Welcome to the Card Game Engine (CGE)! This guide will help you navigate the process of creating and playing custom multiplayer card games with ease.
- Create a Room: Click on the
Create Roombutton. - Note the Room ID: Your unique Room ID will appear at the top of the screen.
- Invite Friends: Share the Room ID with friends to have them join the room.
In CGE, players and users are separate concepts:
- Players: Game positions created by the room creator (e.g., "Dealer", "Player 1", "North", "South"). These are permanent parts of your game setup.
- Users: People who connect to your room (shown as User 1, User 2, etc.). They can be assigned to players or remain as spectators.
- Edit Players: Click the
Edit Playersbutton during game setup. - Add Players: Click
Add Playerto create a new player. - Configure Each Player:
- Name/Role: Enter a name or role identifier (defaults to "Player 1", "Player 2", etc.). This can describe the role (e.g., "Dealer", "Attacker") or just be a player number.
- Description: Add an optional description of the player.
- Perspective: Choose the viewing angle for this player:
- Top: Views the grid from the top
- Bottom: Views the grid from the bottom
- Left: Views the grid from the left side
- Right: Views the grid from the right side
- Maximum Players: You can create up to 6 players.
- Choose Suits: In the top-right corner, check the boxes for the suits you want (Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades).
- Add Card Values: Click on the card values (Ace, Two, Three, etc.) to include them in your deck.
- View Selected Cards: Selected cards will appear in a line at the top.
- Remove Cards: Click on any card in the top line to remove it from your deck.
- Set Grid Size: Adjust the
WidthandHeightcontrols to set your desired grid size (e.g., 9x5). - Grid Reference: Each cell in the grid is numbered, making it easier to reference in your game rules.
Define which players can see each cell by default:
- Visibility Options: You'll see a list of buttons representing:
- All Players (Green): Cell is visible to all players
- No Players (Red): Cell is hidden from all players
- Individual Players: Each player you created (shown with unique gradient colors)
- Apply Visibility to Cells:
- Click on a visibility option button to select it
- Click on grid cells to apply that visibility setting
- Cells use gradient conic coloring to show which players can see them
- Multi-Player Visibility:
- You can make a cell visible to multiple specific players
- Select a player option button (it stays selected)
- Click on cells to toggle that player's visibility:
- If the player isn't in the cell's visibility list, clicking adds them (their color appears in the gradient)
- If the player is already in the cell's visibility list, clicking removes them (their color disappears from the gradient)
- The cell's color displays a gradient combining all assigned player colors
- Modifying Visibility:
- To remove a player from "All Players" visibility: Select that specific player and click the green cell. It will now be visible to all players except that one.
Manual triggers allow you to create custom buttons that can trigger actions during the game.
- Add Manual Trigger: Click on the
Add Manual Triggerbutton in the top-left bar. - Configure Manual Trigger:
- Name: Enter a name for the manual trigger button.
- Description: Provide a brief description of what the trigger does.
- Visible To: Multi-select which players can see and use the trigger. You can select multiple players, making the trigger visible only to those players.
- Managing Manual Triggers:
- Duplicate: Click the copy icon next to any manual trigger to create a duplicate with the same settings.
- Delete: Click the delete icon to remove a manual trigger.
- Limit: You can add up to 6 manual triggers.
- Each manual trigger you create will appear as a trigger option in your rules, with its name followed by "(Manual)".
- You can select these manual triggers when setting up your game rules, allowing assigned players to trigger specific actions by clicking the manual trigger buttons during gameplay.
Rules in CGE consist of Triggers, Actions, and optional Inner Rules. You can create multiple rules to design complex game logic that works with any number of players.
- Click Add Rule to begin creating a new rule.
Each rule can be managed using the buttons that appear when you hover over it:
- Duplicate: Click the copy icon to create an exact duplicate of the rule, including all its triggers, actions, and inner rules.
- Delete: Click the close/delete icon to remove the rule.
- Reorder: Click and drag the drag handle (≡) to reorder rules. You can move rules up or down, and even nest them as inner rules within other rules.
Within each rule, triggers and actions can also be managed:
- Add: Click + Trigger or + Action to add new triggers or actions to the rule.
- Duplicate: Hover over a trigger or action and click the copy icon to duplicate it with all its parameters.
- Delete: Hover over a trigger or action and click the close icon to remove it.
- Reorder: Drag and drop triggers and actions to reorder them within the rule or move them between different rules.
- Available Triggers:
- Game Start: Triggered when the game begins.
- Card Moved: Triggered when a card is moved.
- Deck Card Count: Triggered based on the number of cards in specific positions.
- Score (Single Player): Triggered based on a specific player's score.
- Score (Group Aggregate): Triggered based on aggregate calculations across multiple players (Max, Min, Sum, Average, Any, All).
- Score (Pairwise Difference): Triggered based on the difference between two players' scores.
- Formula Trigger: Triggers when a specified condition evaluates to true.
- Manual Triggers: Any manual triggers you've added will appear here (e.g., "Draw Card (Manual)").
- Available Actions:
- Shuffle Deck: Shuffle cards in specific positions.
- Move Cards: Move cards from one position to another.
- Add Score: Add points to a player's score.
- Set Score: Set a player's score to a specific value.
- Add Inner Rules: Click Add Inner Rule within an existing rule.
- Create Complex Logic: Inner rules allow you to implement "AND" logic within a parent rule, combining multiple conditions.
- Important Note: Inner rules evaluate based on the initial state of the game when the parent rule is triggered. Actions executed by the parent rule do not affect the inner rules during that execution cycle.
- No Parameters: This trigger activates when the game begins.
- Parameters:
- From Position: Specify where the card was moved from.
- To Position: Specify where the card was moved to.
- Card Count: Specify how many cards were moved.
- Parameters:
- Positions: Select the positions (e.g., specific grid cells or decks) to monitor.
- Card Filter: (Optional) Apply a filter to count only specific cards within the selected positions. Click the button in the field to open a user-friendly interface for creating the filter.
- Comparison: Choose a comparison operator and provide a value:
- Equal To: Trigger when the count is equal to the specified value.
- Not Equal To: Trigger when the count is not equal to the specified value.
- Greater Than: Trigger when the count is greater than the specified value.
- Less Than: Trigger when the count is less than the specified value.
- Positions Relation: Useful when selecting multiple positions to help the system decide when to trigger:
- Sum: Combine the counts from all selected positions.
- Any: The trigger activates if any one of the selected positions meets the condition.
- All: The trigger activates only if all selected positions meet the condition.
- Parameters:
- Player: Select a specific player from your defined players.
- Comparison: Choose a comparison operator (Equal To, Not Equal To, Less Than, Greater Than) and provide a value to compare against.
- Trigger Behavior: Choose when the trigger activates:
- On Change: Triggers when the selected player's score changes and meets the condition.
- Continuous: Triggers continuously while the score meets the condition.
- Parameters:
- Players: Multi-select multiple players to monitor.
- Aggregate: Choose how to aggregate the scores:
- Max (Highest): Uses the highest score among selected players.
- Min (Lowest): Uses the lowest score among selected players.
- Sum: Adds all selected players' scores together.
- Average: Calculates the average of all selected players' scores.
- Any: Trigger activates if any selected player meets the condition.
- All: Trigger activates only if all selected players meet the condition.
- Comparison: Choose a comparison operator and provide a value.
- Trigger Behavior: Choose when the trigger activates:
- On Change: Triggers when the aggregate value changes and meets the condition.
- Continuous: Triggers continuously while the aggregate meets the condition.
- Parameters:
- Player A: Select the first player.
- Player B: Select the second player.
- Comparison: Choose a comparison operator and provide a value to compare against Score(A) - Score(B).
- Trigger Behavior: Choose when the trigger activates:
- On Change: Triggers when the difference changes and meets the condition.
- Continuous: Triggers continuously while the difference meets the condition.
- Parameter:
- Condition: A formula-like expression that must evaluate to
truefor the trigger to activate. - Example:
root.positions.at(9).cards.at(0).rank.biggerThan(root.positions.at(14).cards.at(0).rank) - Usage: This trigger allows highly customizable conditions to determine when a rule should be activated.
- Condition: A formula-like expression that must evaluate to
- Parameters:
- Trigger Name: Select the manual trigger you've created (e.g., "Draw Card (Manual)").
- Description: These triggers activate when the corresponding manual trigger button is clicked during gameplay by a user assigned to a player that can see the trigger.
- Parameter:
- At Positions: Specify positions to shuffle.
- Parameters:
- From Position/Positions: Specify where to move cards from.
- To Position/Positions: Specify where to move cards to.
- Card Count: Indicate how many cards to move (0 for all).
- Visibility:
- Keep: The card retains its current visibility state.
- Cell: The card adopts the visibility setting of the destination cell.
- Visible to All (Green): The card is visible to all players, regardless of cell visibility.
- Private (Yellow): The card is visible only to the player who moved it.
- Hidden (Red): The card is hidden from all players.
- Parameters:
- Value to Add: Enter how much to add to the score.
- Player: Select which player's score to modify.
- Parameters:
- New Score: Enter the new score value.
- Player: Select which player's score to set.
- Start Simple: Begin with basic rules and gradually add complexity.
- Use Inner Rules: Apply inner rules for conditions requiring "AND" logic.
- Test Thoroughly: Regularly test your rules to ensure they work as intended with different numbers of players.
- Understand Logic: Remember, multiple triggers within a rule work as "OR" logic, while inner rules enable "AND" logic.
- Avoid Infinite Loops: Be cautious when creating rules that could trigger each other indefinitely. Currently, the system does not prevent infinite loops automatically.
- Duplicate Actions: For the same game state, an action with the same name and parameters will only execute once, even if you've added it multiple times in your rules.
- Navigate to Play: Once your game setup is complete, click
Navigate To Play. - Open Assignment Dialog: In the play area, click the
Assign Playersbutton. - View Connected Users: You'll see a list of all users connected to the room (shown as User 1, User 2, etc.).
- Assign Users to Players:
- Each user can be assigned to one of your defined players
- Select a player from the dropdown next to each user
- Or leave them unassigned to remain as spectators
- Flexible Assignment:
- Only the room creator can assign users to players
- Assignments can be changed at any time, even during gameplay
- If a user leaves, they'll be automatically unassigned
- You can assign a different user to that player and continue the game
- The game is tied to players, not to specific users
- Default State: All users start as spectators until assigned to a player
- Spectator View: Spectators can watch the game but cannot interact with it
- Becoming a Player: A spectator becomes an active player once assigned to a player by the room creator
- Start Game: Click the
Start Gamebutton to begin playing. - No Assignment Required: The game can start even if not all players are assigned to users. Unassigned players simply won't have anyone controlling them until someone is assigned.
- Player Perspectives: Each assigned user will see the grid rotated according to their player's perspective setting.
- Scoreboard: On the right side, you'll see scores displayed vertically for all players, along with:
- The player name
- The assigned user's name (if assigned)
- Current score
- Manual Triggers: Displayed on the top bar (right side) after the game starts. Only manual triggers visible to your assigned player will be shown.
- Spectator Count: The number of spectators is displayed in the interface.
- Players can see the top card of each deck (based on visibility settings for their player).
- Select a Card: Click on the position where the card is located (currently, you can only move the top card).
- Choose Visibility: On the left middle side of the screen, you will see five visibility options:
- Cell (Blue): The card will take the same visibility as the destination cell defined in the game setup. This is the default and most commonly used option.
- Keep (Gray): The card will keep its current visibility state.
- Visible to All (Green): The card will be visible to all players, regardless of cell visibility.
- Private (Yellow): The card will be visible only to your player (the player you're assigned to).
- Hidden (Red): The card will be hidden from all players.
- Set Visibility:
- Select Visibility: Before moving the card, select the desired visibility option from the list on the left middle side of the screen.
- Visual Indicator: When you select a card, it will have a shadow indicating the selected visibility option.
- Move the Card: Click on the destination to move the card there with the selected visibility.
- Use Manual Triggers: Click on manual trigger buttons (if visible to your player) to perform custom actions you've defined.
- Leave Room: Use the
Leave Roombutton to exit when finished. - Unassignment: When you leave, you'll be unassigned from your player automatically.
- No Constraints on Moves: Currently, the game lacks constraints, so anyone can move any card at any time. The rules of the game should be agreed upon between the players.
- Inner Rules Evaluation: Inner rules trigger based on the initial state of the parent rule, meaning they do not consider any actions executed by the parent action during that execution cycle.
- Be Careful with Infinite Loops: The system does not prevent infinite loops automatically. Ensure your rules do not create unintended loops.
- Duplicate Actions Execution: For the same game state, an action with the same name and parameters will only execute once, even if you've added it multiple times in your rules.
- Game Continuity: The game is tied to players, not users. If a user disconnects, another user can be assigned to that player, and the game continues seamlessly.
- Game Customization: CGE offers extensive customization for multiplayer games but does not enforce specific game rules. Players must adhere to agreed-upon rules to ensure fair play.
- Flexible Player Count: You can create games for any number of players (up to 6), making CGE suitable for various card game types.
- Feedback and Suggestions: If you have ideas for new features or improvements, consider reaching out to the CGE development team.
Enjoy building and playing your custom multiplayer games with CGE!
