Game Play

When a game starts, pawns are assigned to players at random. The first player is chosen at random as well.

A player must either move/jump its pawn or place a wall but not both. The game only progresses if either action is performed.

The next player is the one according to clock-wise orientation (north -> east -> south -> west).

There is no limit in the number of moves.

Although there is also theoretical no time limit for a player, stalling players are recognized by the system and encouraged to make a move and if they don't, will eventually be removed.

Users & Players

To be able to play a game, one must first become a User. This means you need to sign-up to become one first.

Only Users can participate in games as a player and interact with the system in general.

Some users are System Admin. They have abilities to manage many things. However,they can also participate in games as players like any ordinary user.

The user that creates a new game is automatically the Game Admin and its first player. Being game admin gives you some extra options in game management.

Game States

A game can be in any of the following states:

• Waiting: A game exists but waits for enough players to join it.
• Started. The game has started and game play is possible.
• Cancelled. The game has been cancelled. Game play is no longer possible.
• Finished. The game has a winner.

Any user can start a new game, which is then automatically placed in the Waiting mode. The new game is assigned a unique id called Game ID. The user that creates a new game, becomes the game's administrator as well as its first player.

Users can join games that are Waiting until there are enough players after which the game is automatically Started.

Players can always withdraw from a game. If the game was still Waiting it will need to wait for one more player again. If the game was already started, the game is Cancelled and game play is stopped. The game admin can always cancel a game, even a Waiting one. Cancelled games will be removed after some time by system maintenance.

The first player that has reached its objective is the winner and the game is then Finished. Scores will be calculated and stored for each player. All finished games remain available in full detail for users for later viewing.

Game visibility

A game is by default Public but can be made Private by the game admin.

When a game is Public, it is visible to all users. If it is Private it is only visible to its players.

Note: Once a game is Started the setting can no longer be changed.

Invites

A user that creates a new Public game can optionally also invite other users. A unique invitation code is made available and users can use that code to join the game. The user can also simply communicate the Game ID to other users or wait for other users to join, as there is a way to get a list of Waiting games to join.

For a Private game an invitation code is always generated as the unique access key to the otherwise hidden game.

The user can decide to have the system send the invitation code to the invitees by email while creating the game or to communicate the invitation code by any other way of communication outside the system.

Messaging

The system maintains an in-game messaging system.

All game state changes and game actions generate a message to inform others.

Players can also create messages at any time while the game is played, either as an in-game broadcast (readable to all) or a Direct Message (DM) to one player (only readable by sender and receiver). There is a system-wide maximum of messages a player can create per game of 100 by default. (configurable by a system administrator).

Players can retrieve all in-game messages and their own DM's.

Users not participating can also retrieve in-game messages, but broadcast-only and only of Public games.