Link Search Menu Expand Document
Button Shy Games Play Bot HOWTO

For Developers

Installation

  1. Run npm install.
  2. Copy the .env.example file to .env.
  3. Edit .env to configure the bot and its authentication.
  4. Run npx prisma migrate deploy to create the database.
  5. Run npx prisma generate to update the Prisma Client API.
  6. Copy the src/game-data-examples directory to src/game-data.
  7. Within src/game-data, find the game you want the bot to run.
    1. Edit GAME.json to define private game data (see below).
    2. Do not distribute private game data from your GAME.json files.
  8. For development, run npm run start for auto-restart on file changes.
  9. For production, run npm run build and npm run start:production.

private game data

@todo

Design decisions

Why messages instead of slash commands?

  • PRO: Message commands can do anything with enough effort.
  • CON: Message commands require custom help, validation, etc.
  • PRO: Slash commands allow autocompletion, hinting, choices, etc.
  • CON: Slash commands are limited to 100 per bot.
    • There are more than 100 Button Shy games.
    • Let’s grossly assume we’ll implement them all ;)
    • We can’t use /{GAMENAME} as we’d run out of space.
  • PRO: We could make slash commands where the game is an option.
    • /generate {GAMENAME} {PLAYER..} {OPTION..}
    • /start {GAMENAME} {PLAYER..} {OPTION..}
    • /turn {GAMENAME} {GAMEID} {OPTION..}
    • CON: This could get ugly for paragraph long strings (in an RPG).
      • If we want to log and “replay” games, the bot needs everything.
      • Logging helps asynchronous play across days without backscrolling.
      • /turn {GAMENAME} {GAMEID} I am a long paragraph for an RPG turn.
  • DECISION: Re-evaluate slash commands after a few games are implemented.
  • CONSIDER: Why not implement both messages and slash commands?

Why messages instead of subcommands?

@todo

Table of contents