The Data Trail

The separate elements of the game (playing pieces, cards, dice, maps, etc.) contain the information needed to play the game, and only the information that's relative to them. This allows the game creators and players an easy and flexible way to add rules and behaviors to only the elements of the game that need it, without making it too complex.

Rules . . . .Pieces
Cards . . . . Dice
Board . .. . Sound
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The Data Exchange

During play, the P2P Game Engine runs through the list of rules and exchanges data with other Game Engines. This is to allow maximum flexibility for both the game creator and the players, simplify processing on your computer, and prevent cheating. It also allows the possibility of groups, clubs and game stores to host contests or tournaments, or for game companies to show off their new games.

What . . . . .Where
Why . . . . . .How
Who . . . . . Close

The Play

How do all of these separate lists work when playing a game? Lets demonstrate by playing one hand of a card game.

First Card

The P2P Game Engine reads through the rules which tell it the current player must select a card and put it into play then draw a card from the deck. After that is done, it is the next player's turn.

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The

The separate el

Pieces

The playing pieces will have their unique information embedded into them like a small database, such as name, how they move, attributes, etc. When you move a piece, the game engine follows this list of data to figure out where it can and can't go. If the playing piece encounters another, the game engine reviews the data concerning conflict and calculates the results.

What does it look like?
Advantage of this method?
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What does the data
for pieces look like?

The playing piece itself can look like anything the game creator wants, but the data embedded into the piece would look something like this:

Name: Jango
Movement: 3 + random(1-6)
Combat: 5 + (weapon)
Icon: Jango.jpg
Sound: victory=woohoo.mp3
Sound: defeat=bummer.mp3

Pieces
Advantages
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Advantages

Using this method of embedding data into the individual playing pieces allows more flexibility in designing the game, and alterations during game play. Furthermore it reduces the amount of set-up and data transfer during play, as the game engines only need to trade the information of the pieces being used, rather than every piece in the game.

Pieces
What Do Pieces Look Like?
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Rules

The overall rules are set into the main body of the program to handle, among other things, random number generation (for movement, combat, etc.), conflict resolution, generic modifiers (such as all pieces move six spaces, all blue squares give +1 in combat, etc.), when a turn ends (when the player makes a move, when all players click the "End Turn" button, etc.), and victory conditions.

How Does It Look?
Advantages
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What does the data
for Rules look like?

A list of simple to understand commands, making it easy to study and modify.

Dice = random (1-6)
Movement = dice + dice
Combat = strength + dice
End Turn = player click "end"
Victory = player score = 100
If victory = true then play "Marching Band" and "Cheerleader" animation

Rules
Advantages
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Advantages

By simplifying the process of listing rules, game creators do not need any programming skills to create a game. It also allows players the opportunity to modify games so they conform to individual needs. For instance, allowing a beginning player to roll an extra die, or reducing the combat rating of a skilled player's pieces so the game is more even among the players.

Rules
Looks
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Cards

Games could be nothing but a deck of cards, have cards that present special rules or abilities, use cards to resolve conflicts, or any creative combination the game creator can think of. By embedding rules and modifiers into the cards themselves, it simplifies game play, and game creation, by ignoring that card until it comes into play.

What Do Cards Look Like?
Advantages
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What do Cards look like?

Cards can be of any shape or size, have any image or sound embedded into them, and present any information the game creator deems important. The information presented on the card can change as the game progresses. A ship card could show the image of the ship in various stages of damage as it fights, along with updating the number of functioning cannons and crew

Cards
Advantages of Cards
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Advantages of Cards

Using the P2P Game Engine to handle cards in a computer game, you can have useful and changing information on them. Such as a card that changes in power based on how many of a certain piece is in play, the number for that power could change automatically as the game progresses. The cards could also be small on the screen, enlarging when you mouse over them.

Cards
What Do Cards Look Like?
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Dice

Many games require random numbers for moving pieces, resolving conflict, introducing situations, etc. The traditional method is using Dice of various shapes. With the P2P Game Engine the game creator can use any type of random number generation needed. The image in the game may be two 6-sided dice, but the rules could say they randomize from 1 to 9 each, or 1 to 4 + current wind speed.

What Do Dice Look Like?
Advantages Of Dice
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What do Dice look like?

The image for the random number generation could be anything the game creator wants: scrolling numbers, falling leaves, hopping fuzzy bunnies, etc. But the P2P Game Engine will have built-in dice, and other random number animations, so people can focus on making the game more enjoyable instead of how to configure the dice.

Dice
Advantages Of Dice
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Advantages of Dice

While you could have all of the random numbers generated out of sight, hidden in the code of the game, nothing gives a players the sense of control as rolling their own dice. While some games may be too complex for dice, most simple games would be a lot more enjoyable if the players can click a "Roll Dice" button and watch the dice tumble across the board.

Dice
What Do Dice Look Like?
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The Playing Board

Rules that govern movement, terrain, fog of war and other effects can be set into the game board. This could vary from complex war games where the board is huge and each hex has it's own rules, or a simple card game where the board is just one big square for the cards to be placed. The board could be divided into squares, hexes, or irregular shapes that follow the contour of the map.

The Board Look
Advantages
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What does the Board
look like?

Squares, hexes, circles, hand-drawn lines tracing a map, or nothing at all. The game creator can establish what kind of grid is needed, and what the rules are for that grid, or set up movement to be distances, such as inches. And the hexes don't have to be uniform. Some could be smaller than normal to represent difficult terrain, while others could be large for easy movement.

Board
Advantages
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Board Advantages

By allowing the game creator control over the board, the P2P Game Engine allows the best for both worlds. Simple, easy way to set up a basic board game like Monopoly or checkers. Or a complex game where the creator can set up rules for individual hexes that can represent terrain features such as trees, walls, or steep hills. The more variety allowed during creation, the more games can be made.

Board
Board Looks
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Sounds

One advantage the P2P Game Engine has over traditional real games is the addition of sound. The game creator could add sound files for when pieces move, when they charge into an attack, or when they suffer defeat. You could make a musical game where the players assemble a song note by note, or a story where they hunt for sentences to string together to solve the mystery.

What Do Games
Sound Like?
Advantages Of Sounds
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What does the game
Sound like?

By using common formats, the P2P Game Engine allows the game creator to use any audio software they like to make the sounds. This will enable them to set the mood for the game, as well as letting players add their own sounds. A Viking game might be a bit too somber for some, so replacing a battle dirge with Elmer Fudd singing "Kill da Wabbit" could make it a lot more fun.

Sounds
Advantages
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Sound Advantages

Sounds add a whole new dimension to games. While a game about a lunchroom food fight may be enjoyable, it would be a lot more fun with sound effects added for when the spaghetti hits. Also, sounds could be made to be an important part of a game, such as cards that speak their ability in vague poetry, so the player has to figure out what it does.

Sounds
What Do Games
Sound Like?
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What Difference?

Due to the flexible nature of the P2P Game Engine, there could be a lot of difference between each player. The game could modify itself based on how many times each player wins or loses, a beginning player may have easier rules, a hard to beat player may have a handicap. Or you and your friends could be playing a collectable card game where everybody's deck is completely different.

What?
What could change?
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What could change?

Many games change drastically during play. New rules come into play that only affect one player, modifiers influence another player, someone gets the enchanted duck and the purple shoes! There's no way of knowing what will happen, and with the flexibility the game creator has, anything goes. By handling the data exchange this way you sidestep the problem of every player having to download all the data before starting a game.

What?
What could be different?
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What Data?

When you move your computer runs through the list of rules involved (what's on the pieces, what's embedded in the board, any special cards brought into play, etc.) and sends that information to the other computers that are connected. Those computers run through the same data along with any new rules their players may add (such as playing a card). When all computers have the same results, they enact the play.

What could be different?
What could change?
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Where?

While the P2P Game Engine is designed to allow people to play through any connection, there could be times, or games, where the data exchanged goes through one computer, or server, or distributed unevenly. One player may have a slow connection, so only the most basic data is sent. Or the game may require a game master who has control over the odds and results so all data must go through that computer.

Where are the players?
Where is the data stored?
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Where are the players?

Thanks to the internet, wi-fi and broadband connections, the players could be in the same house or across the world. It makes no difference to the data. This is a big advantage for the P2P Game Engine because it allows for everything from simple games that can be played by email, to massive multiplayer on-line games that requires central servers

Where?
Where is the data stored?
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Where is the data stored?

For most games every player has a complete copy of the game on their computers. However some games will require different information on each player's computer, such as custom pieces. A web page or central server on the internet could hold all of the important information so the game creator can add more content, keep track of ranking, and offer a better gaming environment.

Where?
Where are the players?
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Why do it this way?

Adaptability. There are other methods that are more efficient and powerful, but they are designed for continuous action games. The P2P Game Engine is for turn-based games, which allows it to run on older computers, over slower or unstable connections, or on any programmable device that can handle graphics. This enables the game creators to make a game just once for a wide variety of players.

Why Turn-Based Games?
Why Worry About Diversity?
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Why Turn-Based Games?

While there are many fun constant-action games around, turn-based games have a lot to offer. They are easier to create, especially with the P2P Game Engine, which leads to more games with more variety. They also let the players relax and chat over a game, taking their time to study the board before making a move, something that's hard to do when a monster is chewing your leg off because your reflexes weren't fast enough.

Why?
Why Worry About Diversity?
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Why worry about diversity?

The purpose behind the P2P Game Engine is to allow friends to play games, regardless of what computer or connection they have. How would you feel if your friends got together for a evening of gaming but excluded you because you had the wrong graphics card? That is what most computer gaming companies do now, and quite frankly, we're sick of it.

Why?
Why Turn-Based Games?
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How does the data work?

Think of all the various aspects of the game as little spreadsheets. The pieces, cards, dice, and board/map all have lists of rules and instructions to follow. It doesn't matter how simple or complex the game creator makes them, the P2P Game Engine goes through the lists of everything involved and presents the results to the players.

How do the lists work?
How do lists help the game?
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How do the lists work?

If you're playing a game and move a piece to a square where your opponent has a piece, the P2P Game Engine goes through the general rules list of instruction to see if the move is possible, then the square list to check for any modifiers, then your piece list and your opponent's piece list to figure out what happens when the two meet, does some quick calculations, and presents the results for you to see.

How does it work?
How do lists help the game?
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How do lists help the game?

Embedding lists into various parts of the game make it easier for people with no programming skills to make their games and for players to modify them if they want. There is also a lot of flexibility to this way of doing it. You can add a new rule to just one playing piece, adjust the difficulty of a type of terrain on a map, or put a new handicap option in the general rules.

How does it work?
How do the lists work?
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Who controls the data?

Everybody. Since these are turn-based games with basic two dimensional graphics the file sizes will be small and the computer requirements will be minimal. When a player makes a move, all computers playing the game get the information, process it, and display the results without having to transmit a lot of data. This will make the games responsive even on old computers or over slow connections.

Who is the AI opponent?
Who has to buy the game?
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Who is the AI opponent?

There are many ways to program a computer opponent, from a high-end Artificial Intelligence that formulates complex strategies, to simple commands like "move random direction, shoot anything in sight." Because of the simple nature of the P2P Game Engine almost any type of computer opponent can be created or customized for these games, so you and a friend could play against three completely different AI.

Who controls the data?
Who has to buy the game?
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Who has to buy the game?

The game creator can decide if everyone who wants to play has to have the game on their computer, or if one player can "share" by sending just the data for the display of the game to the other players. This would allow game companies, stores or gaming groups to host servers that hold the games so people can try out the games with friends before deciding to buy. An immense amount of content can be stored for subscribers to access.

Who controls the data?
Who is the AI opponent?
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