phone can use the same game as an engine made for a laptop. This allows for constant expansion and improvements, while still allowing older systems to play.

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How Does It Work?

The P2P Game Engine allows game makers to embed rules into the playing pieces, cards, boards or maps like mini-spreadsheets. Then the Game Engine only has to relay the most basic information, such as where pieces move and what happens. Your opponent's computer then runs through it's own copy of the mini-spreadsheets to double check or add it's own rules, then presents the move on the screen.

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Can I Make My Own Pieces?

If the game maker allows it. Some games may prevent changes because they work better than way, some may allow you to create elements based on a point system, and some may let you create any kind of playing pieces you want for a free-for-all clash of imagination. Like poker, except you modified it so your pair of queens could lead a gang of lesser cards in a fight against your opponents flush.

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Can I Make My Own Maps or Boards?

With the P2P Game Engine you can change the picture used for the map, change the rules for the board hexes, or add and remove features that will improve the game. If you think adding obstacles to a simple strategy game would make it more challenging, or removing an annoying penalty box would make it less frustrating, then do it!

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Can I Modify A Game?

Yes! With the P2P Game Engine you can change, add or remove any elements of the game that you think will make it more fun. You can then send your modifications to friends so everyone you play with can try them out. Some changes may work, some may not, but you will have the chance to find out.

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Can I Make My Own Game!

Yes! That is the main motivation behind the P2P Game Engine. There are many creative, talented gamers out there who could design hundreds of great games, but they don't have the free time to master a programming language. This Game Engine makes the creation of board or card games easy enough for a casual gamer to use.

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What's In It For The Game Makers?

Lots of fun, and maybe some money. Many gamers have just as much fun creating their own games or modifying an existing game as they do playing it. With the P2P Game engine they can to this quickly and easily, then post it on-line to sell or as a free download for the whole world to enjoy.

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What About Piracy?

Computer game piracy happens, there's no way to avoid it if your game is popular. Because the P2P Game Engine is so easy to use, people can create games with little or no overhead, thus the prices will be so low there will be no point in going out of your way to score a pirated version.

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Will It Play On Other Systems?

The games themselves are nothing more than lists of instructions, numbers, graphics, and even sounds, it is the Game Engine that reads the data and turns it into a fun gaming experience. As such, any game made by the Game Engine can be played by any other Game Engine, on any OS, in any language, over any connection.

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Will It Take A Lot Of Resources?

No. All the Game Engine does is take the list of instructions from the game and run through them as you play. These are games that use boards, cards, dice, and playing pieces. There is no high-end programming required or graphic-intensive 3D modeling to be done.

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Won't It Be Hard To Make Games?

The P2P Game Engine makes it easy to create your own games by handling all of the rules, images and gameplay. All you have to do is assign rules to the pieces and hexes, such as "Unit 1 moves 5 spaces." The main purpose behind the P2P Game Engine is to allow people who don't know programming, but have a good idea for a game, a chance to make that game and share it with friends.

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Why Won't Games Play With Each Other?

Why is it that whenever you find an enjoyable little game, you're stuck playing it all alone? You can't play a few quick card games with your friends while you chat unless you're in the same room at the same time. Why does the gaming industry insist that only long, complex and involved games are worthy of on-line multiplayer interaction?

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Why Do We Have To Have A Chaperone?

Many game companies that allow players to meet and play on-line require that you go through their servers. Sometimes this is good as it allows them to add to the gaming experience, but often it's just so they can control their proprietary egos. If their server is down or you can't connect to the internet, then you can't play the game.

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Sometimes It's More Fun Solitaire

Most game companies force their game-playing standards upon you: you can only play alone, or only against one opponent, or only against their unchanging/unadjustable programmed opponent. With the P2P Game Engine it's possible to play alone against any number of different computer opponents, or add computer players to a game with other people.

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What Is With This Obsession With Color Matching?

What is it with the casual computer gaming businesses? It seems as if all they ever come out with is color matching games. They always say they have hundreds of ideas for games, but 90% of what you see are variations of color matching. Wouldn't it be nice if someone could make games that have simple rules, is easy to learn, but doesn't have anything to do with matching colors?

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Platform Discrimination Is Not Fun

How many times have you found a fun computer game and told your friends about it, urging them to play you a few rounds, only to discover that they have the wrong system, or their computer is just a little too old to handle the state-of-the-art graphics, or the game makers decided your friend's mouse isn't cool enough for their game? Wouldn't it be nice to play games with friends without having to worry about such things?

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Too Much Information!

Many games that should be simple are huge because the programmers try to code in every possible move, conflict and outcome. This leads to slow-running games as they run through long lists of possibilities or transmit massive amounts of data over the internet. Worse yet, if you come up with a move that the programmers never considered, the game can't handle it.

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The Game Maker Isn't Always Right

How many times have you played a game and thought "This would be a lot more fun if..."? In real world gaming you could try your mad idea on the spur of the moment, but you'd need a thorough background in programming and several weeks to modify a typical computer game.

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I Would Have Won If Not For That Hill!

Don't you hate it when you play a game that would be a lot of fun, except there's a hill you can't climb or a "Go To Jail" square you always land on? Wouldn't it be nice to turn that hill into a picnic park, and that square into a coffee shop? And what about games that are too easy? The game designer may think it's perfect, but you know putting in a few obstacles or tricky hexes will make the game more exciting.

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The Game Designer Isn't Always Right

You know how it is; you're playing a game with a friend and come across a rule that isn't quite right, or a playing piece isn't as strong as it should be, or there's one area of the board that always drags the game down. Instead of shouting "What was the game designer thinking?" you can change the offending element and improve the game.

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Programmers Aren't Automatically Game Designers!

While programming is an admirable skill, it is not the same as game designing. Yet many game companies continue to hire only programmers and the occasional artist to churn out games that run smooth and look nice, but are either boring to play or too complex to understand. Why can't they team up with the people who make all of those great non-computer games?

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Monopoly Of Power Is Bad

When the only source of computer games are big production companies with lots of programmers (but no game designers) you're not going to get a lot of variety. And when you try to make a suggestion, they ignore you because they get hundreds of comments every day. The P2P Game Engine opens game creation to the masses, allowing anyone with an idea but no programming skills to show the big computer game companies how to make a great game.

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Locked Up So Tight Nobody Can Use It

While some anti-piracy systems are unobtrusive, such as password activation, others are downright torturous for the gamer. There have been games so difficult to play due to the security, people who bought them hunted down pirated copies so they could actually play the game without the hassles. There comes a point where security punishes the player more than the pirate.

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Can't We All Just Play Along?

There have been many computer games that could have easily been cross-platform, but the game companies decided against it because the other platform only had 5% of the market. What they overlook is that 5% is primarily home ownership, thus more people who buy games rather than business bulk ownership who forbid gaming. They also ignore the fact that people who own the majority platform have friends with the minority computer, friends they want to play games with.

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Complexity Does Not Make Better Games

Some people in the computer gaming business believe that a simple game means a boring game, so they pile on the graphics, sounds, special effects, and the kitchen sink. To do this, they have to hire an army of programmers, which costs a lot of money, so they must charge a lot for the game, but to make the high price worth it they must add more complexity, which requires more programmers, and so on.

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Aren't Computers Supposed To Make Things Easier?

If you think up a game in real life, and your friends live nearby, you could cut up pieces of paper and draw out a board to show them your ideas. If your friends live in other cities or countries, you have to study programming for a long time and work on a lot of code. If someone can make a word processor that makes writing easier, why can't they make a game making program that is just as easy?

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Make Some Money

Because the P2P Game Engine handles all of the computing, game creators don't need to hire any programmers. This means little or no overhead as people can make their own games on their own time. Because of this prices for games should be quite low, which will lead to more casual gamers buying the games. And when people buy the games, they'll want to play with their friends, who will also have to buy the games to join in the fun.

Player Created Content

Allowing players to modify or create their own games will lead to a tremendous amount of content for people to enjoy. This will make the P2P Game Engine more popular, which in turn will lead to more players making more content. People with a solid background in traditional gaming will be able to put their skills to work in crafting new and innovative games that the established game companies would never think of.

It's Creative Commons

Which means you can set the distribution rules for the games you create. You could allow for any modifications the players want to make, but only if they don't sell them for money. Or you let people sell their modified version of your game as long as you get a percentage. Or you let it be completely open for anyone to do anything with. You make the rules!

Start Gaming

Do you have friends that you'd like to play games with, but they live too far away? Have you ever had an idea for a board or card game, but don't have the programming skills to make it? Did you ever want to play a quick, simple casual game that isn't color matching? The P2P Game Engine is the answer.